Our Soul Desires You Lord

Prayer

25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 

26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 

27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 

28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.  - Psalm 73:25-28

Sinner

14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.

17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,

23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. - Romans 7:14-25

Redemption 

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. - Romans 8:1-4

Give Thanks

1 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! 

2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble 

3 and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. 

4 Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; 

5 hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. 

6 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 

7 He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. 

8 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! 

9 For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things. 

10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and in irons, 

11 for they had rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High. 

12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor; they fell down, with none to help. 

13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 

14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart. 

15 Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!  - Psalm 107:1-15

Models for Combating Discouragement

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)

Literally the verb is simply fail, not “may fail.” This God-besotted psalmist, Asaph, says, “My flesh and my heart fail!” I am despondent! I am discouraged! But then immediately he fires a broadside against his despondency: “But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

The psalmist does not yield to discouragement. He battles unbelief with counterattack.

In essence, he says, “In myself I feel very weak and helpless and unable to cope. My body is shot, and my heart is almost dead. But whatever the reason for this despondency, I will not yield. I will trust God and not myself. He is my strength and my portion.”

The Bible is replete with instances of saints struggling with sunken spirits. Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” This is a clear admission that the soul of the saint sometimes needs to be revived. And if it needs to be revived, in a sense it was “dead.” That’s the way it felt.

David says the same thing in Psalm 23:2–3, “He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” The soul of the “man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14) needs to be restored. It was dying of thirst and ready to fall exhausted, but God led the soul to water and gave it life again.

God has put these testimonies in the Bible so that we might use them to fight the unbelief of despondency. And we fight with the blast of faith in God’s promises: “God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” We preach that to ourselves. And we thrust it into Satan’s face. And we believe it.

John Piper 

What if you only break ONE?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

So many people have the idea that God is going to grade on the curve. We tell ourselves, “We’re bad, but not as bad as so-and-so.”

But God doesn’t grade on a curve. He grades on an absolute standard of holiness. Can anybody say they’ve kept all of God’s Ten Commandments? Of course not. But let’s suppose you had only broken one. What would happen?

Well, let me illustrate. If a man was dangling over a fire by a chain of ten links, nine of those links were made of forged steel, and one was made of crepe paper, what would happen?

ACTION POINT:

You cannot be safe thinking, “My 9 good points outweigh my 1 bad point.” God’s measure is His holiness. What mercy He gave us in sending His Son for the salvation of all mankind! Remember that one crepe paper link and use this illustration with someone who is banking on his own good deeds.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Grace for Every Need

Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant. (Psalm 86:16)

Future grace is the constant plea of the praying psalmists. They pray for it again and again to meet every need. They give us a beautiful model of daily dependence on future grace for every exigency.

They cry out for grace when they need help: “Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!” (Psalm 30:10).

When they are weak: “Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant” (Psalm 86:16).

When they need healing: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord” (Psalm 6:2).

When they are afflicted by enemies: “Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me” (Psalm 9:13).

When they are lonely: “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted” (Psalm 25:16).

When they are grieving: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief” (Psalm 31:9).

When they have sinned: “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!” (Psalm 41:4).

When they long for God’s name to be exalted among the nations: “God be gracious to us and bless us . . . that your way may be known on earth” (Psalm 67:1–2).

Unmistakably, prayer is the great link of faith between the soul of the saint and the promise of future grace. If ministry was meant by God to be sustained by prayer, then ministry was meant to be sustained by faith in future grace.

John Piper 

Are you the woman on the train?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.” Psalm 100:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

One day a preacher was riding on a train. He saw a well-dressed man and magnificently dressed woman with expensive jewelry. The woman was complaining about everything—the train ride, the weather, the news, the food, the service.

The preacher decided to engage this couple in a conversation. He asked the man what kind of business he was in and the man told him. Then he asked, “And what does your wife do?”

The man replied, “Oh, she’s in the manufacturing business. She manufactures her own unhappiness.”

You know, there are a lot of people like that today. They manufacture their own misery because they fail to be grateful. Only Christ can turn our lives around and stir up a grateful heart within us.

ACTION POINT:

Go through the alphabet. From A to Z, and you’ll find, starting with every letter, something to be thankful for. The attitude of gratitude is a choice. Choose to be grateful.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

His Timing Is Perfect

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may find grace for a well-timed help. (Hebrews 4:16, my literal translation)

I know this precious verse is usually translated, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” But that is a paraphrase — a true one — to show that God shows up just when we need him. But the literal focus is on how timely the help is.

All ministry is in the future — a moment away, or a month away, or a year, or a decade. We have ample time to fret about our inadequacy. When this happens, we must turn to prayer.

Prayer is the form of faith that connects us today with the grace that will make us adequate for tomorrow’s ministry. Timing really matters.

What if grace comes too early or comes too late? The traditional translation of Hebrews 4:16 does not make clear a very precious promise in this regard. We need a more literal rendering to see it. The promise is not merely that we find grace “to help in time of need,” but that the grace is well-timed by God.

The point is that prayer is the way to find future grace for a well-timed help. This grace of God always arrives from the “throne of grace” on time. The phrase “throne of grace” means that future grace comes from the King of the universe who sets the times by his own authority (Acts 1:7).

His timing is perfect, but it is rarely ours: “For a thousand years in [his] sight are but as yesterday when it is past” (Psalm 90:4). At the global level, he sets the times for nations to rise and fall (Acts 17:26). And at the personal level, “My times are in [his] hand” (Psalm 31:15).

When we wonder about the timing of future grace, we must think on the “throne of grace.” Nothing can hinder God’s plan to send grace when it will be best for us. Future grace is always well-timed.

John Piper 

Are you doubting your salvation?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:13

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A woman told the great evangelist Dwight L. Moody, “I’ve been saved twenty-five years, and I’ve never had one single doubt.” 

He responded, “Madam, I doubt you’ve been saved.”

That would be like a couple saying they’ve been married 50 years and never had an argument. I’d say, “I doubt you’ve been married.”

We all have doubts. You see, doubt is to your spirit what pain is to your body. It is a signal that something is wrong. And just as you seek to find a remedy for your pain, you should seek to find a remedy for your doubts. Jesus is your remedy. Get into His Word and know the assurance of your salvation. It’s not you, it’s Jesus that makes it possible.

ACTION POINT:

Are you doubting your salvation? Then run to Jesus. Soak yourself in these truths from God’s Word:

Romans 10:13,

Ephesians 2:1-10

Titus 3:5

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers