daily-devotions.net/ January 4 - Morning. Genesis 1:31 God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day. God made everything very good because He is good. The psalmist tells us, You are good, and what you do is good; Psalms 119:68a (NIV). Man was placed in a perfect environment with all that he could possibly need. Evil did come into the world and ruin this ideal setting. When we deliberately block the light, there is darkness. The darkness is not a thing in itself, but the absence of light. In our world man is all too ready to blame God for the darkness, for evil. But we see that, from the beginning, all God made was very good. If we recognize that good is from God and the evil (darkness in the world) is the result of turning from Him, we would not be so quick to blame God. How it would change our attitude toward our daily circumstances if we believed Gods intentions and plans for us are good! If we truly believe that, we would strive to be in the Light and walk in His plans for us. How is it that we are so easily led to think that we have a better idea or plan for our lives than Gods? Are you avoiding some good thing God has for you? It is not always easy, but it is good, very good. Enjoy the good things of creation in moderation, and live in all the good that He has planned for you. For we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) Prayer: Help me to see Your goodness in everything You bring into my life. Evening. Joel 2:12-14 Even now, declares the LORD, return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing – grain offerings and drink offerings for the LORD your God. Joel, the name means Jehovah is God, most likely prophesied early in the reign of king Josiah. He had predicted a massive attack of locusts. For an economy entirely dependent upon agriculture and pasture for their flocks, this would have been devastating. But as always, the Lord is bringing calamity so that the people will turn back to Him. He pleads with us to turn so that He does not have to use devastating events to bring us to our senses. God pleaded with them to make a wholehearted return. He even described what it would look like, fasting and weeping and mourning. He pleaded with them to rend their heart, not their clothes. God is not looking for some outward action, but a deep inward work. Rending your heart is the result of yielding to conviction. Too often, we turn from conviction and do not allow the Spirit to finish His work. We break away before our heart has been torn. He is abounding in love, and desires to turn from the calamity He has planned, if we would just turn back to Him. When God relents, He not only diverts the calamity, but He may also leave a blessing. His gracious, compassionate heart longs to bless us. Why would we grow hard against such a loving God? He is so consistently good to us that we grow spoiled and expect His generosity. We are like the bride who is given everything her heart could desire by her loving husband, and then turns and flirts with a stranger. Prayer: Lord God help us to rend our hearts, so that You can divert the calamity we would otherwise need.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 17:54:22 +0000
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