Love Worth Finding

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY 16

The Spiritual Discipline that's a Lost Art

BIBLE MEDITATION:

"I, Daniel...set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes." - Daniel 9:2, 3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Someone has called fasting "the weeping of the soul." Fasting is a lost art in most of our churches, but it is one of the clearest taught doctrines in the Word of God, especially in a time of crisis.

When Ezra and his people were in a predicament, he "proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava..." (Ezra 8:21). Nehemiah said, "And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven" (Nehemiah 1:4). Jehoshaphat "feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast through all Judah" (2 Chronicles 20:3). Joel said, "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly" (Joel 2:15). The Lord Jesus said, "Moreover, when you fast..." (Matt. 6:16-17).

Most of us have never practiced fasting with consistency. Fasting is not just going hungry, and it's not a way to lose weight. Fasting is the affliction of the soul for discipline and determination to humble ourselves before God and seek His face.

ACTION POINT:

When was the last time you "set your face" to seek the Lord? Is there a situation in your life, in your home, at your job or in your church, which merits serious, sustained prayer? If so, perhaps it is time to seek the Lord in fasting and prayer.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY 17

You Won't Have One without the Other

BIBLE MEDITATION

"In the first year of his [King Darius] reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lordthrough Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications...." - Daniel 9:2-3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What was it that caused Daniel to set his face to seek the Lord? It was reading the books, the Old Testament prophets.  As Daniel studied the book of Jeremiah, God showed Daniel that He had prophesied a seventy-year program of captivity for His people the Jews in Babylon (Jeremiah 25:11, 12), and the seventy years were almost up. Through Jeremiah God said to Daniel, "I'm going to judge Babylon."

Now Daniel is in a crisis, and he's praying.  But what prompted his prayer? Reading the Word, Daniel saw God's blueprint and knew he was living at the end of an age. He was asking God for wisdom. What do we learn from this? That Bible study and prayer rise and fall together. Your study life will not be greater than your prayer life and vice versa.  There is no way you can separate Bible study from prayer.

ACTION POINT:

When you read the Bible, the Bible impels you to pray. And when you pray, your prayer life will urge you to read the Bible. Prayer and Bible reading go hand in hand. When you read the Word of God, God is speaking to you. Prayer is you, talking back to God. And it ought not to be a one-sided conversation from either side.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY 18

Praying for What God Has Already Promised

BIBLE MEDITATION:

"...I, Daniel, understood...by the word of the Lordthrough Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications..." - Daniel 9:2-3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

God had prophesied that He was going to do something, but still Daniel prayed. Why didn't Daniel just sit back and say, "Well, God, since You prophesied that You're going to do it, then, ha-ha-ha, there's no need for me to pray about it"?

It's a strange thing—the Bible teaches us to pray about what God has already promised He would do.

Revelation 11:15 says, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever." Yet Jesus taught us to pray "Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done..."
The Bible teaches there's going to be peace in Jerusalem, yet Psalm 122:6 tells us to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem."
Jesus Christ is going to come again. (Revelation 22:20) Then John prays, "Even so, Come, Lord Jesus." It is prophesied, yet we're told to pray it will happen. 
ACTION POINT:

Even when God says He's going to do something, God does what He's going to do through the prayers of His people. God wants us to have a part in bringing about His will upon this earth through prayer.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY 19

The Prayer that Makes God Angry

BIBLE MEDITATION:

"And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession...We have sinned, and committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments." - Daniel 9:4-5

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Daniel's prayer here is not the prayer that makes God angry. Some people think "If we just pray, God will hear our prayer." My dear friend, it is not so. Prayers of a wicked people anger God. They make the matter worse. It's an affront to God.

The Bible says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" (Psalm 66:18). "The LORD is far from the wicked: but He heareth the prayer of the righteous" (Proverbs 15:29). Again, God says, "He that turns away his ear from the hearing of the law, his prayer shall be an abomination" (Proverbs 28:9). Prayer could actually become an abomination to God. The psalmist said, "Lord, how long will you be angry at the prayers of your people?"

ACTION POINT:

Have you ever thought that a prayer of yours, rather than enlisting God's mercy, might stir up God's anger?  Nothing angers God more than for a people stuffed full of sin and self to be imploring God to do something good for them when they stand in need of judgment. Confessed sin will be forgiven, but it must be confessed.  "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY 20

The Casual Prayer Life

BIBLE MEDITATION:

"Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes." - Daniel 9:3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

So often our prayer is casual prayer, prayer that comes with almost a take-it-or-leave-it attitude. Many of us could not even remember what we prayed for this morning or last night.  We rattle off little "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayers. The truth is, more often than not we're flabby, undisciplined, and exhibit no determination.

ACTION POINT:

Have you ever set your face to prayer—desperately sought the Lord?  If you want to see God move in your life, devote yourself to prayer. Friend, God does business with those who mean business.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY 21

A Clear Picture When You Pray

BIBLE MEDITATION:

"O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments...O Lord, righteousness belongeth to Thee.... To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness...for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does.... - Daniel 9: 4, 7, 9, 14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When you pray, is it with a clear picture in mind of the might and power, the holiness of the One to Whom you are addressing your prayer?

