Max Lucado Daily: Pray About Everything
The moment you sense a problem, however large or small, take it to Christ.
“Max, if I take my problems to Jesus every time I have one, I’m going to be talking to Jesus all day long.”
Now you’re getting the point! An un-prayed for problem is an embedded thorn. It festers and infects the finger, then the hand, then the entire arm. Best to go straight to the person who has the tweezers. We can only wonder how many disasters would be averted if we would go first to Jesus?
Philippians 4:6 says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything; tell God your needs and don’t forget to thank him for his answers.”
Sign on at BeforeAmen.com and every day for 4 weeks, pray 4 minutes—simple, powerful prayers. It’ll change your prayer life forever!
Before Amen
Isaiah 4
That will be the day when seven women
will gang up on one man, saying,
“We’ll take care of ourselves,
get our own food and clothes.
Just give us a child. Make us pregnant
so we’ll have something to live for!”
God’s Branch
2–4 And that’s when God’s Branch will sprout green and lush. The produce of the country will give Israel’s survivors something to be proud of again. Oh, they’ll hold their heads high! Everyone left behind in Zion, all the discards and rejects in Jerusalem, will be reclassified as “holy”—alive and therefore precious. God will give Zion’s women a good bath. He’ll scrub the bloodstained city of its violence and brutality, purge the place with a firestorm of judgment.
5–6 Then God will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night and mark Mount Zion and everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun and shelter from the driving rain.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Today's Scripture
Psalm 9:7–10
God holds the high center,
he sees and sets the world’s mess right.
He decides what is right for us earthlings,
gives people their just deserts.
9–10 God’s a safe-house for the battered,
a sanctuary during bad times.
The moment you arrive, you relax;
you’re never sorry you knocked.
Insight
The NIV footnote on Psalms 9 and 10 tells us they “may originally have been a single acrostic poem in which alternating lines began with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Septuagint they constitute one psalm.” Psalm 9 provides a musical notation that it’s to be sung “to the tune of ‘The Death of the Son.’ ” Apparently, this was a tune known to the Israelites at that time. Other psalms with musical notations include Psalms 22, 45, 56–60, 69, 75, and 80.
Psalm 9 can be divided into two parts—praise and proclamation. David gives thanks and praise to God who’d rescued and protected him from his enemies in response to his prayers (vv. 1–6). The psalmist also proclaims and exalts God as the Sovereign King who “rules the world in righteousness and judges the peoples with equity” (v. 8). By: K. T. Sim
You Can Trust God
Those who know your name trust in you. Psalm 9:10
When my cat Mickey had an eye infection, I put eye drops in his eyes daily. As soon as I placed him on the bathroom counter, he’d sit, look at me with frightened eyes, and brace himself for the spurt of liquid. “Good boy,” I’d murmur. Even though he didn’t understand what I was doing, he never jumped off, hissed, or scratched me. Instead, he would press himself closer against me—the person putting him through the ordeal. He knew he could trust me.
When David wrote Psalm 9, he’d probably already experienced much of God’s love and faithfulness. He’d turned to Him for protection from his enemies, and God had acted on his behalf (vv. 3-6). During David’s times of need, God hadn’t failed him. As a result, David came to know what He was like—He was powerful and righteous, loving and faithful. And so, David trusted Him. He knew God was trustworthy.
I’ve cared for Mickey through several illnesses since the night I found him as a tiny, starving kitten on the street. He knows he can trust me—even when I do things to him that he doesn’t understand. In a similar way, remembering God’s faithfulness to us and His character helps us trust Him when we can’t understand what He’s doing. May we continue to trust God through the difficult times in life. By: Karen Huang
Reflect & Pray
Recall a tough situation when God showed you His love and faithfulness. What else did you learn about His character? How can this encourage you today?
Father, You’re always faithful. Help me trust You. Let difficult times draw me closer to You.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Substitution
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21
The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. Yet the New Testament view is that He took our sin on Himself not because of sympathy, but because of His identification with us. He was “made…to be sin….” Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us. We are acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the fatherhood and the lovingkindness of God, but the New Testament says that He came to take “away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). And the revealing of the fatherhood of God is only to those to whom Jesus has been introduced as Savior. In speaking to the world, Jesus Christ never referred to Himself as One who revealed the Father, but He spoke instead of being a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24). John 14:9, where Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” was spoken to His disciples.
That Christ died for me, and therefore I am completely free from penalty, is never taught in the New Testament. What is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15)— not, “He died my death”— and that through identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have His very righteousness imparted as a gift to me. The substitution which is taught in the New Testament is twofold— “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The teaching is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me (see Galatians 4:19).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
It is in the middle that human choices are made; the beginning and the end remain with God. The decrees of God are birth and death, and in between those limits man makes his own distress or joy. Shade of His Hand, 1223 L
Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 18-19; 2 Timothy 3