Keep Listening

God’s thoughts toward you and the words God wants to speak to you are infinite. There is always more that God has to say to you ... keep listening! God speaks in the depth of doubts. God speaks in the height of fears. God speaks in the midst of pain. God speaks in the sweetness of joyful moments.

When you find yourself in a slimy pit, don’t try to numb the pain with dysfunctional relationships, food, alcohol, shopping, technology, pornography or other distractions. In doing so, you are dulling your senses to God. When you find yourself sinking in mud and mire don’t let bitterness, unforgiveness or anger harden the bones in your ears so that they no longer vibrate to God’s sweet voice.

The Lord is your helper and your deliverer! When in humility you cry out to the Lord that you are poor and needy, know that the Lord hears your cry. Wait patiently for the Lord.

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. 

He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and mire. 

He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. (Ps 40:1-2 NLT) 

When you wait upon the Lord, He will bring you to a place of stability and security where you will sing a new song with joy. This new song is your life lived in obedience to Christ and trusting in God. When your life is built on the solid foundation of God you can wait with calmness and peace. You don’t need to grow weary or lose hope for your hope rests on God who is unchanging. Your eternal welfare depends solely on God’s grace, mercy righteousness and truth. God’s grace, mercy, righteousness and truth will preserve you continually even when you are surrounded by innumerable evil or when the consequences of past sinful choices overwhelm you. 

Seek to hear God, not God’s voice. 

Seek to hear God. Focus with admiration and wonder on God’s words and God’s works. God’s majesty, faithfulness, salvation, lovingkindness and glory are inconceivable. When you immerse all your senses in comprehending God your feet will remain firmly planted on God’s solid foundation. God’s thoughts toward you surpass human comprehension. 

As the heavens are higher than the earth, 

so are my ways higher than your ways 

and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa 55:9) 

It is easy to please the Lord – just do what God created you to do, and be who God created you to be. When you are walking with God towards the goals and desires the Lord has for your life, you will hear God. 

At times it may feel like you can’t live like this. Remember Jesus lived this way, and through humble faith in him, as God’s child you can continue to live like this. 

Trying to please others or trying to live up to their expectations will lead you astray. If you become distracted by the proud who rely upon their power or their wealth you will find yourself led away from the solid rock on which Christ has placed you. 

When you choose to cheerfully obey God’s law in your heart, your redeemed life will be a fountain of joy and a new song of praise to the Lord. Many will see what the Lord has done for you and be amazed. 

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; 

Let such as love Your salvation say continually, 

“The Lord be magnified!” (Ps 40:16) 

Prayer for our work

This prayer is taken from my devotional book 31 Days With God At Work available at Amazon or Chapters.

Father in Heaven;

Thank you that I can rest in your holy presence through the shed blood of your Son. May my life and work honor your holy name. Help me to keep my eyes focused on you and your kingdom as I go about my work. 

May my work, my attitudes, and my speech be pleasing in your sight and be in accordance with your will. May everything that my employer and colleagues do and say be in accordance with your will. 

Thank you for giving me the skills, energy, and creativity to earn my daily bread. Thank you for this job and employer, which provides for my daily bread. 

Forgive me when my actions or attitudes or words are not pleasing to you. Fill me with your love for my coworkers and customers so that I am able to forgive. 

Keep me from temptation at work so that I might not sin before your holy presence. Deliver me from people and situations who wish to harm me or bring evil into my life. 

Enable me to be a bearer of grace, hope, joy, and peace, even in the most stressful of situations. May I go about my work in such a way that my coworkers and customers glorify your holy name. 

Amen. 

Taste and See

David had returned triumphantly from battle with the Philistines, only to be run out of Jerusalem by a maniacal Saul who wanted to kill him. Leaving behind his wife and Jonathan his best friend, David fled to the King of Gath hoping to find a safe place to stay. Not wanted there and fearing for his life David feigned insanity so that he could escape to the cave of Adullam.

