KJB Daily Devotion – Following Jesus Through Every Chapter
Date: Thursday, May 10, 2018
Chapters: I Chronicles 18, Psalms 50, 53, 60, & 65
Message: Letting God Direct Our Paths
Hello My Friend,
This morning I woke up late and as I began talking to God tears flowed because I was really hard on myself. Then I read the chapters for today and saw that I had a similar conversation with Him this time last year. God used this conversation to remind me that I am precious to Him. I still found myself arguing my case, and losing, I said, “I am weak.”, God said, “I will give you strength.” I said, “I cannot handle this.” God said, “With me you can do all things.”. I said, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” God said, “My grace will keep you going.” I said, “It is a lost cause.” God said, “All things are possible”, I said, “It was never supposed to be like this.” God said, “You are right where I want you to be.” I said, “But why?” God said, “Just trust me.” You see, we may not always understand God’s ways or even what He is doing with our lives, but He sees beyond what we see, He knows where we are going and has us exactly where He wants us right now and He wants us to trust Him that He knows exactly where He is taking us. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” – Proverbs 3:5-6.
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;” The heart, we do not care to admit it, but we make a lot of decisions based on where our heart is, we can go through all the motions of the Christian walk, but if our heart is not in it than we are going to keep walking in circles. Walking with God is not some straight line, it is lots of paths with lots of curvy roads, hills, and valleys. Why? To challenge us, to teach us, to grow our dependence upon Him.
“Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.” – Psalm 50:13-17,21-23.
“and thou shalt glorify me.” God reminded me that I am much stronger than I think because I have always been someone who got exactly what I wanted, and did exactly what I wanted, and did not have to stoop to low levels to get it. He also reminded me that He wants me to depend on Him, which is why I have to walk through these valleys to get there. You see, God expects us to do what we physically can do on our own, then trust Him to do the rest. If all of our victories were self sufficient then we would think we did it all on our own, but God wants the glory for all that we do so, He will take us down those valleys to help us get out of them. David knew this, and because he trusted God he was able to defeat every nation that came up against him.
“Now when Tou king of Hamath heard how David had smitten all the host of Hadarezer king of Zobah; He sent Hadoram his son to king David, to enquire of his welfare, and to congratulate him, because he had fought against Hadarezer, and smitten him; (for Hadarezer had war with Tou;) and with him all manner of vessels of gold and silver and brass. Them also king David dedicated unto the LORD, with the silver and the gold that he brought from all these nations; from Edom, and from Moab, and from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines, and from Amalek. Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah slew of the Edomites in the valley of salt eighteen thousand. And he put garrisons in Edom; and all the Edomites became David’s servants. Thus the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went. So David reigned over all Israel, and executed judgment and justice among all his people.” – I Chronicles 18:9-14.
“Them also king David dedicated unto the LORD,” Dedicate; To set apart and consecrate to God. The best decision I ever made was the day I got baptized and chose to dedicate my life to God. Has it always been easy? No. I mess up, and still have a lot of the world in me that I acquired over the years that I struggle with. Again, many of our decisions are based from our heart, in my walk of hills and valleys I have let depression get in the way, my past get in the way, and even doubt get in the way, all these things put a road block in front of those crazy roads, but God never gave up on me, because He knew my true heart. I will tell you this, I am no where near what I use to be, and I do not want to go back, so I will continue to dedicate my life to Him, no matter how many hills and valleys I have to walk through. You see, beyond the surface of all those road blocks is our true heart, God knows every heart, and He will call every one of them out.
“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God. There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.” – Psalm 53:2-5.
“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men,” Children of men are not the same as children of God, while children of God have to deal with sin also, they love God and allow Him to work in their lives. Children of men want nothing to do with God. Some say that God directs every path and has everything projected already, even the ones that lead to dreadful things happening. Of course, He is all knowing, of course, He sees the future, and there are some things destined that we cannot get out of. I do believe that there are some things that God has planned out for us, and yes, He knows exactly how we are going to respond, but some things are based on the decisions we make and the response He gives applies to those decisions. There are some evils in this world, like cancer, that God will bring upon us, not to punish us, but to teach is to depend on Him. We must remember that everything is in God’s hands, and He will do with us what He will.
“God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me. Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies? Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.” – Psalm 60:6-12.
“Through God we shall do valiantly:” We may not always understand God’s path, we may not always like His path, we may even get angry and scream at Him for putting us on that path, but these are the very things that bring us to depend on Him and bring us to the knowledge that He got us through it.
“Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea: Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power: Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.” – Psalm 65:3-8.
“By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us,” It often takes tragedy for us to see God, and I do not believe that God intentionally allows one to meet the guy that beats or rapes them or allows a child to be abused by a parent, that is something we get thrown into because that is how life is and people are evil. I do believe that He gives us a way to endure these things, and help us out of them as only He can. “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” – I Peter 4:12-13.
Jesus Christ Magnified: “And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself. Selah.” – Psalm 50:6.
Today’s Prayer: God, I know that You have brought me to a places that I do not quite understand, my heart wants to go one way, but You want me to stay put. I have finally realized that You are the only one who can direct the paths You have chosen for me, and in time You will bless me as I walk through the curvy roads, hills, and valleys. Thank You for loving me and not giving up on me, and for Your mercy and grace to see me through. You know what is best for me, and I have to accept that Your way is the only way to see it all come to pass. Lord, I do want to live by Your Word and take the paths You have chosen for me, give me Your power, wisdom, guidance, mercy, and grace. Help me resist the temptation to do things my way, to walk down my paths, and let me lean not on my own understanding, but trust You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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