THE HOLY BIBLE – ²⁵ To the faithful you show yourself faithful; to those with integrity you show integrity. ²⁶ To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd. ²⁷ You rescue the humble, but you humiliate the proud. ²⁸ You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness. ²⁹ In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall. ³⁰ God’s way is perfect. All the Lord’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection. ~ Psalm 18:25-30 ~ New Living Translation (NLT).

THOUGHTS: This is another case where I would encourage you to read the whole chapter of Psalm 18, for David has just gone through many verses praising God for His goodness and His care and protection. Based on his first-hand experience, David is now trying to help those of us who are struggling to comprehend exactly what we can expect from God, and why our experiences may differ, based on our relationship with God. In fact, let me challenge us with a sobering thought – based on our current relationship with God at the very moment you read these words, what aspect(s) of your life do you suppose God would challenge you on, if you were standing before Him? Unfortunately, this applies to the Christian or non-Christian, for I believe that Christians may sometime get the false impression that their ticket for heaven is bought and they are just waiting on the flight. May I suggest to you, Christian Brother or Sister, that you never went to the altar to purchase a ticket, you went to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin and accept you into His family. You promised Him to leave the ugliness (sin) of this world behind and show love towards Him in every way possible. Unfortunately, many of you have seen that your stubbed toe did not take you to the hospital, so you returned to the acts that gave you the stubbed toe. Of course I am using this analogy to show you how we treat sin, and wind up damaging our relationship with Jesus. What can you possibly accept back in return from Jesus when you turn your back on Him? He has given us the freedom of choice, but read this chapter to be reminded of your consequences when you disobey. You don’t like it when your earthly child disobeys you, why do you suppose that it will be any different for the Savior who gave His life for your forgiveness of sin, when He sees you doing the same? To the unbeliever: I am convinced that you are well aware of the Jesus to whom I have devoted this entire blog, because many of you will quickly look for Him, or someone who knows Him personally and willing to intercede for you, when something goes wrong in your life, or when things may not be going right for you. With all the love I can muster up today, I must tell you that our God is not a God of convenience, He is looking for a relationship with you. Just as you can’t purchase home insurance if a hurricane is already in route, God is looking for a relationship with you before you approach Him with your grocery list of needs. My Father takes care of His children, even if our earthly fathers may fail in this. Will He recognize you as His child when you call upon Him? I used today’s blog title based on a recent prayer conference, where we were encouraged to use scripture in our prayer life. May I encourage you to complete the following sentence based on today’s scripture? “My God is __________ because _________, praise be to God”!

PRAYER: My God is loving because He saw my need for a Savior and sent angels to convict me of my sin and lead me to a wonderful, life-long relationship with Him, praise be to God! Thank You Jesus for loving even me! Thank You dear Jesus for loving each one who reads this devotional today. I am convinced that You are standing with opened arms right now waiting to respond to their prayer, especially the prayer for salvation. Lord You are worthy and we are so needy. We need You every minute of every day, and we long to draw closer to You each and every day. Please patiently lead us towards a more intimate and sincere relationship with You, so that we may have a godly impact on all that we come into contact with. I ask these things in the wonderful name of Jesus, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!