Devotions

After exalting God’s Word at length, David concludes one of his psalms with this verse: “Let my soul live, and it shall praise you; and let your judgments help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments” (Psalm 119:175-176, NKJV).

David was saying, in essence, “Please, Lord, seek me out the way a shepherd searches for a lost sheep. In spite of all my biblical knowledge, preaching and long history with you, somehow I’ve strayed from your love. I’ve lost the sense of rest I once had in you. All my plans have failed. Now I realize I’m totally helpless. Come to me, Father. Seek me out in this awful, dry place. I can’t find you on my own. You must find me. I still believe your Word is true.”

David knew he’d strayed from God’s rest. He knew the Lord’s love should have been imprinted on his heart during his previous crises. Once again, he had forgotten about God’s love for him. He cried out to the Lord, begging him to seek out his lost servant.

Now the shepherd had come after David again. As David heard his name called, his heart was comforted. He realized, “My shepherd knows me by name.” David found himself being led down the hill into the green valley. Once he reached the green pasture below, Jehovah Rohi (the Lord my Shepherd) said to him, “Lie down now. Go to sleep, and rest your weary soul. Don’t worry. I’ll be at work, taking care of everything.”

It’s important to note here that David’s circumstances hadn’t changed. In fact, scripture says, “Lord, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me” (Psalm 3:1). However, David had been restored to God’s love. Now he could say, “Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people. Selah” (Psalm 3:8). He testified, “No more self-made plans. No more sleepless nights, trying to work things out. I eagerly enter into my shepherd’s love. I welcome his open arms toward me.  And I’m going to lie down in his rest. I am going to sleep peacefully in his unconditional love for me.” This is the rest that we can also find, if we cry out for our shepherd to rescue us.

When scripture says the Holy Spirit “abides” in us, it means God’s Spirit comes in and possesses our bodies, making it his temple. Because the Holy Spirit knows the mind and voice of the Father, he speaks God’s thoughts to us. “However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak; and he will tell you things to come” (John 16:13, NKJV). The Holy Spirit is the voice of God to us!

If you have the Holy Spirit abiding in you, he will instruct you personally. Please know that he doesn’t speak only to pastors, prophets and teachers; he speaks to all followers of Jesus. This is evident all through the New Testament as the Holy Spirit led and guided his people, constantly saying to them, “Go here, go there…enter this town…anoint that person…” The early believers were led everywhere and in everything by the Holy Ghost.

The Spirit never speaks a single word contrary to the scriptures. He never gives us a “new revelation” apart from God’s Word. Instead, he uses the scriptures to speak clearly to us. He opens up to us his revealed Word to lead, guide, comfort us and show us things to come. The Word promises us, “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).

I am convinced God speaks only to those who, like Moses, “come and stand by him.” This means we have to spend quality time with the Lord daily, waiting on him to open our hearts fully to hear his voice, not being rushed in his presence, believing he loves to speak to us. He won’t keep anything from us, and he’ll never allow us to be deceived or left in confusion.

Even in the most difficult times, we’ll enjoy a time of great rejoicing because God will reveal himself to us as never before.

We have a friend who's going through stage four cancer, so she's dealing with that question “Will God heal me?” A lot of us hope, pray and believe for miraculous healing. There are others who are inclined to not ask God to change his will, and they just trust in his goodness and sovereignty.

Whichever way you lean toward, you have to deal with pain, sorrow and suffering of what you’re experiencing. David knew this feeling. He wrote, “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long? Turn, O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love” (Psalm 6:2-4, ESV). Another translation of that says “I am sick, heal me for my bones are troubled. My soul is also greatly troubled. Deliver me from those who are coming against me. In death, there is no remembrance.“ He has enemies in his life, and he's afraid to die. There's this cry in David's heart and the other writers who contributed to the book of Psalms. They're all facing reality directly with God.

