Devotion.al

Feed Your Soul

  • Secured Hope

    Job 8:13-18, Psalm 62:5-8, 2 Peter 3:1-18

    “…the hope of the godless will perish.”
    Job 8:13

    “ in God alone…for my hope comes from him.”
    Psalm 62:5

    “The Lord does not delay his , as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.”
    2 Peter 3:9

    While many might consider me patient, I know my own impatience. While I wait for something, I still want it now. Yet, I wait.

    1) Do you think of yourself as impatient? Do others think of you as impatient?

    2) Can you think of someone you feel is impatient?

    Yesterday, hope was the focus, just as it is today. In fact, hope is part of the foundation of the . Faith is . Hope and faith are tied together. They really cannot be separated. While Job’s friends had questionable motives and an unclear understanding of God, there is still in them. Bildad reminds Job that hope not founded on God is useless. In the Psalm, David reminds himself and us that unshakable hope can only come from God. In other words, true hope is based upon faith (trust) in God.

    The birth, , death and resurrection of , the of God, was (and remains) hope. Peter reminds the church that this is not the end of hope. Jesus will come again. In Peter’s day, people were already losing hope because God had not yet come back. Around 2000 years later, Jesus has still not returned! If our hope is based on our understanding, how easy it is to lose hope. When our hope is based upon God, trusting God, and relying on God’s nature, our hope remains secure!

    3) Do you lose hope quickly? Why?

    4) If you trust God today, why would you not trust God with tomorrow?

    5) How does being impatient undermine trusting God?

  • Too Busy To Live

    Too Busy To Live

    Exodus 5:7-9; Romans 8:5-8, 12-17 Recently, there was a song going around the internet called the “Rich Men North of Richmond”. It mostly speaks to the anguish of a working man who is striving and working and is not making ends meet, and, yes, there are some digs that many are questioning, and sometimes just…

  • Beautiful Words and Songs

    Beautiful Words and Songs

    We aren’t called to only enjoy well played and sung songs.

  • Wise in Whose Eyes

    Wise in Whose Eyes

    We are often presented with the wisdom of Solomon. Yet, Solomon retained his freedom to make choices contrary to God revealed instructions.

  • Wise Wisdom

    Wise Wisdom

    Theoretically, each should should be evaluated by their past successes and failures, yet, it just doesn’t seem to actually work that way. We Christians are often complicit in this. While we are called—whether by James, the wisdom of Solomon, or the Psalmist—to be wise, we often succumb to the world’s temptation to follow the arrogant.