-- Wednesday, 8/2/11 -- READING THE SCRIPT ONE PAGE AT A TIME -- Matthew 6:34; Psalm 139:1-16
J.R. & Bonnie Ricks
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READING THE SCRIPT ONE PAGE AT A TIME -- Matthew 6:34; Psalm 139:1-16
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Sometimes I just wish the Lord would let me read ahead. Sometimes I wish He’d just flip the pages of the “script” of my life, and let me see what’s coming my way. Do you ever wish the same thing? When you get right in the middle of a big mess, it would sure be nice to know what's going to happen, wouldn't it? It’s normal human behavior to think so, anyway. That's why people read their horoscopes, and go to fortune tellers. That's why the psychic hotlines are making so much money.
But that's not God's way. He does give us prophecy... the entire Bible is full of it. But look what we do with His prophecy - the only truly accurate source of knowledge about the future that exists....
· The Jews didn't accept Jesus, even thought the prophets had talked of Him again and again... because He wasn't what they were looking for.
· God’s Word says that the sins of the parents will be visited on the children, so why are we surprised when children become emotional wrecks in homes where there is mental and physical abuse, alcoholism, drug abuse, adultery or divorce?
· The Bible warns us to watch out for false prophets, and gives us specific ways to recognize them (Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 19:21-22) and yet millions of people follow the likes of Sun Myung Moon, Jim Jones, L. Ron Hubbard, Mary Baker Eddy, Joseph Smith and David Koresh.
· God’s Word tells us to watch for the signs of His coming again, and yet we refuse to recognize those signs that are appearing all over the world right now, just as the Jews ignored the evidence that Jesus is the Messiah.
God has told us again and again that He has a purpose for each of our lives and that everything that occurs is there for our good. (Romans 8:28) But instead of believing Him, our lack of trust makes us continually anxious about tomorrow. We have no problem believing that the garbage man is going to take our garbage to the dump. But we refuse to believe that Jesus can carry all of our problems away, so we cling to them and worry over them and fret ourselves into having ulcers and heart attacks and strokes. We don’t even think about whether the chair we’re sitting in will hold us up when we sit down, but we don’t have enough faith in Jesus to truly believe that HE is in control and will handle all of our problems.
What the Lord wants is for us to trust in Him, and Him alone, for our future. Just as a movie is planned from beginning to end before one scene is recorded on film, so your life was scripted out by God before you were born. He knows what will happen to you, and He has a reason and a plan for every occurrence.
Pray for the faith to put tomorrow in God's hands, and deal with each day as it comes.
O
LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in-behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:1-16
All Bible quotes contained in these devotionals are from the New International Version 1984 (NIV1984), unless otherwise specified.
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