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 7, 2025, 1:52 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 15-18
Meditation Verses: 17:2-4
Thought
There are times when those who love the Lord enjoy complete victory over their enemies and other times when they endure the attacks of their enemies. Perhaps it is prayers like this that turn the tide in the favor of the Lord's people. David fled for years from Saul, but in time, the Lord placed him on the throne of Israel.
Apr 6, 2025, 1:37 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 11-14
Meditation Verses: 14:6-7
Thought
Evildoers, those who lie at all times, those who oppress them without fear of God, they frustrate the plans of the poor. The poor seek to free themselves of debt, they seek to get ahead, but at every turn, there is someone else who hates them and takes advantage of them.
Apr 5, 2025, 5:27 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 7-10
Meditation Verses: 10:3-11
Thought
The trouble with discerning wickedness is that even the evil man prospers. The Lord promises to bless the righteous with good things and by prospering all he does. But if the wicked also enjoys prosperity and gets away with all kinds of evil, how can people see that it is bad to be evil?
Apr 4, 2025, 12:02 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 3-6
Meditation Verse: 5:8
Thought
It is because of his enemies that the psalmist cries out to the Lord. Not just for help against them, but for guidance, for clarity regarding the Lord's will and ways. He needs to know what the Lord desires as righteousness, because his enemies are seeking to attack him in one way or another. They want to ridicule and mock him, shame and belittle him.
Apr 3, 2025, 1:43 AM
Passage Read: Job 41 - Psalm 2
Meditation Verses: Psalm 2:9-12
Thought
The Lord has appointed Jesus to rule the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter and dash then to pieces. This doesn't seem like the Jesus we talk about in church. The palmist warns the kings of the earth to be wise and be warned: They had better serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling; they had better kiss the Son, bowing the knee in obedience and fealty.
Apr 2, 2025, 2:01 AM
Passage Read: Job 37-40
Meditation Verses: 38:1-4
Thought
Knowing all He allowed to happen to Job, knowing how righteous Job has been, God still comes in like a flood! He is not soft and gentle. He is not compassionate and understanding. He blasts Job with question after question, illustrating how much greater God is than even the most righteous of men. It is sad that in all Job's understanding, he did not realize that we exist to honor and glorify God, in whatever circumstances that come upon us.
Apr 1, 2025, 2:12 AM
Passage Read: Job 33-36
Meditation Verses: 33:29-30
Thought
Elihu believes he can explain to Job exactly what is going on, and where Job is wrong. He believes he can do so better than Job's three friends, men older and wiser than him, who failed to bring Job to repentance. His argument is that God warns men all the time of their sin and need for repentance. Perhaps in a dream or in a quiet voice in the heart or through trial and suffering. So the terrible things that have happened to Job are obviously God's way of telling him he needs to repent.
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