Stick to God's word and His way, and all will be well

Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Devotions: Ps 119:97-120; Bar 3:24-37; Jas 5:13-18; Lk 12:22-31

Lord, I love Your law!  It is my meditation, my guide and my judge all day long.  Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, or even than my teachers, or the elders of my community.  I hew to the line You have drawn; Your word is sweet and nourishing, and teaches me to hate what is ungodly.  Your Word lights my pathway; though I am sorely afflicted, I am sustained by Your word and Your Spirit.  If I stay with  Your word, I avoid all the snares my enemies have set for me.  Please, God, incline my heart to obey and follow Your precepts.  By Your promise, uphold and sustain me, I pray; for I fear Your judgments and the consequences of my sinful choices.

Israel: consider how great is God's territory:  boundless, immeasurable.  Giants lived there once, but they perished for lack of Godly wisdom  Wisdom is the adornment of our God; this is our God, incomparable One, Master of wisdom and of me!

Is one of you suffering?  Let him pray!  Is anyone cheerful?  Let them sing praises!  Are any sick?  Let them call for the elders of the church; let the elders pray over the sick, anointing them with oil; and the prayer of faith will save the sick, whom the Lord will raise up, and whose sins God will forgive.  The prayer of a righteous believer is powerful and effective. Consider: Elijah was a mortal like us; he prayed that there should be no rain, and there were 3 1/2 years of unbroken drought.  Then Elijah prayed again, and rains came, and the earth brought forth its fruit.  Anyone who guides a sinner back from sinning is helping to save the sinner's soul and to cover a multitude of sins.

Jesus told His disciples:   Don't be anxious about your life, your food or your clothing.  Life is more than food and the body more than raiment.  Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap; they have no storehouse or barn--yet God feeds them.  And you are of much greater value than the birds.  None of you can add a measure to his height by anxious worry.  So why worry about anything?  Consider the lilies: they neither toil nor spin; yet even Solomon in all his glory was never arrayed to match one of these.  If God so clothes the plants of the fields, which live for a day and are tossed into the oven and burned tomorrow, how much more will He clothe you, people of little faith!  Don't strive after food or drink or live in anxiety.  All the nations on earth seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them, too.  Instead, seek first His kingdom, and all these things will be yours as well.