This passage reveals the character of God, His greatness, His awe, His power, righteousness and mercy. We must see this about the great heart of our God:  God is a God of righteousness, judgment, and justice, but God had rather show mercy than send judgment.

ACTION POINT:

It is impossible to see who our great God is in a time of crisis and not want to pray. When you see the character and nature of God, you can hardly keep from praying! God says, "The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it." (Jeremiah 18:7-8)

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY 22

What Do You Seek Most?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

"O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us." - Daniel 9:16

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The sins of God's people were great. Daniel prayed, "Our sins have risen up in Your face. And O God, we're praying. Turn Your anger and Your fury away." God will judge any nation that continues to print pornography, abort babies, applaud sodomy, and sings, "God bless us" at the same time.  God's fury is turned against that nation. But Daniel is standing in the gap saying, "O God, remove our guilt," then, "Lord, restore Your glory...cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake." (v. 17).

Daniel's motivation is not for America's sake, not for Israel's sake, not for a denomination's sake, not for his sake, but for God's sake. "For Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name."

What a great man Daniel was.  Most of us ask God to get us out of the mess we're in so we can drive new cars and not see the stock market tumble. How many are consumed for the glory of God?  Very few.  Daniel was.  Daniel says, "God, for Your sake, for Your name, do it!"

ACTION POINT:

Do you have a burning in your heart for the name of our God to be exalted throughout this earth? His name has been stepped on, blasphemed, and ridiculed. Make the focus of your prayers and the goal of your prayers the glory of God.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY 23

What Gives You the Right to Pray?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

"Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lordmy God...the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering." - Daniel 9:20-21

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

What is the evening offering? Daniel is praying in Babylon. There was no temple or altar in Babylon.  There was no sacrifice made.  As a matter of fact, it had been almost seventy years since a sacrifice had been made. In the temple, the time for the evening sacrifice was between 3 and 4 pm in the afternoon.  That's when the animals were slain. They also called it "the ninth hour."

Daniel says, "I was praying at the time of the evening sacrifice."  That is, "I was praying on the basis of a sacrifice made a long time ago.  I'm linking my prayer with that sacrifice."  May I tell you, Jesus died exactly the same hour! "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?  That is, to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)  That same hour was the hour Daniel was praying; only Daniel was praying long after the time of those animal sacrifices and hundreds of years before Jesus' death.

ACTION POINT:

Daniel's prayer, like any prayer that has ever been offered, will only get to heaven on the basis of a blood sacrifice.  Whether that sacrifice was made seventy years ago, as in Daniel's case, or two thousand years ago in our case, we need to link our prayer with Calvary. 

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY 24

The Disease of Discontent

BIBLE MEDITATION:

"But godliness with contentment is great gain." - 1 Timothy 6:6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Many times we think we need something when we really don't. Sometimes we want things we don't need. We get our luxuries and our necessities confused.

Discontentment is a disease that takes away your joy and peace. And what is contentment? It's not getting what you want but wanting what you already have. You see, contentment will make a poor man rich. And discontentment makes a rich man poor. No matter how much you have, if you're discontented, you're really poor.

Sometimes it is God's grace that we don't receive what we think we want. Once upon a time, two tears met up along the river of life.

Said one tear to the other, "Where did you come from?"

"Oh," the second tear said, "I'm the tear of a girl who loved a man and lost him. And where do you come from?"

The first tear answered, "I'm the tear of the girl who found him and married him."

ACTION POINT:

You are rich today if you know the Lord and are content. Paul goes on to say, "For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. But having food and raiment, let us therewith be content." If you have clothes to wear and food to eat and you have Jesus Christ in your heart, my dear friend, you're blessed.

[Judy Harder]

JANUARY 25

You May Have All of God that You Want

BIBLE MEDITATION:

"He that loveth silver shall never be satisfied with silver." - Ecclesiastes 5:10

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

We live in a day that has confused luxuries and necessities. Material things can never bring contentment, for they can never satisfy the deepest need of your heart. Either you can't get enough of them, or when you get them, you find out they don't meet your need.

Do you remember the story of the little boy who loved pancakes? One day his mother thought she would satisfy him, so she decided she would cook all the pancakes he wanted. He ate the first ones with relish and the second plate—if not with relish, at least with delight. He ate more, and then some more, and she just kept cooking them. Finally she asked, "Johnny, do you want another pancake?"  He said, "No ma'am. I don't even want the ones I've already had."

Now that's the way it is with silver. "He that loveth silver shall never be satisfied with silver." When you get it all, it doesn't satisfy, and you want more.

ACTION POINT:

This round world will never fit into your three-cornered heart. There is nothing wrong with material things; they just cannot satisfy the deepest longing of your heart. Your deepest needs will never be met by material things, only by the living God. I don't know how much of God you have, but you may have all of God that you want.