Do you wish that your body didn’t have pain sensors? Do nerve endings seem like your enemies? Are you afraid of intimacy because you’ve been burned more than once? Have you stopped trying in life because you’ve failed so often?
Are you afraid to pray because you feel too guilty? Do you feel as though you were doomed to a life of failure and frustration? This is the first in a series of devotions that discuss such things. They are based on verses from the psalms.
The book of Psalms is unlike all the rest of the Bible in that God has provided for us personal devotional literature for almost every human occasion. Unlike the rest of the Bible, which contains history, letters, sermons, biography, and poetic drama, a great many of the psalms are written in the first person. God has provided you with a vocabulary for prayer. After you’ve read the psalms, you know how to talk to God.
Sometimes the writers exult in God’s mighty acts. Sometimes they groan in pain. Sometimes there is a happy ending. Sometimes the tension is unresolved. But you will consistently find three things in the psalms: honest declarations of how the writers are really doing, thrilling reminders of what God has already done for his people, and God’s rock-solid promises for us when we’re being squeezed.
Here are words from the psalms for each day of your month, words anointed and blessed by God, to help you see more clearly, understand more of God’s agenda, and trust him more deeply for everything you need. You’ll feel better. C’mon in! Listen!
Pastor Mark Jeske