May 1, 2024

CHRISTLife — A Quiet Time (Part Three)

February 22, 2014 by

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Each Saturday recently we have been looking in-depth at a few of the most important aspects of having a quiet time—or as some folks call it—a devotional time.  Already we have talked about two very foundational aspects of a quiet time—Bible reading and singing praises.  This week we are remembering the importance of being thankful and expressing our gratitude to our Father.

Truly, is there anything else that you can think of that can so change your heart’s attitude more than thankfulness?  I don’t think it presumptuous to say that every one of us has had times of worry, sorrow, despair, grief, anguish, pain in which we turned our hearts to seek God and found ourselves praising and thanking Him for His goodness and kindness towards us.  True?

Before we go any further, let’s stop for just five minutes and worship our God voicing our thanks and our praise!


~  Thank You  – Hillsong / Songwriter – Reuben Morgan  ~
Thank You for Your kindness, thank You for Your mercy
Thank You for the Cross, thank You for the price You paid

Thank You for salvation, thank You for unending grace
Thank You for Your hope, thank You for this life You gave

There is no one like You…There is no one like You, God
All my hope is in You, Jesus Jesus

To Your name we give all the glory
To Your name we give all the praise
And You’re alive—Our God everlasting—let Your face shine on us

Thank You for Your promise, thank You for Your favor
Thank You for Your love…everything You’ve done for me

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

The Psalmist, writer of many, many songs of thanks and praise, had this in his heart:

Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!
Who can put into words and tell the mighty deeds of the Lord?
Or who can show forth all the praise [that is due Him]?
Psalms 106:1 and 2 AMP

Who can speak forth enough words to tell all the wonderful, mighty things that God has done?  Or who can utter all the praise that is due Him?  Clearly the simple answer is ‘No one.’  But that doesn’t mean we don’t still thrill to voice our gratitude and thankfulness to our Great God!

I checked out Webster’s definition of thankfulness:

THANK’FUL, adjective.
Grateful; impressed with a sense of kindness received, and ready to acknowledge it.

• The Lord’s supper is to be celebrated with a thankful remembrance of His sufferings and death.
• Be thankful to Him, and bless his name (Psalm 100).

I think Mr. Webster’s definition clearly shows that thankfulness is both thought and action—you ‘sense’ having received <God’s> kindness AND you ‘acknowledge’ it. Here’s a great example:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come before His presence with singing!
Know that the Lord is God!
It is He Who has made us, not we ourselves [and we are His]!
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving
and a thank offering and into His courts with praise!
Be thankful and say so to Him,
bless and affectionately praise His name!
For the Lord is good;
His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting,
His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations.
Psalm 100

The Psalmist was confessing—remembering—just a few things he was grateful for, AND voicing his gratitude.  We can—we should—do the same! We have oh-so-very-much to be thankful for, amen?  We definitely ‘sense’ God’s abundant goodness and kindness to us, true?  And we acknowledge it through our words of gratitude and thankfulness.

I will thank Yahweh with all my heart;
I will declare all Your wonderful works.
Psalm 9:1

I cried to You, O Lord, and to the Lord I made supplication.
Hear, O Lord, have mercy and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper!
To the end that my tongue and my heart
and everything glorious within me
may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
Psalms 30:10, 12

So in your quiet time (but not ONLY in your quiet time!) may I encourage you to tell Your Father how very grateful you are for His goodness, for His protection, for His healing, for His deliverance, for His provision, for His calling, for His admonition, for His guidance, for His love, grace and mercy!  And give Him much thanks!  (Perhaps you might share with us something you have thanked Him for just today…?  Leave your comment below; thanks!)

Keep worshipping Him and enjoying your quiet time with your Lord!  As you seek Him, He will be found…He promises!

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How’s Your Serve?

August 6, 2013 by

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Serve the Lord with joy; come before Him with singing.
Come into the city with songs of thanksgiving and into His courts with songs of praise.
Thank Him and praise His name.
Psalms 100:2, 4 (NCV)

Serve (v) – to meet the needs of and subject one’s will to that of another.

What catches my attention about the definition of ‘serve’ is that it conveniently leaves out a required attitude.  Based on this definition, I can serve the Lord upset, annoyed, frustrated, tired, happy, or a combination of the lot.  It also fails to take into consideration circumstances.

Let me help put this into perspective:

You’re running late. Your keys are missing. Did I forget to mention that you spent the entire night tossing and turning. You didn’t get your quiet time in. And to top it all off, 9 hours with a classroom of 7 two-year-olds awaits you.

How’s your serve now?

Psalms 100:2 and 4 tell us to, “Serve the Lord with joy; and come before him with singing… Come into the city with songs of thanksgiving and into His courts with songs of praise. Thank Him and praise His name.”   The Lord is clear in how He wants us to serve.  I can’t say I find it easy to do at times, but I do admire the example set forth by Peter’s mother-in-law, in Luke 4:39.

So, he bent over and rebuked the fever, and it left her.  She got up at once and began to wait on them” (emphasis mine.)

Her name is unknown (I’m going to call her Milly), whether she believed in Jesus is unknown, but what it does say is that she was sick, and Jesus healed her, and she immediately got up and served them.  We aren’t told how long she had laid sick.  I believe I can tell you that this wasn’t a part of her plans and, now, she had guests! Jesus, of all people, was at her home!

What I find amazing is that Milly IMMEDIATELY got up and served them. She could have complained, surely she could have scolded Peter for bringing people to their home while she was ill; but she didn’t.  She could have rested, but she didn’t.  She started the task at hand. And notice: no verbal thank you is given in any of the three accounts (Matthew 8:15, Mark 1:31, and here in Luke 4).  Only her actions are recorded, and that’s enough.  Milly didn’t let what had happened to her stop her from serving.

