Seek God First

Posted June 19, 2023 | Judith Ingram

Scripture

Psalm 5:7-8 NLT

Because of your unfailing love, I can enter your house; I will worship at your Temple with deepest awe. Lead me in the right path, O LORD, or my enemies will conquer me. Make your way plain for me to follow.

Consider

The psalmist gives us a beautiful image of God’s approachability, made possible by God’s unfailing love for us. Who else can offer us love that is reliable, unconditional, infinitely patient, and wholly intended for our good? With such love as this, God welcomes our knock on the door and invites us into his holy presence. Our God wants to be known. Through his Word, through our prayers and meditations, God shows us his heart and his nature.

If we sit still and listen, God teaches us what we need to know about ourselves and gives us wisdom for dealing rightly with whatever life presents to us.

With our minds thus set right and our hearts fortified, we can navigate even hostile circumstances with integrity that protects us from following wrong paths and getting ourselves into worse trouble.

The psalmist’s key to successful navigation is to seek God first, to approach God with a thankful and listening heart before we make our choices. Too often we forget to consult with God, or we stubbornly stick to our habitual ways, relying on the world’s wisdom to guide us. Left to ourselves, we are likely to respond in kind to the evil that is done to us, giving back insult for insult, hurting back as we have been hurt. This tactic only makes us vulnerable to sin and victims of our oppressive circumstances rather than conquerors.

If you would act wisely, seek God before you jump in with a best-guess solution to a thorny problem. Make time to sit in God’s holy presence and just listen. With humility and deepest awe, receive the love and wisdom God has for you.

If you would act wisely, seek God first.

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Pray

Heavenly Father, thank you for your love that never fails. Lead me in the right path when I am facing adversity and don’t know where to turn. Help me to trust that your ways are always best for me.

Reflect

Proverbs 14:12; James 1:5

Ponder

When is the best time of day for me to seek God’s company?

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Be Wise About What is Good

Posted June 12, 2023 | Judith Ingram

Scripture

Romans 16:17-18 NIV

I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.

Consider

With the advent of social media and self-publishing, our world has exploded with tweets and blogs and self-help books that promise wisdom for modern living. The same is no less true in the church.

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Steadfast Love

Posted June 5, 2023 | Judith Ingram

Scripture

Matthew 26:30-32 NLT

Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives. On the way, Jesus told them, “Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I have been raised from the dead, I will go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.”

Consider

This passage follows the description of Jesus’ Last Supper with his twelve disciples. They each have experienced their master’s kneeling before them to wash their feet and have received the bread and wine of the new covenant.

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Outsmarting Satan

Posted May 29, 2023 | Judith Ingram

Scripture

2 Corinthians 2:10-11 NLT

When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit, so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.

Consider

Forgiveness is God’s preferred way of dealing with broken relationships. Indeed, one can make the case that the entire Bible is a story of forgiveness—God’s plan from the beginning to heal and redeem a world alienated by sin.

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Humility Challenge

Posted May 22, 2023 | Judith Ingram

Scripture

Philippians 2:3-4 NRSV

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

Consider

What does it mean to regard others as better than yourselves? Don’t we all have equal value before God? The Bible does indeed teach us that God knows each of us intimately and loves us extravagantly, despite our equally sinful state and desperate need for God’s compassion and mercy. Paul’s word to the Philippians does not question our innate worth.

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