365 Days of Praise

Do you ever read a verse and something about it “wows” you? That’s how I feel about Jeremiah 23:6. “In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The Lord our righteousness.’” 

Why am I wowed by this verse? 

It’s not only that Judah will be saved, and the Israelites will one day live in peace. Although thinking about Israel living in peace is definitely a “wow.” It’s not just that the Lord is righteous. 

What wows me is the word “our.” It sends me to my knees–literally. It’s the reason I’m on my knees every morning, bowing before the Lord. 

I’m “wowed” because I’m included in the “our.” In other words, I’m not on the outside looking in, longing to be in right standing before God. Rather, I’m on the inside looking at His face…praising Him. 

I’m on my knees because I know I’m a sinner, but that no longer defines my relationship with my Creator. Christ Jesus defines my relationship with the Heavenly Father. Because I am in Christ, I am saved and so are all believers. Christ is in us…in all who call on Jesus for salvation. The LORD is our righteousness, Jehovah-Tsidkenu. 

JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU, the Lord our Righteousness, all honor and praise and glory belong to You. Thank You for imparting Your righteousness to me when I repent and call on You for salvation. 

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Peace. Everyone’s looking for it. Where? Drugs. Vacation. Sex. Entertainment. In the meantime, and while seeking peace, life goes on. Worriers worry. Whiners whine. Complainers complain. Wheat beaters beat wheat. And that’s where we find Gideon. He is beating wheat in a winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites. 

Judges 6 is the incredible account of when the Lord came to Gideon and told him to tear down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah in order to restore worship of the Lord. He then commissioned Gideon to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Midianites. 

Judges 6:24 records Gideon’s response to the Lord. “Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it The LORD is Peace.” 

Jehovah-Shalom, the LORD of Peace, came to a nation threatened by enemies and to people who worshiped Baal. Jehovah-Shalom not only came to Gideon, but His Spirit of peace and power came upon Gideon. 

Isn’t that what we need? God’s peace and power? 

What can we learn from Jehovah-Shalom and Gideon about personal and national peace? 

• Worship the Lord of Peace, Jehovah-Shalom.
• Be filled with the Lord’s Spirit of peace and power.
• Fight valiantly for righteousness.

JEHOVAH-SHALOM, Lord of Peace, thank You that by Your Spirit I can experience peace and power as I stand for righteousness as Gideon did. 

Would you like to experience more grace and peace? Check out Debbie’s Bible study on 1 Peter, “Experiencing Grace and Peace in Cultural Chaos” by clicking HERE. You can also access the free accompanying videos and podcasts by clicking HERE.

Are you sick in spirit, soul, or body? If so, consider how Jehovah-Rapha worked in Moses’ and the Israelites’ lives. They had been in the wilderness for three days after escaping the Egyptians, when they arrived at the undrinkable waters of Marah. What did Moses do? He cried out to Jehovah-Rapha, which means healer. The Lord responded to Moses and told him what to do. Moses obeyed and the bitter, undrinkable water became drinkable.

Exodus 15:26 records God’s encouragement to Moses. “‘If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer.’” 

This brings us to a question. Have we cried out to Jehovah-Rapha? Have we done what He has shown or told us? The Lord’s  message was clear. “If you do” means our actions have consequences. 

“If you give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God” emphasizes the importance of paying attention to what God says.

“And do what is right.” Moses had to do what God told him. 

“In His sight” means that God sees if we obey Him. 

“And give ear to His commandments…” In other words, God is our healer. Are we crying out to Him? Are we doing what He tells us? 

JEHOVAH-RAPHA, Lord my Healer, I praise You for the complete healing You’ll give me in heaven. In the meantime, help me increasingly listen to You and do what You tell me.

In addition to today’s key verse, John 5 also depicts Jesus’ healing power and the importance of obedience. Jesus healed a man who had been disabled for 38 years and commanded him to stop sinning, warning that something worse may happen to the man if he continued. To watch all of Debbie’s teaching on John 5, click HERE or listen to it HERE.

“I’m thirsty!” How many times have we said that? Our bodies need water. But, what about our spirits? According to Jesus, they need spiritual water, Living Water, the Holy Spirit.

Listen to Jesus’ words. “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:38-39).

In these verses, Jesus tells us an important truth. Just as our body needs water, so does our spirit. Unhappy? Grumpy? Dry as a prune? If so, you could be spiritually thirsty. Go to your Heavenly Father. Tell Him, “I thirst. I feel spiritually dry.” Ask Him to refresh you. Open your heart and ask Him to fill you to overflowing with His glorious, refreshing, life-giving Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18 reinforces Jesus’ words with the command that believers be filled continually with the Spirit. So yes, when your body is dry, reach for a glass of water. When your spirit is dry, reach for the Lord’s filling.

Jesus, thank You for giving me the LIVING WATER of Your Spirit who cleanses and refreshes me; who fills and energizes me to serve You. I love You, Lord. 

Click HERE to watch all of Debbie’s teaching on John 7, where Jesus says that whoever believes in Him will have rivers of living water flowing from within them, referring to the Holy Spirit. You can also listen to the podcast teaching by clicking HERE. 

Standing in the checkout line, I noticed the child from the corner of my eye. You couldn’t help but notice since he was wailing at the top of his lungs, “I want it!” His bedraggled mother tried her best to wrestle the package of M&Ms from his hands while at the same time apologize to the cashier. Tommy wanted the M&M’s, but his mother knew that her child was not “lacking” for food. 

