365 Days of Praise
In Favor of the Saints
Do you ever wonder what the future holds? If so, the book of Daniel answers your question. There will be a war and God’s saints will be overpowered UNTIL the One who is more powerful than any other, the Highest One, steps in. I wonder if you feel as I do – overwhelmed with gratefulness to be on God’s side, to be designated as His saint?
“I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the highest One, and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.” Daniel 7:21-22
Heavenly Father, to be referred to as “Your saint” and to know that You, the Ancient of Days, are going to judge in favor of us is overwhelming. Thank You, merciful Ancient of Days.
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Run to the Throne of Grace
Can you imagine what it would be like to go to Jesus after you failed miserably and sinned and He NOT be sympathetic with your weaknesses? What if He was unrelenting and unforgiving? But that is not who our sweet Lord Jesus Christ is. Although He is God the Son and our HIGH PRIEST, He is sympathetic to our weaknesses. Here’s how Hebrews 4:15-16 describes Jesus.
We do not have a HIGH PRIEST who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
That’s incredibly good news, but we’re not to stop there.
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
In other words, when we sin we’re not supposed to keep sinning. Neither are we to avoid Jesus because we’re ashamed. Rather, we’re to humbly go to Him and confess, “I sinned. I gave in to my flesh or this temptation. Forgive me and strengthen me to stand against this weakness in my life. Conform me to Your image, Jesus.” Jesus extends grace to us when we repent, but He also admonishes us, “Go and sin no more.” Why? Because He loves us and doesn’t want us to live in a habit of sin but rather to live in a habit of holiness. If we’ve sinned and been avoiding an intimate conversation with Jesus and confession of our sin, now is the time to draw near to our sympathetic HIGH PRIEST.
We praise you, Lord and High Priest, that although you are high and lifted up, you sympathize with our weaknesses and forgive us when we repent. Help us stand against rather than give into sin.
Groaning. Drained. Hiding.
King David was deceived….thinking he could hide his sin of adultery and murder and merrily continue with his life. But sin isn’t a kind bedfellow. Psalm 32:3-4 records how it affected David. “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” But what happened when David acknowledged his sin and confessed it to the Lord? We find the answer in Psalm 32:5. “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.'” What advice does David give us in Psalm 32:6? “Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found.” David discovered that instead of hiding from God, it was better to make God His hiding place. “You are my HIDING PLACE; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance,” Psalm 32:7. On occasion we might be like David and think we can hide our sin from God. But the truth is, we can’t. He sees us and even knows our thoughts. Yet even while we are in our sin, He invites us to a place of forgiveness – Himself. Today we can choose to stop trying to hide our sin. We can turn to God and humbly confess, “You are my HIDING PLACE; You preserve me from trouble.” We can experience “songs of deliverance.”
Lord, how sweet to know You as our HIDING PLACE who preserves us from trouble and surrounds us with songs of deliverance. Thank You. We praise You.
Help is On the Way
“Help is on the way.” It’s all I could think to say as I grabbed my purse and headed to my car. She needed to hear those words. She needed to know that help was on the way…the kind of tangible help we need when we’re at our wit’s end when we don’t know how much more we can take. And so, God wants us to know, “He is our HELP.” We may not see Him, but we have the full assurance that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present HELP in trouble,” Psalm 46:1. Are you in trouble and need HELP? Are you in despair and need HELP? Are you disturbed about something and need HELP? Unlike the friend who had to wait for me, the Lord is our present HELP. We need only call on Him as Psalm 43:5 reminds us. “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, the HELP of my countenance and my God,”
Heavenly Father, we praise You, our HELP, and the HELP of our countenance.
When Nations Are Rocking Over Control
Power. Control. Who has it? Who wants it? To what extent will people go to gain control? Daily, we see people driven to have control over others whether at the local, national, or world level. I wonder how we would live if we kept Hebrews 1:2 in our thoughts? It says that Jesus is the HEIR OF ALL THINGS. At the time those words were written to the Hebrew people, it appeared the government had control over everything. However, God wanted the Hebrews to know that Jesus is the possessor of everything. He created the world and it is ultimately His. It was important for the first century Christians to be assured of this fact. It’s important for us to be assured of it. How does it make you feel when you reflect on this great reality and truth?
LORD, we praise You for appointing Jesus as the HEIR OF ALL THINGS. Thank You for the assurance this brings us.
