Job 7 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

 
Max Lucado Daily: INTERCESSORY MINISTRY - June 1, 2021

othing activates happiness like intercessory ministry. The scripture says “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1). So you come, not as a stranger, but as an heir to the promise. You are his ambassador. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Our King will listen to our request. After all, you are a member of his priesthood. Peter said, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people” (1 Peter 2:9). So in our intercession we function as priests, standing in the gap between the people of earth and God. This is how happiness happens.

Job 7

There’s Nothing to My Life

 “Human life is a struggle, isn’t it?
    It’s a life sentence to hard labor.
Like field hands longing for quitting time
    and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,
I’m given a life that meanders and goes nowhere—
    months of aimlessness, nights of misery!
I go to bed and think, ‘How long till I can get up?’
    I toss and turn as the night drags on—and I’m fed up!
I’m covered with maggots and scabs.
    My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.
My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles,
    and then the yarn runs out—an unfinished life!

7-10 “God, don’t forget that I’m only a wisp of air!
    These eyes have had their last look at goodness.
And your eyes have seen the last of me;
    even while you’re looking, there’ll be nothing left to look at.
When a cloud evaporates, it’s gone for good;
    those who go to the grave never come back.
They don’t return to visit their families;
    never again will friends drop in for coffee.

11-16 “And so I’m not keeping one bit of this quiet,
    I’m laying it all out on the table;
    my complaining to high heaven is bitter, but honest.
Are you going to put a muzzle on me,
    the way you quiet the sea and still the storm?
If I say, ‘I’m going to bed, then I’ll feel better.
    A little nap will lift my spirits,’
You come and so scare me with nightmares
    and frighten me with ghosts
That I’d rather strangle in the sheets
    than face this kind of life any longer.
I hate this life! Who needs any more of this?
    Let me alone! There’s nothing to my life—it’s nothing
        but smoke.

17-21 “What are mortals anyway, that you bother with them,
    that you even give them the time of day?
That you check up on them every morning,
    looking in on them to see how they’re doing?
Let up on me, will you?
    Can’t you even let me spit in peace?
Even suppose I’d sinned—how would that hurt you?
    You’re responsible for every human being.
Don’t you have better things to do than pick on me?
    Why make a federal case out of me?
Why don’t you just forgive my sins
    and start me off with a clean slate?
The way things are going, I’ll soon be dead.
    You’ll look high and low, but I won’t be around.”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Tuesday, June 01, 2021

Read: Psalm 13

For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.

Footnotes
Psalm 13:1 In Hebrew texts 13:1-6 is numbered 13:2-6.

INSIGHT
The lament psalm is a prominent type in the Hebrew psalter. In such a psalm, the singer pours out the pain of his heart to God with a candor that’s sometimes alarming. Psalm 13 is a perfect example of a lament, as it carries what Old Testament scholar Dr. David Lamb says are its five basic components. First is the invocation, where the singer addresses God Himself (v. 1, “Lord”). This is followed by the complaint (vv. 1–2, “How long?”), then the request for help (vv. 3–4, “Look on me and answer”). All these components would be expected in a lament, but a proper lament psalm contains two more vital elements—a declaration of trust (v. 5, “I trust in your unfailing love”) that’s resolved in a call to worship (v. 6, “I will sing”). Lament drives us to trust in God and anticipates a time when the sting of pain is replaced with praise.

By James Banks
God of Justice

I trust in your unfailing love. Psalm 13:5

She was perhaps the greatest “scapecow” in history. We don’t know if her name was Daisy, Madeline, or Gwendolyn (each name has been suggested), but Mrs. O’Leary’s cow was blamed for the 1871 Great Chicago Fire that left every third resident of the city homeless. Carried by strong winds through wooden structures, the fire burned for three days and took the lives of nearly three hundred people.

For years, many believed the fire began when the cow knocked over a lantern left burning in a shed. After further investigation—126 years later—the city’s Committee on Police and Fire passed a resolution exonerating the cow and her owners and suggesting the activities of a neighbor warranted scrutiny.

Justice often takes time, and Scripture acknowledges how difficult that can be. The refrain, “How long?” is repeated four times in Psalm 13: “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (vv. 1–2). But in the middle of his lament, David finds reason for faith and hope: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation” (v. 5).

Even when justice is delayed, God’s love will never fail us. We can trust and rest in Him not just for the moment but for eternity.

