Nehemiah 7:73-9:21, 1 Corinthians 9:1-18, Psalm 33:12-22, Proverbs 21:11-12
Pray: Today we bring our needs before the Lord and bring those we care about before God as well. The Psalmist proclaims that those who trust in God experience joy and peace. What a way to begin your day, or end it, if we seek to trust God with our deepest needs and if we lobby on behalf of others before God. Let's ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes like never before and increase our understanding of God’s Word.
Reading: Nehemiah is one of the strongest leaders in the Bible. He encourages the people to celebrate and not to mourn during this moment which should be celebrated. In fact he speaks life into the leaders saying, “Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” God’s joy gives us strength. Not the other way around. We are tempted to say, “The strength of the Lord is our joy, but no, God’s Word declares that God’s joy gives us grit and strength.
Edify: The people are challenged to “confess their sins” and in doing so they begin to find healing and experience new life in God. Where there is honesty in worship there is an increase in the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is truth and where we are truthful about our sin and our struggles God can actually penetrate more into the places where healing is needed the most.
Practice: The Psalmist warns us that we cannot depend upon the strength of our warhorse to save us nor can the best army save the life of its king. We are challenged to trust in the power of God and His redemptive plan for our lives. We can’t trust in humanity but we can trust in God. He will never let us down. We practice this today in how we live our lives, the places we choose to frequent, the places we do business as we believe that these people who serve us will not poison us nor seek to do us harm. Likewise, we are called to trust and have confidence in those who we do not know, while God demands that we trust Him and people seem to step away from the One who has given everything for us to experience grace and mercy. Today, how will you trust God in how you live out your day?
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