When You Cry Out, He’ll Hear
Do you have children or have you ever babysat? Think for a moment to a time when a child cried for you. Maybe they were in their crib. Or perhaps you heard a thud, then the cry of a toddler who had fallen. What happened at the moment they cried out? Their voice “came into your ears.” I love the way that just as a child’s cry “comes into our ears,” the psalmist, David, worded that our cries “come into God’s ears.” Second Samuel 22:7 says, “In my distress, I called upon the Lord. Yes, I cried to my God and from His temple, He heard my voice, and my cry for help came into His ears.” Yes, just as we can hear a child’s cry even if we’re in another part of the house, so God hears our cry from His temple. Our cries to God go into His ears. Our Heavenly Father is a HEARING GOD, not a deaf God. What will you cry out to Him about today?
Hearing Father, thank You for listening to our cries. Help us also listen to You.
How Can We Not…
On February 28, 2002, God healed my mother. Bernice Ruth Taylor went to be with the Lord. No longer did she suffer the physical ailments that had ravaged her body. She was ready to be with Jesus. She took off her oxygen mask, smiled at us, and after we verbalized our love for one another, she closed her eyes. However, none of us were prepared for the next moment. Mama’s eyes flew open and she startled us with, “boo!” I’ll never know how long she’d planned that dramatic and joyous moment or if it was a spur of the moment idea. Regardless, she made her point. She wasn’t scared. She was, in fact, excited. Her attitude reflected Jeremiah 17:14 which says, “Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; Save me and I will be saved, for You are my praise.” My mother knew Jesus was her HEALER and that she was on her way to Him for her complete, ultimate healing. With that, she closed her eyes a final time on earth and opened them in heaven…fully healed. How can we not praise Him? Jesus is our hope. He is our healer. On this, we need to focus in these difficult days.
Lord God, You are our HEALER and we praise You!
No Better Time Than Now
Do you worry about where our nation is headed? Although evil may temporarily prevail, the Bible tells us the end of the story. And it’s a good ending! God will prevail. Colossians 2:10 tells us Christ is the HEAD OVER ALL RULE AND AUTHORITY. One day every knee will bow before Him. Examples of people humbling themselves before the LORD who is the HEAD over all rule and authority are found throughout the Bible. For example, read Daniel 4. King Nebuchadnezzar prided himself because of his power, but God humbled him. Daniel 4:34 records Nebuchadnezzar’s words,
“But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.”
An important question for every person is, “who do you acknowledge to be the ultimate head over all rule and authority?” If you know someone who is discouraged by the moral decline in our nation, remind them of the ONE who is Head Over All. There’s no better time than now to share our faith and hope with others.
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LORD JESUS, thank You for the comfort that You are HEAD OVER ALL RULE AND AUTHORITY! Use us as witnesses of our confidence in Your reign.
So What’s Jesus Up to?
Around Easter, Christians focus on the weeks prior to Jesus’s crucifixion. Resurrection morning, we celebrate that death couldn’t keep Jesus in the grave. But, where is Jesus now and what is He doing? Hebrews 6:20 tells us where Jesus is. “Jesus has entered as a forerunner (in heaven) for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Jesus is in heaven and He’s praying for us. How do we know He’s in heaven? He told His disciples before His crucifixion that He had come down from heaven to earth and He was returning to heaven. People saw Jesus rise from the earth and ascend through the clouds into heaven. Angels assured those watching Jesus rise in the air that what they thought they saw, they truly saw. Yes, it’s true. An airplane defies gravity and ascends beyond our sight into the clouds. An airplane’s power is minuscule compared to Christ’s power. All is well, friends. Christ, our forerunner, has gone ahead of us to heaven. He made it safely there. We will, too, where we’ll be united with loved ones and the Lord forever.
Lord Jesus, forerunner of all who put their trust in You, thank You for safely seeing us through the travail of death and bringing us to heaven’s glory.
Hard Work, No Joy
Have you ever worked hard for what you thought was for Christ but you experienced little joy? As a matter of fact, you felt agitated as you worked? If and when that happens, it helps to step back and consider if what we’re doing is a mission Christ assigned to us and we’re relying on His wisdom and power, or if it’s an activity we decided was a good idea and we’re pushing through in our own strength. Why is this important? Colossians 1:18 explains that Christ is “head of the body, the church…so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” In other words, if it is not Christ’s idea then it’s not a good idea and will not be empowered by Him. Why? As a body is lifeless without its head, so we the church are lifeless apart from Christ. We may do what we consider to be important, but if it is done apart from Christ’s calling and Spirit it is merely human effort. Therefore, it is important for us to continually seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) so that both our individual and corporate actions flow from Christ’s mind and are done in His power. When we do the work Christ assigns us it may be challenging and difficult, but we will also experience Christ’s joy. Matthew 25:23
Lord Jesus, we praise You, HEAD OF THE CHURCH and life of the body of believers. May our words and actions be an extension of Your heart, strength, and power.