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 31:7-8 I will rejoice and be glad in your faithful love because you have seen my affliction. You know the troubles of my soul and have not handed me over to the enemy.
You have set my feet in a spacious place.
Read the entire Psalm
Rejoice and Be Glad – God has seen you. God knows you. God protects. God provides. These are all actions of His faithful love.
Scripture Reading
1 Peter 2:9-12 – New International Version
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.
Living Godly Lives in a Pagan Society
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
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 Austin and Jenni 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
Good morning (or evening), here we are again…reading Scripture, praying, reflecting. How is it going? What is your life trajectory? Are you growing? How do you even measure something like that? Should you even try? How we feel about our life direction can depend on a variety of factors, like current emotions, physical health, relationships with others, and specific life challenges (job, money, broken appliances, etc.). We talk a lot about faithfulness as the measurement of a life, but how do you measure faithfulness? Can we only know if we are being faithful when our lives are over and we hear (or not) “Well done, good and faithful servant.”? At that point, it is a bit late to adjust our strategies. Perhaps you don’t feel like you have been faithful in the past. Maybe you can think of things you should have done but didn’t, or did do but shouldn’t have. Maybe as you contemplate attitudes you have held towards God, self, and others, you are filled with regret. What if instead of trying to measure by looking at self, you look to God? If we measure faithfulness by looking at our track records, and if we are honest, none of us are doing very well. We must have faith in God and his faithfulness, not faith in how “feel” we are doing. God’s faithfulness is consistent; his mercies are new every morning. So here we are again enjoying God’s great faithfulness and his ever-new mercies. You can be found faithful today; you are being faithful to seek him right now. Faithfulness as God’s kids means that we continually give him the regrets of the past and the fears of the future and ask him over and over, in each moment…”Please, find me faithful right now.”
Application: Give him the past and the future. Ask him to find you faithful in this moment and in this day.