I can’t say if she was joyful when she immediately got up to serve, but I can tell you God strengthens us and heals us, so that we can serve—and that’s plenty to be joyful about and thankful for.

So, how’s your serve?

Thank you, Lord, for setting the standards on our service.  Thank You for strengthening us so that we may serve You. Help me keep my service joyful that all the glory may be Yours.  In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

Filed Under: Seeking Him Daily Devotional Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Make a Joyful Noise

August 5, 2013 by

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Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!  Come into His Presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, He is God!  It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise!
Give thanks to Him; bless His name!
For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever,
and His faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100

‘Make a joyful noise!’  Oh, you don’t have to tell me twice!  (And sometimes it is just that—a joyful noise.)  Do we not just love to sing our praises to the Lord God?!?  We have so many, many reasons to praise Him, to thank Him, to bless His Holy Name.

Here in Psalm 100, verse 5 offers three extremely compelling reasons to praise Him:

He is good

The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble.
He cares for  those who trust in Him.
Nahum 1:7

This we know…in fact, isn’t there a praise chorus that we love to sing: ‘God is good ALL the time!  And ALL the time, God is good!’

His love endures forever

Give thanks to the God of Heaven for His steadfast love endures forever.
Psalms 136:26

Twenty-six (yes, 26!) times in Psalm 136, this praise is exclaimed!  (Here’s a link to read the whole psalm.)  Throughout the entire history of mankind from Adam & Eve, all the way along through the Scriptures, we read of the myriad of ways that our Great God has manifested His steadfast love.  AND He has made promise after promise to His children (us! you and me!) that His love will endure for eternity!

He is faithful to all generations

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.
Deuteronomy 7:9

What a promise of hope He has made—His covenant of love to those who love Him and obey!  Our God always brings to pass His promises!  What a faithful God!

Dear Lord,
We love to make a joyful noise, Lord, singing Your praises!  You are the Almighty God Who deserves all the praise there is to give!  Thank You for Your faithfulness, Your goodness, and Your love!  HalleluJAH!  Amen.

* * * * * * *

Today’s devotional has been written by Coleen Hayden.

Filed Under: Seeking Him Daily Devotional Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Seeking Him – Thankfulness

March 9, 2013 by

We are continuing to look at one of the joys of a relationship with our heavenly Father—our ‘quiet time’ with Him.  Each Saturday in our current series, Seeking Him, we have been considering some of the more important aspects of a dedicated, purposeful, intentional, devoted quiet time.  Over the past few weeks we have thought about a few of these aspects, such as:

  • reading the Scriptures
  • singing our praises
  • being intentional—seeking Him
  • physically expressing ourselves: cry, kneel, raise hands, etc.
  • speaking out our ‘love’
  • praying
  • quietness
  • having a quiet heart

This week we are remembering the importance of being thankful and expressing our gratitude to our Father.  Truly, can you think of anything else that can so change your heart’s attitude more than being thankful?  Websters 1828 Dictionary (one of my favorite references) defines thankful as ‘grateful; impressed with a sense of kindness received, and ready to acknowledge it.’  Hmmm, sounds vaguely familiar…similar to a praise the Psalmist wrote:

Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!
Who can put into words and tell the mighty deeds of the Lord?
Or who can show forth all the praise [that is due Him]?
Psalms 106:1 and 2

I think  Mr. Webster’s definition clearly shows that thankfulness is both thought and action—you ‘sense’ being blessed AND you ‘acknowledge’ it.  Here’s a great example:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all you lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come before His presence with singing!
Know that the Lord is God!
It is He Who has made us, not we ourselves [and we are His]!
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving
and a thank offering and into His courts with praise!
Be thankful and say so to Him,
bless and affectionately praise His name!
For the Lord is good;
His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting,
His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations.
Psalm 100

The Psalmist was confessing—remembering—just a few things he was grateful for, AND voicing his gratitude.   To remember is ‘…to bear in mind; to keep, consider, meditate.’ We can—we should—do the same!  We have oh-so-very-much to be thankful for, amen?  We have so very many memories of God’s abundant goodness to us, true?  We can sing…

I will thank Yahweh with all my heart;
I will declare all Your wonderful works.
Psalm 9:1

Listen to the some of the things that David remembers the Lord did for him and the beautiful way he voices his thankfulness here in Psalm 30:

I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up
and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried to You and You have healed me.
O Lord, You have brought my life up from Sheol (the place of the dead)
Sing to the Lord, O you saints of His, and
give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
By Your favor, O Lord, You have established me as a strong mountain;
You hid Your face, and I was troubled.
I cried to You, O Lord, and to the Lord I made supplication.
Hear, O Lord, have mercy and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper!
You have turned my mourning into dancing for me;
To the end that my tongue and my heart
and everything glorious within me
may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

In your quiet time (but not ONLY in your quiet time!), tell Your Father how very grateful you are for His goodness, for His protection, for His healing, for His deliverance, for His provision, for His admonition, for His guidance, for His love, grace and mercy!  And give Him much thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIIyteDj9Wc&feature=share&list=AL94UKMTqg-9C-EDJmkbADvooPEeYisXsC

Keep seeking Him and enjoy your quiet time with your Lord!  As you seek Him, He will be found…He promises!

Jeremiah 29:12,13
Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me,
and I will hear and heed you.
Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity]
and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Praying for each of you!  I know that the Lord will answer your heart’s cry as you are seeking Him with all your heart!

♥  coleen

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