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 146:1-3
1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul.
2 I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Read the Entire Psalm
Praise the Lord. It is a command. It is a personal command because the scripture says, my soul, praise the Lord. Praise Him for how long? Are you still alive? Then you should praise him. Praising God is good for the soul. Don’t neglect praise. Don’t let feelings dictate praise. Take a moment and praise Him now.
SCRIPTURE READING:
1 Peter 2:1-10 – New Living Translation
1 So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, 3 now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness
4 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.
5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 6 As the Scriptures say,
“I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,
chosen for great honor,
and anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.”
7 Yes, you who trust him recognize the honor God has given him. But for those who reject him,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.”
8 And,
“He is the stone that makes people stumble,
the rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them.
9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
10 “Once you had no identity as a people;
now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
now you have received God’s mercy.”
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanksgiving 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 those who do not know God. Ask God to help you see the lost people around you and have compassion for them. Ask God for opportunities to build trust. Ask God to give you opportunity to have gospel conversations.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
If you are a Christian, you have, in fact, tasted that the Lord is good at your new birth. Now it is your birthright to continue to taste his goodness over and over. How are we to do this? By nurturing a craving for God’s word. The Bible is the very words of God. In the Bible we see what God has done, what God will do, and what God is doing. In the Bible we see God’s heart, his character, and his love; we see who he is. But how do we learn to crave? What is a craving? It is a strong desire for something. If you are thirsty, you crave water. This craving is built-in. God has built a craving for himself into the human heart. We can nurture that craving, or we can allow it to fade. We can replace that craving with negative ones, ones that do not satisfy.
“My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Jeremiah 2:13
Jeremiah was describing how our built-in craving for God, the only one who can quench our soul’s thirst, can be forsaken. In God’s place we try to dig our own wells; we try to quench our thirst in our own ways. This does not work. If you have little or no craving for God and his word, you can and you must make the choices to recover it.
Application: Ask God to help you recover your craving for him and his word. Ask him to give you the same desire for his Word that a baby has for her mother’s milk. Now, keep the truth of God resolutely before your mind today so you will be positioned to recover and grow your craving for God and his word.