Daily Devotional- Psalm 138: The Holiness of God
Psalm 138:2
I will bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name
for your constant love and truth.
I sit here writing this devotional as I watch my mother dying right before my eyes.
Though her health has been declining for the past two years, we got the official diagnosis on September 28th.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
ALS.
My only knowledge of ALS before my mother’s health deteriorated was the viral ice bucket challenge from a few years ago. Basically nothing other than it’s a horrifying disease.
I’ve since learned the nerves in your body slowly die causing you to lose the ability to walk, then use your arms, often times you can no longer speak, all the while your mind stays fully intact.
ALS is a nightmare for the person experiencing it and devastating to those who are watching it happen to their loved one.
When things are going well in life, it’s easy to grow complacent. Or to focus on the blessings rather than the One who blesses.
There is nothing like crushing circumstances to remind us of our need for God. And to be reminded of the truth of His character.
I will bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name
for your constant love and truth.
From these 3 lines of Scripture we glean great insight into Who God is and how we should respond:
The Truth Of God’s Character
He is holy and should be approached with reverence.
We should give thanks to His Name (not just for what He’s done in our lives)
His love is constant (We can’t be good enough to earn His love, and because of His character, we can’t be so bad to be unloved by Him.) “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
His truth (the only truth) never changes. (Despite the fickleness of this world, screaming self love and encouraging us to live ‘our’ truth, God’s truth is immutable.)
In Conclusion
Today, in the midst of the hard, I praise God for loving me enough to send His Son to die on a cross for my sins so that I can spend eternity with Him.
Today I praise God that His grace is sufficient because He is always bigger than any circumstance.
Today I bow down and cry Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty.
What part of God’s character are you most thankful for today?
Abby Rike Rockenbaugh has a heart for helping Christian women grow in their faith. She believes there is no better way to strengthen your faith than to get in the Word of God. Her passion is to equip women to read the Bible for themselves and experience the transformation that comes from experiencing God.
The most important thing to understand about the plan of salvation is that it is God’s plan and not the world’s plan.
The world’s plan of salvation would be about being a good and moral person. It believes if you can just be good enough, do enough good things, and try to be kind and loving to others then you will be saved. But none of these things are part of God’s plan of salvation.
It’s funny how the longer you avoid something, the harder it is to face.
At least that’s the case for me.
It’s like I build up “the thing” into a bigger “thing,” and then it seems too overwhelming…hence, the continued avoidance.
This was especially true when I was running from God.
The thought of going back to church and feeling so guilty and dirty and full of shame seemed, well, too much.
So I didn’t go.
I didn’t go to church for a really long time.
Can you relate?
What is a War Room Prayer Strategy?
The war room. Where prayer strategy happens.
Where things get real. Where battle lines are drawn. Not just a military facility or political command center, but a space where believers go to battle against a very real enemy.
You need a war room prayer strategy.
You’ve likely seen or heard of the hit movie War Room staring Priscilla Shirer. The film illustrates the impact prayer has on us and our situations.
It’s a cinematic reminder of the authority promised us in 2 Corinthians 10:7-8 and the power we possess in 2 Timothy 1:7. It’s time to claim that authority and harness that power!
Ever thought about why prayer is necessary?
Wonder no more. Here are twelve reasons, rooted in truth, why prayer is absolutely necessary!
12 Reasons Why Prayer Is Necessary
1. Prayer is necessary because it’s a form of service.
Defined as the action of helping or doing work for someone, a system supplying a public need, or to perform routine maintenance or repair work on.
That’s exactly why prayer is necessary! We are interceding for others. It’s how we help someone else. Prayer can repair an emotional wound. At its core, prayer is a system that can meet the public’s need. And it’s the prescribed method for maintaining our spiritual well-being.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:3-4).
The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold (Job 42:10).
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44).
Do you sometimes leave church and think to yourself, “How am I going to make a difference for Christ? I can’t fly to another country and love on orphans.”
Have you attended a local town meeting and said to yourself, “What use am I? I’m just a woman who works at a bank.”
Have you sat through a PTA meeting at your kid’s school and thought, “I can’t sew. I’m not crafty.”
Do you watch the evening news and think, “So sad all this violence. So disappointing all this scandal and corruption.”
Maybe you’ve left the voting poll and thought, “What influence do I have? I’m just one vote.”
You are certainly not alone.
Praying is one of the most important things we can do for our family.
Let's be real.
No family is perfect.
But, you know one thing I can 100% guarantee? Prayer WILL help.
Does that mean your situation will be magically fixed?
No.
What it means is that in the process of praying, you increase your faith and surrender the fight to Jesus.
Here are 5 Biblical truths about home and family you can pray for today:
The microwave has ruined us.
Seriously.
I’m showing a little of my age right now, but stay with me.
When my mom was growing up, they didn’t have electricity. My grandmother, with seven children, washed the laundry over a wash basin. And, she cooked. From scratch.
By the time I was a kid, from scratch cooking wasn’t really a ‘thing.’ The microwave cooked waaaaaaaay faster and was waaaaaaay easier.
That line of thinking, faster and easier, permeated the thought process of society. And it has done nothing but gotten worse.
If a website doesn’t load in less than two seconds, it’s considered slow.
Raise your hand if you’ve clicked on a link, and when it didn’t open instantly, you clicked away and were off to the next one.
Raising my hand.
We’re all guilty.