In what ways has God shown you His unfailing love? How will you demonstrate trust in Him today?

Loving God, help me to trust You even when I can’t see what You’re doing. I’m thankful I can rest in Your goodness and faithfulness today.

Watch “What Is Justice?” at go.odb.org/WhatIsJustice.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, June 01, 2021
The Staggering Question

He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" —Ezekiel 37:3

Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right? There is only one appropriate answer— “O Lord God, You know” (Ezekiel 37:3). Never forge ahead with your religious common sense and say, “Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotional time, and prayer, I see how it can be done.”

It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we see the activity and mistake panic for inspiration. That is why we see so few fellow workers with God, yet so many people working for God. We would much rather work for God than believe in Him. Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do? The degree of hopelessness I have for others comes from never realizing that God has done anything for me. Is my own personal experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never have a sense of hopelessness for anyone else I see? Has any spiritual work been accomplished in me at all? The degree of panic activity in my life is equal to the degree of my lack of personal spiritual experience.

“Behold, O My people, I will open your graves…” (Ezekiel 37:12). When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace. My “grave” has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells” (Romans 7:18). God’s Spirit continually reveals to His children what human nature is like apart from His grace.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

A fanatic is one who entrenches himself in invincible ignorance. Baffled to Fight Better, 59 R

Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 15-16; John 12:27-50

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, June 01, 2021

Something Worse Than Lonely - #8972

When there's a primetime news special on TV, you expect it to be about some major breaking world event, or a disaster, or some sensational social issue. A while back I was surprised to see a CBS news special that was just on the subject of loneliness. It was called "On Lonely Street." They were quoted there as saying, "Social scientists are seeing an epidemic of loneliness.

In fact, they interviewed the founder of the biggest dating service in the world. Here's what he said, "People today have all the material things; they don't have someone to hold onto; someone to have a long history with." Wow! Well, someone was well quoted as saying, "The most lonely place in the world is the human heart." You know, if loneliness is an epidemic, could it be you've got a case of that?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Something Worse Than Lonely."

Our word for today from the Word of God - 2 Timothy 4. Paul is writing this. It's actually his last chapter he will ever write in Scripture; his last known letter written to Timothy. He is pretty much abandoned in a prison cell. You talk about Lonely Street! In fact, here's what he says in verse 16, "At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength."

You know, there is something worse than being lonely? Somebody put it this way, "What's worse than being lonely is being lonely alone." I used to hear a Christian song when I was growing up. They would sing, "You'll never be lonely again." And they meant that you wouldn't be lonely if you knew Christ. But I'm not sure that's accurate.

You do get lonely. You lose people you love, you're abandoned, misunderstood, you're rejected sometimes by people who are around you and would like to help. They just don't know how. You feel alone, you feel lonely. You can't eliminate loneliness, but you can eliminate alone. Maybe they ought to rewrite that song, "You'll never be alone again."

See, Paul said, "I was lonely. I was abandoned. I had nobody there, and nobody could even get to me in that prison. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength." Maybe that's where you are right now. However lonely you are, picture Jesus there. He's at your side. At least you don't ever have to be alone again because Jesus was alone on the cross, separated from God so no one would ever have to be without God again.

He paid the price for the sin that you and I have done that keeps us away from God. That's why Jesus cried as He was carrying every wrong thing I've ever done and you've ever done, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" He carried all your sins. He was cut off from His Father so you would never have to be. He was the last man who ever had to be alone.

And when you pin your hopes on Christ, you receive in Him a friend who feels every feeling, who can't be kept away by prison bars, and who will not ever turn away from you. If He was ever going to do that, He would have done it when He was dying on that cross. Oh, you can know Him and feel alone, but you're not. You might feel alone because you need to draw close to Him by pouring out your deepest, most honest feelings to Him. Let Him hear all of it.

Read what He's written to you in the Bible. Go reach out to someone in His name. But it might be you've never made the Savior your personal Savior. You've never said, "Jesus, I'm Yours. Nobody loves me like you do. I'm giving myself to You."

Make it today you do that.

If this is your day to begin with Jesus or you want to know more about it, go to our website. It's there for you. It's ANewStory.com.

I know it's a lonely world. Are you going to walk on Lonely Street again? Yes, you will. But the day you come to Jesus Christ is your last day alone.