Tag: Psalm

Foolish, Ignorant, Senseless?

On By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

DATE POSTED Monday, 2022-04-25
WRITTEN AT: Citra, FL

SCRIPTURE FROM: Psalm 73:21-26
TRANSLATION: New Living Translation (NLT)

BIBLE TEXT: 21 Then I realized that my heart was bitter, and I was all torn up inside. 22 I was so foolish and ignorant — I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you. 23 Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth.
26 My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.

APPLICATION: I believe that throughout our lifetime, and yes, even since our salvation experience, there may have been times when we may have attempted to hide our faces from the Creator, because we came to ourselves and realized that our immaturity and selfishness had caused us to think and act irrationally and perhaps even foolish. Recently I was reminded in a sermon that this is actually the Holy Spirit at work within us, for God said that He would send the Holy Spirit to live inside the Believer in Christ, to be our helper. Boy, do we ever need help every day of our lives! For as long as we live in this world, we are subject to the evil forces around us, as Satan continues to try and trip us up. What then shall we do, you might ask. I believe that God placed this Scripture before us today to show us that just how He worked on Asaph, and melted his stubborn, selfish and hardened heart, He will continue to work inside of us. Nowhere in Scripture will you find that God sent Asaph to telltale on those around him. It was not his job to get them straight, or to correct their ways. Is this starting to help you understand that you needn’t worry about those who persecute you, or tempt you, or try to distract your righteous walk? You see, just like Asaph, we have a heavenly home that awaits us! And if we spend more time praising God for His goodness, and celebrating all that He has done for us, don’t you know that the unbeliever watching might finally get the picture that God has made a difference in our lives? It’s not like God to snap back at the enemy and continually fight them, so when the enemy experiences that behavior from us, they will likely challenge us for claiming to be a child of God, but yet acting like the world. In a right relationship with God, His Holy Spirit will cause us to follow the practice taught by firefighters: stop, drop and roll! For we are not doing the will of the Father, and we need to backup and allow Him to do His work – not our wishes for revenge. After being alerted to his foolish, ignorant and senseless feelings and actions, Asaph came to his senses and acknowledged the goodness of his Father in heaven. My prayer is that God the Holy Spirit will always get my attention and cause me to stop my evil thoughts from ever leaving my mouth, but instead use my mouth to glorify my God in all things – even for those that come my way to test me, tempt me, and make every effort to disrupt my walk towards the Savior. Remembering that God the Holy Spirit lives inside of me, I pray that I will never think, do or say anything that dishonors Him in any way. Please allow me to encourage you to do the same, if you know Jesus as Lord. If you are yet to make that important decision to give God control of your life, then allow me to suggest that you do that today. It’s the only time promised to us!

BLESSING(S) NOTED: What have I in heaven but You oh Lord! No matter what may fail me here on earth, my God stands firm, and He is mine forever!

PRAYER: Thank You Lord Jesus for reaching down and changing the bitter heart of Asaph. As my Lord and Savior, I too am thankful that You have made the Holy Spirit available to me as my strength, my guide and my everlasting hope. Please continue to work in the lives of Your children who will read this devotional seeking encouragement and hope from the only One who can mend a broken heart, guide a misdirected wanderer and encourage one feeling forsaken in a world totally engrossed in greed and selfish pride. May we all be found faithful as we look to the One who sacrificed everything for our good. Soften the hearts of the unsaved and draw them unto Yourself dear Lord. May Your children, especially me, be especially careful to extend Your love and Your righteousness to all that we come into contact with. AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog might 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 Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. You may also visit me on Spotify and listen to Nuggets while you’re out and about. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

Openly Honest Before God

On By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Honest, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

DATE POSTED Wednesday, 2022-03-22
WRITTEN AT: Okeechobee, FL

SCRIPTURE FROM: Psalm 51:1-4
TRANSLATION: The Voice (VOICE)

BIBLE TEXT: 1 Look on me with a heart of mercy, O God, according to Your generous love. According to Your great compassion, wipe out every consequence of my shameful crimes. 2 Thoroughly wash me, inside and out, of all my crooked deeds. Cleanse me from my sins. 3 For I am fully aware of all I have done wrong, and my guilt is there, staring me in the face. 4 It was against You, only You, that I sinned, for I have done what You say is wrong, right before Your eyes. So when You speak, You are in the right. When You judge, Your judgments are pure and true.

APPLICATION: The sin that David committed, might be considered horrific by many today. In fact, so bad that in hearing, or being reminded, of it, our outlook of this awesome writer of the majority of Psalms might become tainted. David had an affair with the wife of one of his good military men, and she became pregnant. In short, David commanded his military chief to place this husband (Uriah) on the front lines to make certain that he was killed in battle. Although David was convicted of his sin, God sent a messenger to warn David of his unforgiven sin. This Psalm documents the pain and agony that David felt about his sin, and also his encounter with God about his actions.

  • Instead of seeking out Uriah’s family to ask their forgiveness, David acknowledged before God that:
    • He committed this offense against God, for it was God who commanded that no one should kill a precious human being that He created;
    • He was miserable in his sin and needed his God to forgive him, while giving him strength to go on ministering and leading through the power of God;

Throughout our daily activities we may become aware of our sin. Has it ever occurred to you that when you committed that sin, that it was against God first and foremost? Without seeking God’s forgiveness, is it not like we have declared to God: ‘I know what you taught me, but that person deserved my anger; or, that company had way more physical items than they could ever make use of, so I knew that stealing from them would not hurt them?’ Did we ever stop to acknowledge God’s presence with us at ALL times, yes even when we do our evil deeds, or tell our lies? Is it not to Him that we owe the greatest apology of all for our sin? Friends, God not only sees our deeds, hears our lying and condemning words, but He also knows our very thoughts. Let’s be reminded today that we could never hide our sin from God. Also, in knowing God’s laws and commands, we should be reminded that when we disobey, we are sinning against Him first and foremost. Let’s learn to just be open and honest with Him right from the moment we are convicted of our sin. I believe we would be a whole lot more apt to be honest with others.

BLESSING(S) NOTED: In spite of David’s awful sin, yet in the end, God considered him a man after His own heart. Being up front with God – acknowledging His lordship and His ultimate gift of Eternal Life, will hopefully help us turn to God first when we have sinned. Only God can forgive us of our sin!

PRAYER: Thank You for teaching us through Your servant David how important it is to seek Your forgiveness when we have sinned against You. Please prick our conscience each and every day when we have disobeyed Your commands, but even more importantly, please teach us to speak and act like You did so that we may be an honest representation of You while here on earth. We need You Lord, for Satan has an army out there that is at war to win us away from our commitment to you. For the one that many read this and want to know Jesus, I pray that this will help you to see that as long as we are here on this earth, we must be on guard against the enemy. Be ready to ask God’s forgiveness when you mess up, because you sin when you disobey His commands, even if the world never recognizes it as a sin against them. Pleasing God is a key ingredient of a child of God! AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog might 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 Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. You may also visit me on Spotify and listen to Nuggets while you’re out and about. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

God – Our Hope, Our Rock & Our Fortress

On By Ed AlgreenIn Fortress, Hope, Rock, TrustLeave a comment

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Pretty amazing that our awesome God would consider feeding even us with His Word! May I encourage you to read the whole devotional, and look for a blessing, friend!………

The Bible Reference: Psalm 62:5-8
The Bible Text: Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.
The Bible Translation: New Living Translation (NLT)

My Take Away: David, the Psalmist, achieved a whole lot, and could have done a lot of boasting about his great works, but instead he is known throughout the Psalms for his humility before God. In these verses today, I feel like God is directing us to:

  • Slow down from the busyness of our world, as it will only distract us from the things He has planned for us;
  • Quiet ourselves so that we can concentrate on Him and His greatness. Our blessings and our goodness comes from our God who loves and cares for us. Furthermore, this results in an enhanced walk, talk and overall witness for our Master, who we represent;
  • Remember, our God is as solid as a rock in that He is immovable, unchangeable and He never changes, or wavers from His mighty stand as God!
  • Remember, He is our fortress in whom we can depend – as our shelter, our protector and our shield. While sheltered there, no enemy can reach or touch us, praise the name of our Almighty God!

Friends, we serve an awesome God! We can trust Him with our lives – and everything that affects us. Just wait before Him, trust Him and obey His commands. He can be Your God, if you humble yourselves and let Him. Won’t you do that today?

Prayer: Father God, we are humbled by the awesomeness of Your almighty hand and yet, Your extreme love and care for us. Wow, what a blessed people we are! Please continue to be patient with us as we work through and accept our weaknesses and unworthiness. We know that You are in control and that You can handle everything that we need, if only we will surrender our will to Yours. Touch the hearts of Your people who will read this devotional today oh God, and we will be careful to praise You for all things. I ask these things in the name of Your Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ, 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. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could 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 www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to 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, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! 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!

2016