Growing up in the church and being a pastor of churches in various places, I’ve noticed our Christian experience is oftentimes very superficial. “How are you?” “I'm fine.” “How's the family?” “They're great.” The tip of the iceberg looks kind of pretty, but underneath there's sin, sickness, fear of death, sorrow, enemies coming up against you.

These teachings in the psalms are about the underneath stuff. They’re honest about ‘These are the problems I'm facing, and God wants to hear my problems. He knows I have them anyway, and he knows what I feel in my heart. If I'm angry at him but I don't want to say it, that's foolish because he already knows.’ God is looking into our lives and saying, “I know you're angry, so your choice is to either repress that anger and pretend it's not there or acknowledge and surrender it to me.”

The psalms give you the opportunity to see what this looks like in action. Here's a man after God's own heart who had great reverence for God and yet could be really honest and speak about these tough issues. Be honest, Christians. Be forthright with God and with one another.

The instability of today’s global market has left people hard-pressed to find the wisest places to invest. After all, there are no investment strategies that can guarantee dividends in the midst of an uncertain future…except one. The Lord offers a divine principle that, if heeded, will sustain his people in the coming days: learn to invest in people.

If we truly share God’s heart, other people ought to be our focus. This concept is contrary to our natural instincts, particularly in a time of calamity. Our entire focus turns inward, and our tendency is to withdraw our hand from doing good and instead begin to cry out about ourselves. When the disciples found themselves in the midst of a storm and saw that Jesus was asleep at the back of the boat, they began to cry out, “Master, do you not care if we perish?” (see Mark 4:35-39).

They completely neglected the fact that other little ships were traveling in the same storm with them. The disciples were the only ones in the storm who actually saw God and knew that he was with them. You would think that their cry would be “Master, wake up. There are people out there in little boats who are perishing. We have you here with us; you have told us that we are going to the other side, and that is sufficient. But others don’t have you with them. You must do something!” Of course, other people were not their chief concern at the moment. Usually the last thing on our minds during a calamity is investing in other people.

However, giving to others, particularly in our own time of need, is what will actually sustain us. We must never forget that people are the focus of God. He came into the world to redeem fallen humanity, to save you and me. He did not come to make us feel better about ourselves or to give us a bigger slice of the socioeconomic pie. As the well-known verse tells us, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16, NKJV). He found the redemption of our souls worth the price of his own blood and the keeping and consecrating of our lives worth the deposit of his very own Spirit. What an incredible investment he has made in humanity! Let us give to others out of gratitude for this great gift.

^{Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. In May of 2020 he transitioned into a continuing role as General Overseer of Times Square Church, Inc.}

The Holy Spirit yearns to bring God’s people back to serving the Lord with joy and gladness. How grieved heaven must be to witness the wet blanket of despair and sadness that has fallen upon multitudes of believers. The Psalmist declared, “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!” (Psalm 144:15, NKJV). The prophet Isaiah also said, “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).

When the Holy Spirit began to deal with me on the matter of serving him with joy, I had a difficult time facing the seriousness of the subject. I did not fully understand God’s attitude. I wondered how important it could be compared to all the heartbreaking problems in the world today.

Few Christians have a knowledge of the truth about liberty and Christ’s life-freeing sacrifice. They have never allowed the cross to set them free from all fear and bondage. We cannot rejoice and be exceedingly glad in our relationship with the Lord when we have limited knowledge of what happened at the cross.

You need not understand all the doctrines of atonement, reconciliation, propitiation, grace, sanctification, etc. All you need to know in order to live joyfully unto the Lord is this one foundational truth: God was completely satisfied with Christ’s sacrifice on the cross! It was all that was needed.

God now willingly and joyfully forgives all who repent. To not rejoice in Christ’s forgiveness is to doubt his full payment of our sins. Let the Spirit give you an understanding of this truth that we are called to liberty. God wants us to have an abundance of joy that is full and complete, pressed down and running over!

Christ prayed for his disciples, saying, “…these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves” (John 17:13). The Old Testament said, “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (Isaiah 35:10). God’s Word makes it perfectly clear that he yearns to be enjoyed by his saints.