YEAR 1, WEEK 33, Day 7, Sunday, 18 August 2024

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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Sunday, 18 August 2024:

Psalm 33:1 — Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.

The only reasonable response to life by those who know Jesus and abide in His word and love is praise, regardless the situation. If you are struggling to praise God during trying times, understand that the problem isn’t what is happening to you but, rather, your appreciation and confidence in the God’s sovereignty, love, perfect providence, and eternal promise. When problems arise, don’t focus on the problem, focus on Jesus, and walk through it with Him.

Having a worshipful, joyful heart doesn’t mean you won’t suffer trials, pain, and sorrow, but that driven by the love of Christ and confident in His perfect sovereign will loving faithfulness, you can praise Him and rejoice through your sorrows. He will see you through to a greater good than you could possibly imagine.

• 2 Corinthians 6:2-10 — Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
• Habakkuk 3:17-18 — Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
• 1 Peter 2:19 — For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
• Hebrews 12:2 — …looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Psalm 33:2-3 — Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

If you haven’t learned to appreciate the importance of singing hymns of praise to the Lord, today is a good day to start. Singing engages both sides of your brain and reinforces truth in your mind in ways which are hard to completely understand. It really doesn’t matter if you can’t carry a tune. Sing anyway. Also, try taking verses of the Bible which are meaningful to you and making your own songs or poems out of them.

These verses aren’t just about singing songs of praise but more so about serving the Lord in new, creative ways as He created you to do. The Creator, out of love, created creators to create good things on earth for His glory and for the benefit of others. He never created anyone like you and He never will again, and He created you in your specific time, right where you are, with unique passions, talents, skills, and abilities, to fulfill your purpose, His will, in your special way. Do a new thing for the Lord today as an act of worship and ministry.

• Jeremiah 1:5 — “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
• Isaiah 49:5 — And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him— for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength—
• Isaiah 49:1 — Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.
• Psalm 139:13-16 — For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
• Ephesians 1:4 — Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love….
• Ephesians 2:10 — For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Psalm 33:4-5 — For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

The way you view God determines the way you see everything else. If you genuinely believe in God’s steadfast love, faithfulness, and righteousness, you will see how wonderful your life is and be thankful for all your circumstances, knowing the God is working all things out together for good.

• Romans 8:28-29 – And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:18 — …give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Remember, Satan tempted Adam and Eve by getting them to question God’s goodness and to focus on the one tree God didn’t give them rather than the abundance He had freely given them which surrounded them. He convinced them that God’s limits were withheld blessings rather than divine protections, and He convinced them they had to sin to be fulfilled. Don’t fall for the same deception from Satan by seeing your circumstances as withheld blessings from an insufficient or unloving God. Rather, see your circumstances as God’s best for the one He loves so much He gave His Son for you.

• Romans 8:31-32 — If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Psalm 33:5-8 — For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!

God’s spiritual laws are as real and relevant as God’s natural laws (even more real and relevant). An attempt to operate outside God’s natural laws will have obvious and predictable consequences; attempts to operate outside of God’s spiritual laws also has obvious and predictable consequences. Conversely, just as people can harness the power of nature to accomplish amazing things, so can people thrive under God’s spiritual laws. Perhaps through scrapes and bruises you have learned to respect the Law of Gravity. Perhaps through emotional scrapes and bruises God has taught you to respect His spiritual laws too. Today’s readings in Proverbs and Psalm speaks repeatedly on the consequences of sinning against God who establishes the order of things as well as on the blessings the come from living in harmony with God’s word. The Bible really wants us to get the point.

Psalm 33:10-22 – The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

Personal security and national security depends on fear of the Lord. God will hold all nations and all people accountable to His word.

Psalm 33:17, 18 – The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love.

Be very careful not to place your hope in anything but God. Everything and everyone on this earth is perishable, unpredictable, questionable, movable, unreliable, flawed, etc. Only God is steadfast and wholly (Holy) reliable.

“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 18 August 2024: Today, focus on praising the Lord and trusting Him with your circumstances. Be thankful for all things, even your challenges and look for God’s mercy, grace, and blessing through whatever you are going through, knowing that God is working all things together for good because He loves you as His wonderful child.