Sunday, January 2, 2011

Day 1...


Morning Meditation, Day 1:

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Deut 8:2-3)

What is the lesson worth? How can we even put a price tag on it? What are we willing to pay to learn how to live by every word that God breathes? More important, what is God willing to allow us to go through to bring us to the place where we accept His ways above our own?
Our verse today teaches us that God, because the Children of Israel did not know how to hang on His word above all else, was willing to humble them for forty years in the desert to make the message crystal clear.
Jacob, the son of Isaac, learned the lesson as he wrestled with the angel in the wilderness. Joseph, Jacob’s son, learned to hold to God’s word as he bounced from favored son to slave to prisoner, and finally to the throne of Egypt. They persevered as they struggled to live by every word of God, but they broke through the barriers and entered into the power, freedom, and rest that come from it.
What “deserts” will God engineer for us to teach us to rely upon His word fully and obey it joyfully? While we may not like it initially, if we trust Him and endure, He will show Himself just and true, and we will know the wonders of His word for ourselves.

Evening Reading, Day 1:

Psalm 119:1-8 (Read and meditate the passage, and then pray back to God the parts that strike you the most. Ask Him to give you understanding.)
א Aleph (Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The symbol to the left is the actual Hebrew letter.)

1 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. 2 Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart— 3 they do no wrong but follow his ways. 4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. 5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! 6 Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. 7 I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. 8 I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.

5 comments:

Pastor Carl said...

Praying that our hunger pains for God's word return in full force this year. Teach us to seek after Your word and walk by it whatever the price. "Thy word is a lamp unto our feet."

lori bunk said...

i woke up this morning so excited to start the fast and with expectation for God to speak.

i love the question posed this morning from the devotion, it really got me thinking: What are we willing to pay to learn how to live by every word that God breathes?

hisbelovedlizc said...

I did not wake up this morning excited about the fast, but still determined to "push forward".
That immediately changed when I read the first Meditation and saw that it illuminated what God had been speaking to me the last 6 months or so. The desert that God 'engineered' for me has been hard to emerge from. Still, I will not measure the sacrifice, only keep my eyes fixed on Him - one day at a time!

Keri said...

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God (psalm 42:1)

Shari Reid said...

Just got home from a weekend away so a little late in starting out. My first thought is how wonderful it is to have a God who knows me so personally! These last few months have been a real struggle and once again God has given me a gentle shake and shown me how I have been falling into old habits of worrying and not completley trusting Him. Plus a reminder that being in the wilderness is not a bad thing, but a way to draw even closer to my Lord!