Hello my dear friends! Abundant grace and peace to you this day. I hope that in your journey of faith, you are experiencing His joy along the way. One of the greatest challenges the disciple of Jesus faces is how to embrace the difficult challenges that come our way; be it a tense relationship, an impossible assignment at work, or a temptation that is wearing us down.
This week's Psalms of Discipleship offers us a great reminder of how much God loves us. We can seize the day as we choose to worship Him and pray to Him.
Carpe Diem!
Denny
Psalms of Discipleship—Principle #9
Life Principles For Those Who Choose To Follow Jesus And Live The Discipled Life
Key Scripture: 10 "Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me; O LORD, be my helper." 11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, 12 That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever. Psalm 30:10-12
Core Value: Worship and Prayer
It is much easier to place our trust in God when life is running smoothly with very few glitches along the way. Isn’t this the template of the hedonistic view (its all about pleasure) of American Christianity? If we are good and do good we can expect only good (i.e., easy) things to come our way. Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it is not true. There are times in the life of the disciple of Jesus that the events of one’s life can appear to be unfair and not good, at least from the perspective of good meaning less pain and suffering. Here therein lies the question: when given the opportunity to trust God (who is good), to offer our worship to Him and pray to Him, what will we do? Leonard Ravenhill offers this nugget of truth:
“The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized within the lifetime of the opportunity.”
God is good and because He is good we can trust Him to do what is good for us. Carpe Diem, seize the day!
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 (NASB95)
Principle #9 & Personal Application: The quality disciple lives with an earnest expectation that God must be worshiped, thanked, and praised knowing He always brings good out of the most difficult of circumstances.
• Quality disciples will pray to God when life is proving to be unbearable: “Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me; O LORD, be my helper.”
• Quality disciples will worship and experience an indescribable joy when God takes our mourning and turns it into dancing.
• Quality disciples will have a soul that will sing praise to God and give Him thanks forever.
Reflect & Respond: Some Really Good Questions To Ponder…
Can I think of a time in my life where God did bring good to me out of a very difficult circumstance?
What role does my worship of God and prayer to Him have upon my attitude when I am discouraged?
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, hear O Lord and be gracious to me and be my helper. I believe that You will turn my mourning into dancing and set me free to praise You and thank You forever.
The Essential Core Values Of The Quality Disciple Are…
Grace—Worship—Bible Study—Prayer—Community—Service—Evangelism
Denny Bates & Something New Christian Publishers © 2011 All rights reserved.
www.dennybates.com
http://thequalitydisciple.blogspot.com/
Note: Looking for a way to enhance your devotional life in 2011? Allow me to suggest purchasing a copy of Psalms of Discipleship: Growing in Grace. You can order your copy for only $15.99 (a $4 savings!). If you would like to have a devotional book that also serves as a spiritual life journal as well as a unique 21 point Bible study and personal assessment on grace, follow this link to my website where you can download a FREE SAMPLE at,
http://www.dennybates.com/Home/PODGIG.html
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