Accept God's sovereign provision with patience and humility

Friday, March 21, 2014 Devotions: Ps 69, 73, 95; Gen 43:1-15; 1 Cor 7:1-9; Mk 4:35-41 Lord, save me – I'm drowning and there's no solid footing beneath me I'm overwhelmed by the challenges and opposition I face. But my one hope and stay is love for You and Your work. So please, God, answer, intervene, help me! You know my dishonor and reproach. I leave my enemies to Your disposition, I will praise God now and always. Let heaven and earth praise our God! God is good to the upright, and I have no reason to fear or envy the wicked. Let the world praise and reward them; I can see their bitter end from here, and I prefer the Way of the Lord. Envy, jealousy and fear make me stupid; God ennobles my mind, circumcises my heart, saves my life. God, there is nothing I desire besides You. It is good to abide near God and bear fruit as He enables me. So let us sing to the Lord and make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. YHWH is the great God; all creation is His: He made it and He sustains it all. Let us worship and bow down before our Maker and Master; He Is our God; we are the sheep of His flock, sustained in His pasture. Hold fast to God, and leave the wicked to their folly and final destruction. As the seven years of famine continued, Israel's family ran through the grain they had purchased in the first sojourn in Egypt. Israel told his sons to go again and get more provisions, but Judah objected, recounting the conditions Joseph had sent in releasing them the first time: they had to bring Benjamin with them, or there would be no more conversation and no more provision. Finally, despite his profound concerns, Israel relented: 'If it must be so, do this: take generous gifts with you. Take double the money. And yes, take Benjamin. May El Shaddai grant you mercy before this man, that he may return both Simeon and Benjamin with you. If I am bereaved, I am bereaved.' So the remaining brothers took the gifts, the money, and Benjamin, and journeyed to Egypt. Soon they stood before Joseph, though they still did not know him. Paul's letter to Corinth addressed their questions about abstinence and chastity: It is well for a man not to touch a woman. But for most, abstinence is an unbearable temptation to immorality. Better that each person have a spouse of their own. And better that husbands and wives freely share their bodies with one another—they belong to one another. So don't refuse one another, unless you are abstaining for a season of prayer. But then come together again, so that Satan cannot tempt you through lack of self-control. I say all this as a concession to human weakness: I wish that everyone would be chaste and abstinent, as I am. But each person has a unique personal gift from God, and those gifts are widely diverse­--not all are gifted and called to abstinence. Further, I say to the unmarried and widowed: it is well to remain as I am—single, abstinent and chaste. But if they cannot exercise self-control in this matter, it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion. Jesus completed a series of teaching parables before throngs in Capernaum, then led His close disciples into boats to cross the Sea of Galilee. As their small flotilla proceeded, a great windstorm arose; waves beat against the boats, and they began to founder. Meanwhile, Jesus was asleep on a cushion in the stern. His companions woke Him: 'Teacher, don't you care if we perish?' Jesus arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the waters: 'Peace! Be still!' The wind died, and a great calm descended on the waters. Jesus said to His companions, 'Have you no faith? Why are you afraid?' And they were awe-struck and conferred together: 'Who Is this, really? Even wind and sea obey Him.'