Bible League: Living His Word The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.— Isaiah 58:11 NKJV When you decide to get serious about the Lord, when you decide, that is, to turn to Him and walk with Him, you can expect certain benefits. There are many of them, but our verse for today singles out a number of the very best ones. First, you can expect the Lord to guide you continually. From the human perspective, the future is dim. How can you be sure to make the right moves? How can you be sure to escape the dead-ends? There is only one way. The Lord must guide you. If you get serious about the Lord, then you can expect the kind of guidance that you need. You can expect to be led from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). Second, you can expect the Lord to satisfy your soul in drought. You can expect this in the literal and figurative senses. Literally, you can expect to have food and water in a time of drought and, figuratively, you can expect to be provided with spiritual nourishment when times are tough. Either way, your soul will be satisfied. Third, you can expect the Lord to strengthen your bones. What does this figure mean? It means that you can expect the Lord to strengthen you for the tasks at hand. You will always be ready and able. Nothing will be too much for you. Nothing will overwhelm you. When difficulties arise, you will arise and meet them head on. Fourth, you can expect the Lord to make you like a watered garden. Just as the plants of a watered garden flourish, so you will flourish and bear fruit. You will not fail to grow up and mature; you will reach your potential. Just as people take delight in a well-watered garden, so they will take delight in you. Finally, you can expect the Lord to make you like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. People will expect good things from you, and you will deliver. Since you have been nourished by the Lord, you are now equipped to nourish others. To sum it all up, when you get serious about the Lord, you can expect Him to guide you into the fullness of His plans for you and the fullness of ministering to others. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJudges 20, 21 Judges 20 -- Israelites Defeat the Benjamites NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Judges 21 -- Wives for the Benjamites NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Luke 11:1-28 Luke 11 -- Instruction about Prayer; Casting out Demons; the Sign of Jonah; Woes upon Pharisees NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Don't lust for her beauty.Don't let her coy glances seduce you. Insight Regard lust as a warning sign of danger ahead. When you notice that you are attracted to a person of the opposite sex or preoccupied with thoughts of him or her, your desires may lead you to sin. Challenge Ask God to help you change your desires before you are drawn into sin. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Psalm 4:2 O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?An instructive writer has made a mournful list of the honors which the blinded people of Israel awarded to their long expected King. 1. They gave him a procession of honor, in which Roman legionaries, Jewish priests, men and women, took a part, he himself bearing his cross. This is the triumph which the world awards to him who comes to overthrow man's direst foes. Derisive shouts are his only acclamations, and cruel taunts his only paeans of praise. 2. They presented him with the wine of honor. Instead of a golden cup of generous wine they offered him the criminal's stupefying death-draught, which he refused because he would preserve an uninjured taste wherewith to taste of death; and afterwards when he cried, "I thirst," they gave him vinegar mixed with gall, thrust to his mouth upon a sponge. Oh! wretched, detestable inhospitality to the King's Son. 3. He was provided with a guard of honor, who showed their esteem of him by gambling over his garments, which they had seized as their booty. Such was the body-guard of the adored of heaven; a quaternion of brutal gamblers. 4. A throne of honor was found for him upon the bloody tree; no easier place of rest would rebel men yield to their liege Lord. The cross was, in fact, the full expression of the world's feeling towards him; "There," they seemed to say, "thou Son of God, this is the manner in which God himself should be treated, could we reach him." 5. The title of honor was nominally "King of the Jews," but that the blinded nation distinctly repudiated, and really called him "King of thieves," by preferring Barabbas, and by placing Jesus in the place of highest shame between two thieves. His glory was thus in all things turned into shame by the sons of men, but it shall yet gladden the eyes of saints and angels, world without end. Daily Light on the Daily Path 2 Corinthians 6:10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.Romans 5:2,3 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. • And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 2 Corinthians 7:4 Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. 1 Peter 1:8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 2 Corinthians 8:2 that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. Ephesians 3:8,9 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, • and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; 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. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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