Fearful for his life, utterly alone and hiding in a cave David returned to the words he learned as a child – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”(Deut 6:4-5).

Reflecting on these words David realized that only God could deliver him from all his fears, enemies and troubles. He realized that God was more capable of protecting him, than the devil was of stirring up his enemies.

Although he was still alone, hiding in a cave, David’s heart overflowed with praise and he wrote the words to Psalm 34. Filled with unbridled enthusiastic joy, relief and amazement David invites you and I to join him in glorifying the Lord and exalting God’s name.

In whom will you place your trust? Where will you turn to find a safe refuge? Will you place your trust in other people or in your own abilities? Or will you place your trust in God?

When there are more items on your to do list then there are hours in your day, taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8).

Amidst the demands and pressures of your job, come, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. His burden is easy and his yoke is light.

In each of the different experiences in your life place your trust in the Lord who is our God. As a righteous person, you have nothing to fear when you are trusting God. In God’s eyes you are loved! God is sufficient!

God will cleanse you from all your fears when you earnestly seek him and reflect on his love and majesty. Since God has delivered you from all your fears, there is absolutely nothing that you need to be afraid of. You don’t have to fear being condemned or rejected when you take refuge in Christ, for Jesus was condemned on your behalf on the cross.

The Lord hears you when you cry out to him from the secret recesses of your heart. You can cry out to God at the lowest points of your life and when you are on a mountain top. God, your Heavenly Father, will never desert you, forsake you or give you up to ruin.

When you seek the Lord, your circumstances may not change, but your life will radiate with joy because your hope and future are secure in God’s love.

Seeking the Lord is a conscious moral choice to keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Seeking the Lord involves turning from evil and doing good; seeking peace and pursuing it (Ps 34:13-14). Seeking the Lord also involves passionately and energetically engaging with God – looking to God, crying out to God, finding refuge in God praising God and exalting God’s name.

When you seek the Lord you won’t lack any good thing because God himself is the best there is. God’s gifts and riches won’t fail, rust or break. When you keep your eyes and heart focused on the Lord, you will never lack love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control.

A life lived taking refuge in the Lord alone will cause praise and exaltation of God’s name to overflow from your heart. A life lived in the presence of the Lord will naturally attract others to rejoice and glorify God together with you.

Blessed is the one who takes refuge in God.

Photo by Lukas from Pexels

God's Unfailing Love

God’s unfailing love permeates your workplace. God’s unfailing love infuses your home. God’s unfailing love floods every nook and cranny of your life. God’s unfailing love extends to each of your colleagues and customers. The whole earth is drenched in God’s unfailing love. Behind everything that is happening in your life there is a God of love – and that changes everything.

God’s words and God’s works remind us of God’s unfailing love. God’s words are right and true. God’s words formed the universe and every tiny little detail that is important to your work. God imparted his divine characteristics of righteousness, justice and loving kindness in all of his works. God’s works are firm and permanent. God is faithful in every work that he does.

Stand in awe and observe the goodness of the Lord! On the world stage it is God who creates each scene and forms the heart of each actor. All things that are happening are ordered by God’s infinite wisdom. God is accomplishing his plans and the purposes of his heart. God’s plans stand firm forever. God’s plans don’t change with the passing of time, or depend on how people behave. The purposes of God’s heart can never be shaken. God’s heart’s desire is that you would be his child, and experience his unfailing love. Rejoice that the Lord’s purposes prevail, not yours or anyone else’s.

From heaven the Lord looks down observing everything and considers your motives. Your possessions, your abilities, your accomplishments cannot save you. However the Lord, whose eyes are on those who fear him, will deliver your soul from death.

Wait patiently in hope for the Lord. Your hope is not misplaced! When human frailty unsettles you, allow God’s divine tranquility to be your peace. God is your help and your shield! Rejoice! Continue to trust in his holy name! Bask in his unfailing love!

Forgiven and energized by God’s unfailing love, your life is a unique song of praise to God. There is a special place in God’s presence for you to lift up your voice and life in praise. Come shout for joy, celebrate God’s unfailing love!

Prayer

Lord I praise you for your unfailing love. My heart overflows with thanksgiving for the beauty of your faithful works and the righteousness of your word. My heart leaps with joy because I have experienced anew your amazing grace! Lord, I place my hope in you. May your unfailing love be with me today as I go about my work! Amen.

The Voice of The Lord

Do you hear the voice of God who sits enthroned in the heavens above the cacophony of sounds clamoring for your attention in our modern, hyper-connected world? 

The voice of the Lord can be heard over the waters. 

At the dawn of creation the powerful voice of the Lord was heard over the waters. God spoke and the world took shape as we know it today. The Israelites heard the voice of the Lord as they stood beside the waters of the Red Sea. Thunder resounded across the heavens and lightning lit up the world while God dried up the Red Sea (Ps 77:16-19). John the Baptist heard the voice of God by the river Jordan as Jesus rose from the waters, and a voice from heaven declared “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” The disciples heard the voice of the Lord in the midst of the storm as Jesus spoke “peace be still” and the sea was calmed. 

The voice of the Lord can be heard today supplying the waters that sustain and nourish your life. The voice of the Lord can be heard today speaking words of peace over the stormy waters stirred up by fear and strife. The voice of the Lord can be heard today speaking majestic words filled with life and grace. 

Only the voice of the Lord can make an oasis in the desert, enabling you to flourish where you live and work. 

The voice of the Lord causes us to fall on our knees in awe and wonder and to shout “Glory!” 

The voice of the Lord shatters pride 

The proud, mighty cedars of Lebanon that have survived for centuries are shattered into pieces at the sound of the voice of the Lord (Ps 29:5). Pride and chaos may try to drown out God’s voice, but God’s word prevails shattering rocky, stubborn, mountainous pride. 

Your skills, your possessions, your money, your accomplishments, whatever you put your trust in, are nothing compared to the mighty power of God’s voice. All the external things you cling to for your security are as rubbish when compared to the glory of the Lord. Don’t hoard the meager glory and strength that people give you. Turn these over to God, for he is their rightful Lord. 

When you admit the frailty of your human efforts you will be set free to be anchored to the true source of strength and peace. 

The voice of the Lord causes us to fall on our face before the Lord and to shout “Glory!” 

The voice of the Lord convicts and redeems 

Like an earthquake ripping across the wilderness, stripping the forest bare in judgment, God’s word strips off masks and reveals secret sins. The voice of the Lord melts hearts, consumes lusts, and destroys sinful works. 

God’s word doesn’t leave you naked or alone. The voice of the Lord brings cleansing waters of redemption every moment to wash away your sins. His word washes you white as snow, and places a new song in your life so that you can sing, dance and leap for joy like a little child. Then the voice of the Lord kindles a holy flame of love and devotion. 

The voice of the Lord causes us to raise our hands in praise and cry “Glory!” 

The voice of the Lord speaks strength and peace into your life 

The divine voice of the Lord, with transcendent and unattainable mystery, brings words of truth and hope. Even when your world is shaken, God remains steadfast and calm on his throne. God sits above the chaos and history of creation surrounded by the angels proclaiming his glory and strength. 

But God doesn’t keep his strength for himself. Through his word, God graciously imparts his strength to you. 

God’s strength is a unique and precious gift which God freely gives to you to bless you with peace. God’s strength gives you the ability to bless your workplace, your family, and your friends with peace. God’s strength enables you to have peace in every moment, in every conversation, in every task, in every relationship. 

God’s words speak peace to your soul. God’s peace radiates to the very center of who you are. God’s peace is a gift from the one who laid the foundations of the world. God’s peace is a promise that you can rest in whatever you are doing, and wherever you are. 

Strengthened by God’s word, blessed with God’s peace we join in worship with all Christians to proclaim “Glory!”