With My Own Eyes

“When we don’t get what we want, we are more acutely aware of eternity.  We are more apt to remember God.  We learn what it really means to trust him.  We remember the bigger story.  When we don’t get what we want, we have to deal with our inner restlessness.  We have to face ourselves and our addictions.  We have to deal with the various “medications” we use to cope with life.  When we started these changes at Oak Hills, we put spiritual formation on the front burner, and the first thing that we saw that needed to be transformed was this raging desire to always get what we want (117) .”

Here is today’s Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 17:1-18:34; Romans 9:22-10:13; Psalm 20:1-9; Proverbs 20:2-3.

2 Chron. 18:4 (NIV)
But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, “First seek the counsel of the Lord.”

How many times have I failed to apply this wise advice.  God is the source of ultimate wisdom, yet we so often neglect asking for His counsel.  How much hardship could be avoided in our lives if we would seek Him in every situation.

“Perhaps our greatest lesson from the past decade is that it is spiritually formative to be dissatisfied and unable to resolve that dissatisfaction.  In fact, there is hardly a better catalyst for transformation than to not get what we want.  Sitting in the dissatisfaction, without frantically trying to resolve it, can do wonders for the human soul (117).”

Here is today’s Bible reading:  2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14; Romans 9:1-21; Psalm 19:1-14; Proverbs 20:1.

Romans 9:20 (NIV)
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ”

I am learning to surrender my life to absolutely whatever God intends for His glory.  He is the potter and I am the clay.

Here is today’s Bible reading:  2 Chronicles 11:1-13:22; Romans 8:22-39; Psalm 18:37-50; Proverbs 19:27-29.

Lots of good stuff today:

Psalm 18:46 (NIV)
The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God my Savior!

Romans 8:28 (NIV)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:31-32 (NIV)
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32] He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Romans 8:37 (NIV)
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

2 Chron. 12:6-7 (NIV)
The leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is just.”
[7] When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: “Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will soon give them deliverance. My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak.

Here is today’s Bible reading:  2 Chronicles 8:11-10:19; Romans 8:9-21; Psalm 18:16-36; Proverbs 19:26.

Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the city of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, for the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy.”
(2 Chronicles 8:11 ESV)

Solomon tries to do what we often do:  compartmentalize our lives into categories such as “sacred” and “secular”, “spiritual” and “day-to-day living”.  But in God’s eyes, everything is spiritual.  Everything is to be worship.  Everything is to be done as unto Him.  If a wife isn’t good enough to live in the palace in Jerusalem, then she probably ought not be his wife.  If something that we are doing can’t be done as unto the Lord, it ought not be done.

Here is today’s Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 4:1-6:11; Romans 7:1-13; Psalm 17:1-15; Proverbs 19:22-23.

Proverbs 19:23 (NIV)
The fear of the Lord leads to life:
Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.

I have heard it said that if you truly fear God (seek Him, trust Him, worship Him, obey Him) then you need not fear anything else. Said another way, if God is for us, then who or what can be against us?

Psalm 17:6-7 (NIV)
I call on you, O God, for you will answer me;
give ear to me and hear my prayer.
[7] Show the wonder of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.

Here is today’s Bible reading: 2 Chronicles 1:1-3:17; Romans 6:1-23; Psalm 16:1-11; Proverbs 19:20-21.

Psalm 16:2 (NIV)
I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”

We continually chase after cheap substitutes for the one real thing, the only thing that is good – God.  When we have God, we have all we need.

Proverbs 19:20 (NIV)
Listen to advice and accept instruction,
and in the end you will be wise.

Wise people are teachable.  They listen and admit their weaknesses.

Here is today’s Bible reading: 1 Chronicles 28:1-29:30; Romans 5:6-21; Psalm 15:1-5; Proverbs 19:18-19.

Proverbs 19:19 (NIV)
A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty;
if you rescue him, you will have to do it again.

Sometimes the best way to help those we love the most is not to bail them out, but to allow them to experience the full effect of the consequences of their actions.

1 Chron. 29:12 (NIV)
Wealth and honor come from you;
you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
to exalt and give strength to all.

It all belongs to God – even this life I call my own.

Here is today’s Bible reading:  1 Chronicles 24:1-26:11; Romans 4:1-12; Psalm 13:1-6; Proverbs 19:15-16.
Psalm 13:1-6 (NIV)  
For the director of music. A psalm of David.

    How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
        How long will you hide your face from me?
    [2] How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
        and every day have sorrow in my heart?
        How long will my enemy triumph over me?
 
    [3] Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.
        Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
    [4] my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
        and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
 
    [5] But I trust in your unfailing love;
        my heart rejoices in your salvation.
    [6] I will sing to the Lord,
        for he has been good to me.
 
I love how the Psalmist honestly pours out his heart to God, but then ends with what he knows to be absolutely true:  God is trustworthy.  His lamenting changes to rejoicing.  His crying turns to singing.  This is not because his circumstances have changed, but his focus has.  May God enable us to focus on what is true, that our weeping may turn into singing.