Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

1 Chronicles 16:37-18:17
Romans 2:1-24
Psalm 10:16-18
Proverbs 19:8-9

I am focusing today on the passage from 1 Chronicles. In an effort to become closer to God, I am listening more intently and praying more consistently for everyone in need. I read something the other day that really stuck with me. It was a little prayer posted on a website that said -

"Father I pray that you draw my heart to You. Make what is important to You, important to me and let me see through Your eyes. Remove the things that hold me back, give me a clear vision, and a push to get started. In the name of Jesus I pray."

I am sure many of you do as I do in sending our wants and needs to God on a daily basis. We ask Him to fix our families, our finances, our jobs, our health and whatever else we feel may be burdening us. But reading this prayer changed my thinking somewhat. Lord - make what is important to YOU, important to me and give me the push to get started.

David was always putting God first, even to the point of wanting to build a home for the Ark of the Covenant. But the Lord told Nathan to go to David with His words - 4 "Go and tell my servant David, 'This is what the Lord has declared: You are not the one to build a house for me to live in. 5 I have never lived in a house, from the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day. My home has always been a tent, moving from one place to another in a Tabernacle. 6 Yet no matter where I have gone with the Israelites, I have never once complained to Israel's leaders, the shepherds of my people. I have never asked them, "Why haven't you built me a beautiful cedar house?"'

God did not need a "house" - He always lived in a tent. But in time, it was David's son that would build the house. Everything in God's time!!

The Lord also told his servant Nathan - 7 "Now go and say to my servant David, 'This is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies has declared: I took you from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel. 8 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before your eyes. Now I will make your name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on the earth!

From shepherd, to king with a name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on the earth! Does everybody out there know of David? Of course we do, because this is what the Lord promised.

David said in 1 Chronicles ""Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 18 "What more can I say to you about the way you have honored me? You know what your servant is really like. 19 For the sake of your servant, O Lord, and according to your will, you have done all these great things and have made them known."

David knew how to make God happy because he did as the Lord commanded. David also humbled himself to the Lord so today I pray that I too can strive to do what makes YOU happy, and to keep YOU at the center of my life in all that I say and do.