Bible League: Living His Word Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Who is it that finds favor with God? According to Isaiah, the people who find favor with God are the people who "are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word" (Isaiah 66:2). This does not mean that favor is something that can be earned by performing righteous deeds. Rather, it means that favor comes to those whose hearts are right before God. After all, it was Isaiah who also said that "all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6). If favor with God depended upon perfect obedience to God's will and ways, then none of us would have very much favor with Him at all. The person whose heart is right before God is a person who desires to walk in steadfast love. "Steadfast love," in our verses for today, refers to our relationship to God and to other people. Deuteronomy 6:5 tells us that "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" and Leviticus 19:18 says "you shall love your neighbor as yourself." When our hearts are right before God our desire will be to love Him and His people. We may not always love as we should, but it will be the desire of our hearts. The person who has a heart for love receives God's favor – and the favor of people as well. Further, the person whose heart is right before God will be a person who desires to walk in faithfulness. "Faithfulness" also refers to our relationship to God and to other people. The faithful person stands firm when others give up. They do not quit on God or other people. When our hearts are right before God our desire will be to remain faithful to Him and to His people. We may not always be as faithful as we should, but it will be the desire of our hearts. The person who has a heart for faithfulness receives God's favor – and the favor of people as well. Let steadfast love and faithfulness rule the course of your life. People will look upon you with favor – and so will God. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJob 4, 5, 6 Job 4 -- Eliphaz Reproves Job NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Job 5 -- Eliphaz Shows that God Is Just NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Job 6 -- Job's Reproves His Friends of Their Unkindness NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Acts 7:20-43 Acts 7 -- Stephen's Speech, Stoning and Death NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?Insight Many people spend all their energy seeking pleasure. Jesus said, however, that a world of pleasure centered on possessions, position, or power is ultimately worthless. Challenge Whatever you have on earth is only temporary; it cannot be exchanged for your soul. If you work hard at getting what you want, you might eventually have a “pleasurable” life, but in the end you will find it hollow and empty. Are you willing to make the pursuit of God more important than the selfish pursuit of pleasure? Follow Jesus, and you will know what it means to live abundantly now and to have eternal life as well. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Genesis 8:9 The dove found no rest for the sole of her foot.Reader, can you find rest apart from the ark, Christ Jesus? Then be assured that your religion is vain. Are you satisfied with anything short of a conscious knowledge of your union and interest in Christ? Then woe unto you. If you profess to be a Christian, yet find full satisfaction in worldly pleasures and pursuits, your profession is false. If your soul can stretch herself at rest, and find the bed long enough, and the coverlet broad enough to cover her in the chambers of sin, then you are a hypocrite, and far enough from any right thoughts of Christ or perception of his preciousness. But if, on the other hand, you feel that if you could indulge in sin without punishment, yet it would be a punishment of itself; and that if you could have the whole world, and abide in it forever, it would be quite enough misery not to be parted from it; for your God--your God--is what your soul craves after; then be of good courage, thou art a child of God. With all thy sins and imperfections, take this to thy comfort: if thy soul has no rest in sin, thou are not as the sinner is! If thou art still crying after and craving after something better, Christ has not forgotten thee, for thou hast not quite forgotten him. The believer cannot do without his Lord; words are inadequate to express his thoughts of him. We cannot live on the sands of the wilderness, we want the manna which drops from on high; our skin bottles of creature confidence cannot yield us a drop of moisture, but we drink of the rock which follows us, and that rock is Christ. When you feed on him your soul can sing, "He hath satisfied my mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagle's," but if you have him not, your bursting wine vat and well-filled barn can give you no sort of satisfaction: rather lament over them in the words of wisdom, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" Daily Light on the Daily Path Zechariah 13:7 "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate," Declares the LORD of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones.Colossians 2:9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, Psalm 89:19 Once You spoke in vision to Your godly ones, And said, "I have given help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people. Isaiah 63:3 "I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples there was no man with Me. I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath; And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My raiment. 1 Timothy 3:16 By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory. Isaiah 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, Hebrews 1:8 But of the Son He says, "YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM. Hebrews 1:6 And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, "AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM." Revelation 19:16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. 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