Author: marquitabp

To know me is to accept me, and to love me is to help me.
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Daily Devotion

You Can Be Resuscitated
 
"You who have shown me many troubles and distresses Will revive me again, And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth."  Psalm 71:20 NASB
 
I do not know personally how it feels to physically die and be revived…but I do know how it feels to want to die, or to feel spiritually dead and to have God restore and revive you through simply a word.  Life is full of situations that will come to defeat you.  Sometimes all it takes it that one crisis to cripple your faith.  Then once you've been crippled, you are less likely to go to God, you are less likely to spend time studying the word.  You stop praying and bam!  You wind up in a depression, planning to kill yourself, or just allowing life to wither you away.
 
In the scripture above, David speaks on how God has allowed him to experience many troubles and distresses.  The most important thing here is that he believes without a doubt that God will revive him, that God will deliver him from his "hell" situation, the lowest point of his life.  If we trust God, we can trust that He will provide us a way of escape from any difficulty (1 Corinthians 10:13).  The word in the KJV is quicken–which means shall make us live again–shows that God will bring us back to life, restore the things that we lost much like He did with Job (Job 42:10-17).  I think the hard thing for most of us to believe and accept is that both good people and evil people both suffer.  God is no respecter of persons, so I do not believe that the wicked are shielded from suffering.  The difficulty we as Christians face is looking past our circumstances and trusting in God undoubtedly to hold true to His Word.  We will experience things and its during those times that we should draw closer to God.  We should cry out to Him for His grace to fall on us.  Don't doubt God…because all it takes is a word from Him.
 
"Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me."  Psalm 138:7 ESV
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Daily Devotion #2

Like a Child

But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  Matthew 19:14 NASB

I just had to write about this!  I often think about how to worship and praise God, whether I am doing it right.  I have learned that there is no particular right way to praise and worship God, as long as your act of worship is from the heart.  With that said, my precious god-daughter definitely showed me that there is no shame in praising God!  I go further and generalize this by saying there is no shame in working for God, having a relationship with God, or being obedient to God's call.

She is 20 months old, and learning to talk–a lot.  I enjoyed spending the weekend with her and her mom, but the best part of it was when we went to church yesterday morning.  She loves music and loves to dance, so when the praise and worship part of service was going on, she was watching the praise dancers and clapping along with everyone else.  She stood up and danced a little too.  But what helped me refocus–because I got distracted in anger at how some people were dressed (I was raised that you wear appropriate clothes to church, not last night's club wear…but I digress, because if that is all that you have, then go right ahead and come)–was when she raised her hands in worship and waved her little hands.  I was already moved by the music and definitely the sermon (God was speaking DIRECTLY to me and I would be foolish to ignore that), but when I saw her, in her innocence, praising God, I had cry.  Regardless of your age, God is calling out to you.  Young or old, black or white, man or woman, God is calling out to us all.  He does not want us to hold back our praise, our worship and especially in our relationship with Him because we do not want to be different or stand out from others.  He wants us to come to Him in honesty and truth, innocence like a child, and humbled.  I was truly humbled by that because sometimes with tradition, you do not fully understand why some things are done. 

I do not really think she understood, but then again I may be wrong.  I think that she was doing what she saw others doing, because that is how children learn at that age, by repeating what they see and hear.  At any rate, her innocence humbled me and showed me that regardless of my age, I cannot be afraid to yield to the Spirit, or to go to God and do what He wants.  I must follow Jesus' example and imitate Him.  And the same goes for you; in whatever God is calling you to do, do not be afraid to do whatever God is calling you to do, even if you do not clearly understand.  God will honor your willingness to obey and He is faithful to order your steps.

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."  Matthew 18:3 NIV