Hearing God’s Voice from His Word
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 114
1 When Israel came out of Egypt, Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains leaped like rams, the hills like lambs.
5 Why was it, sea, that you fled? Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
6 Why, mountains, did you leap like rams, you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.
God is the hero of all the Old Testament. He is the great promise-keeper. The defender and rescuer of His people. He is compassionate. He provided water in the desert. He is the Lord.
Recall the way He is the hero of your life. He rescued you from sin. He is changing your heart. You could not have life without Him.
Scripture Reading
1 Peter 2:1-10 – New International Version
2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”
7 Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
8 and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanks to God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
- Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”) - Bring your personal requests to God.
(Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”) - Pray for someone in your small group.
- Join with others from River and pray for Jason and Lisa and their family. Ask God to encourage them and guide them and help them as they serve overseas.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah spent his entire adult life speaking truth to his people. He was largely ignored, and his words were not proven true until after he had died. How would you like his job? It is important to think of biblical characters like Isaiah as the real people they were. He ate, slept, became ill, got frustrated, stubbed his toe. Somehow, he was able to remain faithful over the long haul of his life. This doesn’t mean he felt the same level of passion and purpose every day; he probably didn’t. When you read about his epic experience with the angels and the burning coals, you might be tempted to believe you would be able to have lasting passion if you had an experience like he did. This is not automatically true. Israel experienced equally great things with God, and yet they had a very short memory. Peter himself saw Christ do miracles, and he denied him. It takes much more than an experience to inspire long term faithfulness. It takes keeping the truth in the forefront of our minds. Living a faithful life is always going to be mostly about choosing the thoughts that shape us. That is why we come here, to God’s word, each morning. To choose again the thoughts that will shape our lives.
Application: What were the thoughts that you let shape you yesterday? Were they the truth of God or something else? What did those thoughts produce in you? Hope and faith, or anger and anxiety? Decide to let the truth of God shape your thoughts today. Pay attention.