Morning, December 14
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They go from strength to strength, until each appears before God in Zion.  — Psalm 84:7
Bible League: Living His Word
My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you...
— Psalm 42:6 ESV

Have problems mounted up? Are there too many of them with no easy solutions or no solutions at all? Is your soul in rough shape like David's soul in our verse for today? David describes it as "cast down." That is, it is depressed and dejected, tired and confused, and ready to give up. What do you do when your soul is cast down within you?

For the Christian, it would seem that there are really only two options.

First, you could focus on the problems that are causing you to feel the way you feel. You could go over and over them in your mind, picturing every scenario of every option, and how you would handle it. Although you can't find easy solutions, or any solutions at all, you could keep going over and over the problems anyway, because you think that's the only way you'll ever find a solution.

The trouble with the first way is that it only makes things worse. You'll become more depressed and dejected, tired and confused, and ready to give up. It's like a swirling, sucking maelstrom that takes your soul deeper and deeper into the depths of despair.

The second option: remember the Lord. When your soul has been cast down too far, when the maelstrom has taken you too deep to bear, you can look to the Lord. That's what David did. He stopped focusing on his problems. He turned from them and remembered the Lord. Instead of letting them cast him down, he cast them upon the Lord (Psalm 55:22).

The good thing about the second way is that it always makes things better. Instead of pain in his soul, David found joy and peace. That's why he was able to say to himself, "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God" (Psalm 42:5).

If you've had it with the pain in your soul, then turn in faith and remember the Lord.
Bible in a Year
Old Testament Reading
Amos 1, 2, 3


Amos 1 -- The Words of Amos: God's Judgment on Syria, Philistia, Tyre, Edom, and Ammon

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Amos 2 -- God's Judgments on Moab, Judah and Israel

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Amos 3 -- The Necessity of God's Judgment; Testimony against Israel

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


New Testament Reading
Revelation 5


Revelation 5 -- The Scroll with Seven Seals; Worthy is the Lamb

  NIV   NLT   ESV   NAS   GWT   KJV   ASV   ERV   DRB


Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library.
Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion
You want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can't get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
Insight
James mentions the most common problems in prayer: not asking, asking for the wrong things, asking for the wrong reasons.
Challenge
Do you talk to God at all? When you do, what do you talk about? Do you ask only to satisfy your desires? Do you seek God's approval for what you already plan to do? Your prayers will become powerful when you allow God to change your desires so that they perfectly correspond to his will for you.
Morning and Evening by Spurgeon
Psalm 84:7  They go from strength to strength.

They go from strength to strength. There are various renderings of these words, but all of them contain the idea of progress.

Our own good translation of the authorized version is enough for us this morning. "They go from strength to strength." That is, they grow stronger and stronger. Usually, if we are walking, we go from strength to weakness; we start fresh and in good order for our journey, but by-and-by the road is rough, and the sun is hot, we sit down by the wayside, and then again painfully pursue our weary way. But the Christian pilgrim having obtained fresh supplies of grace, is as vigorous after years of toilsome travel and struggle as when he first set out. He may not be quite so elate and buoyant, nor perhaps quite so hot and hasty in his zeal as he once was, but he is much stronger in all that constitutes real power, and travels, if more slowly, far more surely. Some gray-haired veterans have been as firm in their grasp of truth, and as zealous in diffusing it, as they were in their younger days; but, alas, it must be confessed it is often otherwise, for the love of many waxes cold and iniquity abounds, but this is their own sin and not the fault of the promise which still holds good: "The youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." Fretful spirits sit down and trouble themselves about the future. "Alas!" say they, "we go from affliction to affliction." Very true, O thou of little faith, but then thou goest from strength to strength also. Thou shalt never find a bundle of affliction which has not bound up in the midst of it sufficient grace. God will give the strength of ripe manhood with the burden allotted to full-grown shoulders.

Daily Light on the Daily Path
Psalm 66:2  Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious.

Isaiah 43:21  "The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise.

Jeremiah 33:8,9  'I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me. • 'It will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.'

Hebrews 13:15  Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

Psalm 86:12,13  I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever. • For Your lovingkindness toward me is great, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Exodus 15:11  "Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?

Psalm 69:30  I will praise the name of God with song And magnify Him with thanksgiving.

Revelation 15:3  And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!

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.

Evening December 13
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