Although I don’t like to admit it, there are times I can be like Tommy when things aren’t going my way. But there is another to whom we can look who points us to the key to being calm and trusting rather than demanding and complaining.  

David, the shepherd boy who became king, is an example to us. In Psalm 23:1 he stated, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Say those words with me. “I shall not want.”

David grasped what I sometimes forget. There’s a difference between what I “want” and what I “lack.” Psalm 23:1 is best interpreted, “The Lord is my shepherd (Jehovah-Ra-Ah), I lack for nothing.” In other words, David was aware that the Lord was watching over him, leading, and protecting him. He was mindful of his Shepherd’s presence and provision. 

If there are times you focus more on what you want rather than on God’s present provision and you desire to develop a more grateful attitude, consider daily journaling that for which you are grateful. Begin being more like David and less like Tommy. 

JEHOVAH-RA-AH, thank You for being my Shepherd. Help me to be increasingly mindful that in You I lack for nothing. 

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Have you been battling something and you’re tired? If so, we do well to remember that, as believers, we don’t stand alone. Exodus 17:8-15 records how we can come alongside each other and under the banner of the Lord, defeat the enemy. 

“Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.’ So it came about when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed, and when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy. Then they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. Thus his hands were steady until the sunset. So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Moses built an altar and named it The Lord Is My Banner; and he said, ‘The Lord has sworn; the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.’” 

In this passage, we learn that the Israelites won the battle as long as they could see Moses’s staff which represented God’s presence and power with them. What can we learn from this account? It is important to station ourselves with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, to hold up one another in prayer, and keep our eyes on Christ. God is our banner. It is His presence and power that defeats the enemy. 

Heavenly Father, JEHOVAH-NISSI, my banner, thank You for Your presence and power; that I do not stand against the enemy in my own strength. Thank You for the community of believers with whom I can lift Your name high. 

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Have you ever felt desperate and cried out to God to help to do what He’s asked of you? No doubt, such was the case for Abraham when God asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

Although Abraham didn’t understand why God would ask him to do something so unthinkable, he had confidence in God’s goodness and told his servants, “We, not I, will return.” 

Abraham took the steps of obedience to which God called him, one faith step at a time, not knowing how God would provide. 

In the final moment, as Abraham raised the knife to sacrifice Issac, God stopped him. He provided a ram in the place of Isaac. Genesis 22:14 records, “Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.’” (“Jehovah-Jireh” is the KJV’s translation of YHWH-Yireh which means “The Lord Will Provide.”)

In the act of Abraham being called to sacrifice his only begotten son we get a glimpse of what it was like for God to sacrifice His only begotten Son. 

Jesus, like Isaac, was laid on the wood, stretched out, but instead of being freed, died in our place. Jehovah-Jireh, God will Provide, provided Jesus as a substitute for us. 

What will you do today…and every day to show your gratitude to the Father and to Jesus? 

JEHOVAH-JIREH, You saw my need and provided Your only begotten Son to die for my sins. Jesus, thank You for willingly laying down Your life for me. I am overwhelmed with gratitude and pray I daily reflect my gratitude by my life.

Abraham demonstrated his love for and trust in God through his act of obedience. Our actions reveal whether we truly love, trust, and respect Jesus. To learn more, read this related blog post by Debbie. 

Where did God come from? Who created Him? What’s His origin? Who is the mastermind behind Him? Have you ever asked that question or has someone asked you? It’s a question most people ask at one time or another. 

Here’s the answer. In Exodus 6:3, God told Moses, “I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name, Lord, (Jehovah) I did not make Myself known to them.” 

The answer to the question about where God came from is to understand that God is self-existent. God told Moses that His name is Jehovah, which in the Hebrew language means self-existent One or “the existing One.” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” 

What does that mean? Scholar Charles Ryrie explains, “It is a name of the relationship between the true God and His people and when used, emphasizes God’s holiness, hatred of sin, and love of sinners.” ¹  

In other words, God didn’t “come from.” He is. God is a self-existing God who is holy, hates sin, and loves us. We won’t fully comprehend God until we get to heaven and probably won’t even then. In the meantime, we can lift our hands and praise Him. 

Lord God, JEHOVAH, I praise You and thank You that You love me and have provided salvation for me. 

The Apostle John confirms God’s self-existing nature in John 1:1-2 by writing, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” To learn more, watch Debbie’s teaching on John 1 HERE or listen to it HERE. 

¹ Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update (Chicago: Moody Press, 2008), 2057.

PRAISING JESUS, OUR HEALER!   AFTER 9 MONTHS OF CHEMO, SURGERY, & RADIATION, I AM CANCER FREE!  THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!  CELEBRATING GOD’S GOODNESS!

“You can’t see God, so how do you know He’s there?” people sometimes ask. I think one of the best responses is found in Romans 1:19-20 where Paul writes:

“…because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power, and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” 

Paul acknowledges that God is invisible to our eyes. However, he points out that God’s existence is clearly seen by how God has and continues to express Himself through creation. 

Look at the glory of the sunrise, sunset, and heavens. Consider the majesty of the mountains. Inspect the tiniest flower. Count the sizes, shapes, and colors of animals. Marvel at the miracle of the human body. 

God may be invisible, but His handiwork is clearly visible. Our privilege and calling is to give credit where credit is due for God’s creation, eternal power, and divine nature that is clearly displayed. Join me in the following chorus of praise. 

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17). 

King eternal, immortal, INVISIBLE God, I praise You and thank You for the glory of Your creation and for making Yourself clearly seen through Your handiwork. May my life point people to You.

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