Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plans include:
Ready – Psalms 124
Set – Psalms 124; 2 Corinthians 12
Go! – Psalms 124; 2 Corinthians 11-13
Psalms 124
1 If the Eternal had not been with us—
sing, Israel, sing—
2 If He had not been with us
when the villains came for us,
3 When their anger flamed around us,
they would have swallowed us up alive!
4 Their hatred was like a flood:
the waters were rising and would have engulfed us;
the streams were rushing past and would have overcome us.
5 The furious waters would have broken over us.
Battered and overwhelmed, we surely would have drowned!
6 Blessed be the Eternal
who did not leave us
to be torn by their fangs!
7 Our souls cry out: “We escaped with our lives like a bird
from the fowler’s snare!
The snare was broken,
and we escaped with our lives!”
8 Our help has come in the name of the Eternal,
the Maker of heaven and earth!
Today’s Devotional
From today’s background scripture God might say:
Have you ever experienced one of those near escapes that David talks about in this psalm? Perhaps you avoided a collision by just inches. Maybe you missed something falling on you by seconds. Maybe you missed a flight that later crashed or a ferry that sank. Maybe you changed your travel plans and found that a tornado or hurricane ripped through the area you would have visited if you had not changed your plans.
Did you ever stop to think about those near misses and wonder how that happened? Have you ever stopped to think that I’m watching over you? Did you ever stop and wonder if there really are guardian angels that look out for you at times?
David understood that many of the escapes he experienced were because of My hand protecting him. He knew only My intervention could keep him safe in some of those narrow misses when he should have been captured or killed at the hands of his enemies. But I often protect My children from the mishaps of life and keep them safe from their enemies.
Do I always intervene? No. Sometimes I let the suffering that is part of being in this world happen because I promised that the world would hate you and that you would have trouble in this world. Sometimes you must identify with Me in the suffering I did as I walked with you in the flesh. It’s not because I like to see you in pain or sorrow, but because I don’t want you to think that this world is the place for you. This is only a testing ground.
The life you live now is only the beginning. It is the place you decide who you will serve for eternity. This life allows you to choose whether you will serve yourself or serve Me. Some of the decisions you make will entail some suffering in this world because the world does not want you to follow Me. It will hate you for it. The world will do everything it can to dissuade you from believing I even exist, much less following in the path I lay before you.
I just show you My creation, give you My love and let you choose. I’m not pushy. I don’t nag. I just let you see Me all around you and then let you make the choice between following Me or following your own way. I always hope you will choose to follow Me, though. I don’t want you to be lost forever with the rest of those who fail to heed My call and do what I ask them to do to complete My plans for this world.
I want you to understand, like David did, that I will never leave you and help you escape from the clutches of your enemies. I will help you to get through this life with honor and peace and joy. My joy. The kind that survives the troubles of this world. Joy that breaks through the sorrow this world dishes out and still fills the heart with the knowledge that I am with you until the end of time. The joy that makes you sing despite the circumstances of the day and brings peace to your troubled heart.
Know that I am always there to protect you to fulfill your part of My plan and all things work together for good for those who are called according to My purpose. But it’s My purpose, not yours.
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