Today’s Devotional - April 4, 2020
This is a series of messages from the time of isolation during the COVID19 Response in Oregon, United States.
I sense a distinct shift today. We are being invited into the next phase. You have a mission-critical role. God is moving and inviting His people to move with Him.
So far, I’ve watched my friends reaching out to one another with words of blessing and assurance. You’ve been blessed with quite a lot of peace in the middle of disruption. - This mandate has not changed - We must continue to reach out to each other, and even outside our normal connections to people who need to know Jesus. We must continue walk in thanksgiving, blessing, and assurance of God’s faithfulness.
A recent poll found that 44% of Americans believe this pandemic is a wake-up call from God. 44% of us are right. When God calls a nation to attention…. we must respond. It is God who has the solutions the world needs right now and it is God’s people who advocate for our community, nation and world. We must go to Him to get the needed strategies, resources, and solutions.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” - Hebrews 4:16 KJV
The first-phase strategy is outlined in the following passages.
This first passage are the words of Jeremiah the prophet to God’s people who had been taken captive in Babylon. Jeremiah speaks of a time for those people to respond. Now is our time. It is our time to respond.
Jeremiah 29:11-14 (ESV) For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
Getting right with God positions you to be part of the solution. I’ll write out only 3 verses from James 5 here…. but I suggest you look up James 5:13-20.
James 5:16-18 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.”
How can we be that righteous person? Read 1 John 1:5-10 - I’ll only write out 1 John 1:9 here.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” - 1 John 1:9
In the following passage, God is speaking to young King Solomon as the new king of Israel). God specifically says that when His people repent of wickedness and come to Him in humility, He will move on their behalf…. not an idea or feeling, but real. Tangible. God will heal the land.
Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. - 2 Chronicles 7:12-14
The time of watching and waiting is over. It’s time to enter this battle.
I left my Bible open on the counter last night. This morning He highlighted the following passage that was laying open.
And a man of God came near and said to the king of Israel, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because the Syrians have said, “The LORD is a god of the hills but he is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’” - 1 Kings 20:28 (ESV)
Confess and repent of sin…. because the prayer of a righteous person is powerful. Church, it’s time to pray.
God is God of both the hills and valleys. We’ve seen some victories in the hills (the good times). Welcome to the valley. He says, “I’m God here too.”
Today’s Song: Hills and Valleys by Tauren Wells
A while back Jacob North shared this with us on a Sunday morning.
Lyrics for “Hills And Valleys”
I've walked among the shadows You wiped my tears away
And I've felt the pain of heartbreak And I've seen the brighter days
And I've prayed prayers to heaven from my lowest place
And I have held the blessings God, you give and take away
No matter what I have, Your grace is enough
No matter where I am, I'm standing in Your love
On the mountains, I will bow my life To the one who set me there
In the valley, I will lift my eyes to the one who sees me there
When I'm standing on the mountain aft, didn't get there on my own
When I'm walking through the valley end, no I am not alone!
You're God of the hills and valleys! Hills and Valleys!
God of the hills and valleys And I am not alone!
I've watched my dreams get broken In you I hope again!
No matter what I know Know I'm safe inside Your hand
On the mountains, I will bow my life To the one who set me there
In the valley, I will lift my eyes to the one who sees me there
When I'm standing on the mountain aft, didn't get there on my own
When I'm walking through the valley end, no I am not alone!
You're God of the hills and valleys! Hills and Valleys!
God of the hills and valleys And I am not alone!
Father, you give and take away Every joy and every pain
Through it all you will remain Over it all!
Father, you give and take away Every joy and every pain
Through it all you will remain Over it all!
(On the mountains, I will bow my life, yeah)
(In the valley, I will lift my eyes, yeah!)
On the mountains, I will bow my life
To the one who set me there (to the one who set me there)
In the valley, I will lift my eyes to the one who sees me there
When I'm standing on the mountain aft, didn't get there on my own
When I'm walking through the valley end, no I am not alone!
You're God of the hills and valleys! Hills and Valleys!
God of the hills and valleys And I am not alone!
You're God of the hills and valleys!
Hills and Valleys! God of the hills and valleys
And I am not alone!
And I will choose to say "Blessed be Your name, yeah, yeah"
And I am not alone
Music by Tauren Wells performing Hills And Valleys (Official Music Video). (C) 2017 Provident Label Group LLC, a division of Sony Music Entertainment
No comments:
Post a Comment