Personal Devotions
Notes from Mark's personal Bible reading and meditation
With a goal to apply one truth from each day's reading to my life that day
Apr 10, 2022, 8:00 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 107-110
Meditation Verse: 107:43
Thought
The goodness of God and His mercies are all around us, but it takes wisdom and a bit of effort looking in order to see them. He is subtle, but those who know Him and His ways can see His works. They may look like coincidence and happenstance, but if I know the Lord, that He is sovereign over all things, that no detail is too small for Him, then I will be able to discern His works.
Apr 9, 2022, 8:01 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 103-106
Meditation Verses: 106:13-14
Thought
God did all kinds of amazing things for the people, miracles so plain and obvious and powerful! But still they forgot them! They lived through them, saw them with their own eyes, walked through the Red Sea on their own two feet, yet they quickly forgot these things and complained against God, as His pillar of smoke and fire stood over their camp. How blind could these people be? How foolish? Why so deliberately forgetful?
Apr 8, 2022, 8:03 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 99-102
Meditation Verse: 99:8
Thought
God is a forgiving God, but He doesn't leave our sins unpunished. He doesn't want us to continue in wrong ways, so He will not just forgive sin without any mention of it, without rebuke of it. Indeed, if He says nothing, if He doesn't warn against sin, He will have to punish it, and that more severely because we walk in it longer, the habit becomes more difficult to break, we need more help to put an end to it. "Better is open rebuke than hidden love, wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses."
Apr 7, 2022, 8:07 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 95-98
Meditation Verses: 95:7-11
Thought
If I want to hear the voice of God, if I want to hear Him speak, I must not harden my heart, I must not test the Lord, especially when I see His works. If I read His Word but do not obey it, if I continue to go astray in my heart, then I cannot know His ways, and I provoke Him to anger. The reason I can't hear Him is because I refuse to obey what He has possibly said, what He has revealed about Himself in His Word, what He desires from His people.
Apr 6, 2022, 8:09 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 91-94
Meditation Verses: 94:12-13
Thought
Blessed is the man whom God corrects, because He teaches him from His law. The law of the Lord is so good, teaching what love looks like, and exposing evil deeds. The man whom God teaches from His law is blessed indeed, being transformed into His likeness, knowing good and evil, but doing only good the more he understands. God may make him endure evil days, but ultimately the Lord will bring him into eternity with Him, where sin will truly and finally and completely be gone!
Apr 5, 2022, 8:10 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 87-90
Meditation Verse: 90:16
Thought
This is a prayer of Moses, who saw miracle after miracle, who traveled for forty years with the Lord's pillar of fire and smoke constantly with them. The Lord did miracles for the sons of Israel, but what Moses longed for most was that God's power would be seen in the sons of Israel. Though the Lord did great things for the people, it seems so few believed and obeyed Him, so few were changed to love and serve Him from the heart.
Apr 4, 2022, 8:11 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 83-86
Meditation Verse: 86:2
Thought
David declares himself to be godly, and on that basis, pleads with the Lord for help. There is only a record of a few of his sins, and two of them are directly related. He learned to trust in the Lord from a young age, from his days as a shepherd. Fleeing from Saul later in life made that trust even more real. He loved the Lord and wanted Him exalted by His people, and he worked to make that happen.
Apr 3, 2022, 8:15 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 79-82
Meditation Verse: 81:8
Thought
God speaks in order to test us and prove to us whether we will listen or not. Will we do what He says or will we ignore it? Will we come and listen and say how good it is what God says, but still not do it? Or will we hear what He says and trust and believe Him and do what He says? We will know, He will testify for or against us. He will speak the truth, and we won't be able to refute Him. The evidence will be plain for all to see.
Apr 2, 2022, 8:16 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 75-78
Meditation Verses: 78:5-8
Thought
God recorded all His words and works so that we would know them and believe them and remain faithful to Him, and teach our sons to believe and obey Him. He is the same today as He was then. Though He may not be doing the great works that He did back then, with such signs and wonders, He is still the same God with all the same power and might, and He is to be feared and honored all the same.
Apr 1, 2022, 8:17 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 71-74
Meditation Verses: 73:2-3
Thought
To be jealous of the proud and envious of their peace and prosperity is to set my feet on the path to stumble and fall from salvation. The wicked prosper and can do all they wish, they have a freedom that the righteous can't enjoy. The righteous must restrain their baser instincts, they must consider the good of others in all their decisions. The wicked have no such concern. They can find plenty of people who are willing to join with them and admire them in their selfishness.
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