SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/5/2018
9:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Courage”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
17:1-2a, 10
Message of the
verses: “1 Now when they had
traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where
there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And according to Paul’s custom, he went to
them,… 10 The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea,
and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.”
We have been looking at some different spiritual virtues
on courage, and in our last SD we looked at the first one “courage built on
faith—trusting God.” We begin this SD by
looking at the second virtue on courage, “courage results from purity—confessing
sin.” Let us look at Psalm 7, one that
David wrote, and we will look at verses 1-5, and also verse ten.
“O LORD my God, in You I
have taken refuge; Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, 2 Or
he will tear my soul like a lion, Dragging me away, while there is none to
deliver. 3 O LORD my God, if I have done this, If there is injustice in my
hands, 4 If I have rewarded evil to my friend, Or have plundered him who
without cause was my adversary, 5 Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it;
And let him trample my life down to the ground And lay my glory in the dust… 10
My shield is with God, Who saves the upright in heart.”
John MacArthur comments on
these verses: “Faced with a difficult
trial, David declared there was no unconfessed sin in his life. On that basis, he asked God to deliver
him. He knew that attempting to fight a
spiritual battle with gaping holes in his breastplate of righteousness was
foolish.”
We have one more spiritual virtue to look at regarding
courage: Courage comes from hope—thanking
God in advance for the victory. There is
a wonderful account of this in 2 Chronicles and it has to do with Judah’s king
Jehoshaphat who found himself and his nation in a very dangerous spot as there
were two nations that were about to come upon Judah, the Moabites and also the
Ammonites. Let us look at several verses
in 2 Chronicles 20 beginning with verse 20.
“20 They rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of
Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, O
Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the LORD your God and you
will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed." 21 When
he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the LORD and
those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and
said, "Give thanks to the LORD, for His lovingkindness is
everlasting." 22 When they began singing and praising, the LORD set
ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, who had come against
Judah; so they were routed. 23 For the sons of Ammon and Moab rose up against
the inhabitants of Mount Seir destroying them completely; and when they had
finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. 24
When Judah came to the lookout of the wilderness, they looked toward the
multitude, and behold, they were corpses lying on the ground, and no one had
escaped.” As we read this brief story we
see that Judah’s king had a great trust in the Lord. We see that because he actually sent the
choir out singing and praising the Lord before his army. That took great courage and faith in the Lord
who as we see turned the armies against each other and none were left to fight
Judah. MacArthur comments “Thanking God
in advance gave the people courage to anticipate this victory.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It takes great
courage to live the Christian life, and the one thing that strikes me from this
section is that I must not hide any sin from the Lord, but I must confess my
sins before Him and realize that He will forgive me so that He then can fill me
with courage to do what He wants me to do.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue each day to ask the Lord to search
my heart to see if there is any sin in my heart so that I can confess it to the
Lord so that I can hear His voice through His Word and continue to serve Him.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Solomon” (1 Kings 3:9).
Today’s Bible
question: “Where was the man from who
buried the body of Jesus?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/5/2018 10:21 AM
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