Reading: Isaiah 52-54, psalm 102, and Acts 6
Scripture: Psalm 102:2-3, Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace.
Thoughts: With several stresses in my life now, I have had times when I felt God’s presence wasn't as close as He used to be. I feel a kinship with David in this psalm. A passing long smoke and a crying to be heard. I know that any separation from God is from my end; I have fallen short. I know to seek Him, I know to worship Him, and I know that I should pray, yet I do not seek, worship, and pray the way I should. When in hard times we will return to God and get back to the disciplines we have, yet when things are going well things start to slip. We start to allow ourselves to relax our prayer time or our time in the Word. We let the bright shiny lights of media become more important than the God things. What good things are we letting take the place of God things? Just recently heard of a study of what happened to the birth rate in different countries when the smartphone was released. This good thing that put information and connection at our fingertips killed the drive for true connections causing birth rates to plummet after the release/ adoption in these countries. Let us strive to put the media in its place and focus on the true and real, quieting our minds to hear God.
Prayer: Father God, I thank you for all you are doing in my life, the growth you are giving me in my relationships. I thank you for your provisions and blessings that you pour out on us. You give us what we need and allow us to steward that which is not our own. I thank you for my family and the blessings they are in my life. I thank you for your guidance and the grace to walk through these trials. I praise you in this storm.
