Riverside, California, United States - Harvest Ministry with Greg Laurie Daily Devotion for Wednesday, 28 May 2014 "Songs in the Night"The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me -- a prayer to the God of my life.(Psalm 42:8)
The great British preacher C. H. Spurgeon said, "Any fool can sing in the day. . . . It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but the skillful singer is he who can sing when there is not a ray of light to read by. . . . Songs in the night come only from God; they are not the power of man."
When Paul and Silas were imprisoned for preaching the gospel, it was a hot and horrible environment. Prisons back then were far more primitive than they are today. Archaeologists have discovered what they believe was the actual prison where Paul and Silas were imprisoned as recorded in Acts. It was nothing more than a dark hole, without ventilation.
But instead of cursing God and questioning how a God of love could do this to them, Paul and Silas realized it was time to pray. The Bible tells us, "But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them" (Acts 16:25). Songs — not groans — came from their mouths. And instead of cursing men, they were blessing God. No wonder the other prisoners were listening.
When we are in pain, the midnight hour is not the easiest time to hold a worship service. There are times when we don't feel like singing to the Lord or praising Him. But Hebrews 13:15 reminds us, "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name."
Are you facing a hardship today? God can give you songs in the night.[Today's devotional is an excerpt from Every Day with Jesus by Greg Laurie, 2013]
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Are you facing a hardship today? God can give you songs in the night.
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Today's Bible Reading:
Proverbs 7:1 My son, keep my words.
Lay up my commandments within you.
2 Keep my commandments and live!
Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind them on your fingers.
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.”
Call understanding your relative,
5 that they may keep you from the strange woman,
from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
6 For at the window of my house,
I looked out through my lattice.
7 I saw among the simple ones.
I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,
8 passing through the street near her corner,
he went the way to her house,
9 in the twilight, in the evening of the day,
in the middle of the night and in the darkness.
10 Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute,
and with crafty intent.
11 She is loud and defiant.
Her feet don’t stay in her house.
12 Now she is in the streets, now in the squares,
and lurking at every corner.
13 So she caught him, and kissed him.
With an impudent face she said to him:
14 “Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me.
Today I have paid my vows.
15 Therefore I came out to meet you,
to diligently seek your face,
and I have found you.
16 I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry,
with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning.
Let’s solace ourselves with loving.
19 For my husband isn’t at home.
He has gone on a long journey.
20 He has taken a bag of money with him.
He will come home at the full moon.”
21 With persuasive words, she led him astray.
With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
22 He followed her immediately,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
as a fool stepping into a noose.
23 Until an arrow strikes through his liver,
as a bird hurries to the snare,
and doesn’t know that it will cost his life.
24 Now therefore, sons, listen to me.
Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
25 Don’t let your heart turn to her ways.
Don’t go astray in her paths,
26 for she has thrown down many wounded.
Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol,[a]
going down to the rooms of death.
8:1 Doesn’t wisdom cry out?
Doesn’t understanding raise her voice?
2 On the top of high places by the way,
where the paths meet, she stands.
3 Beside the gates, at the entry of the city,
at the entry doors, she cries aloud:
4 “To you men, I call!
I send my voice to the sons of mankind.
5 You simple, understand prudence.
You fools, be of an understanding heart.
6 Hear, for I will speak excellent things.
The opening of my lips is for right things.
7 For my mouth speaks truth.
Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are in righteousness.
There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.
9 They are all plain to him who understands,
right to those who find knowledge.
10 Receive my instruction rather than silver;
knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 For wisdom is better than rubies.
All the things that may be desired can’t be compared to it.
12 “I, wisdom, have made prudence my dwelling.
Find out knowledge and discretion.
13 The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil.
I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.
14 Counsel and sound knowledge are mine.
I have understanding and power.
15 By me kings reign,
and princes decree justice.
16 By me princes rule;
nobles, and all the righteous rulers of the earth.
17 I love those who love me.
Those who seek me diligently will find me.
18 With me are riches, honor,
enduring wealth, and prosperity.
19 My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold;
my yield than choice silver.
20 I walk in the way of righteousness,
in the middle of the paths of justice;
21 That I may give wealth to those who love me.
I fill their treasuries.
22 “Yahweh possessed me in the beginning of his work,
before his deeds of old.
23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning,
before the earth existed.
24 When there were no depths, I was born,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was born;
26 while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields,
nor the beginning of the dust of the world.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he set a circle on the surface of the deep,
28 when he established the clouds above,
when the springs of the deep became strong,
29 when he gave to the sea its boundary,
that the waters should not violate his commandment,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth;
30 then I was the craftsman by his side.
I was a delight day by day,
always rejoicing before him,
31 Rejoicing in his whole world.
My delight was with the sons of men.
32 “Now therefore, my sons, listen to me,
for blessed are those who keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction, and be wise.
Don’t refuse it.
34 Blessed is the man who hears me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting at my door posts.
35 For whoever finds me, finds life,
and will obtain favor from Yahweh.
36 But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul.
All those who hate me love death.”
9:1 Wisdom has built her house.
She has carved out her seven pillars.
2 She has prepared her meat.
She has mixed her wine.
She has also set her table.
3 She has sent out her maidens.
She cries from the highest places of the city:
4 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!”
As for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,
5 “Come, eat some of my bread,
Drink some of the wine which I have mixed!
6 Leave your simple ways, and live.
Walk in the way of understanding.”
7 He who corrects a mocker invites insult.
He who reproves a wicked man invites abuse.
8 Don’t reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you.
Reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
9 Instruct a wise man, and he will be still wiser.
Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.
10 The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.
The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
11 For by me your days will be multiplied.
The years of your life will be increased.
12 If you are wise, you are wise for yourself.
If you mock, you alone will bear it.
13 The foolish woman is loud,
Undisciplined, and knows nothing.
14 She sits at the door of her house,
on a seat in the high places of the city,
15 To call to those who pass by,
who go straight on their ways,
16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here.”
as for him who is void of understanding, she says to him,
17 “Stolen water is sweet.
Food eaten in secret is pleasant.”
18 But he doesn’t know that the departed spirits are there,
that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.[b]
Footnotes:
a. Proverbs 7:27 Sheol is the place of the dead.
b. Proverbs 9:18 Sheol is the place of the dead.
Romans 9:1 I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel. 7 Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring,[a] are they all children. But, “your offspring[b] will be accounted as from Isaac.”[c] 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs. 9 For this is a word of promise, “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”[d] 10 Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. 11 For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,[e] 12 it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.”[f] 13 Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[g]
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! 15 For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”[h] 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[i] 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. 19 You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”[j] 21 Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction, 23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, 24 us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says also in Hosea,
“I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people;
and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.”[k]
26 “It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
There they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”[l]
27 Isaiah cries concerning Israel,
“If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea,
it is the remnant who will be saved;
28 for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.”[m]
29 As Isaiah has said before,
“Unless the Lord of Armies[n] had left us a seed,
we would have become like Sodom,
and would have been made like Gomorrah.”[o]
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; 31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; 33 even as it is written,
“Behold,[p] I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense;
and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”[q]
Footnotes:
a. Romans 9:7 or, seed
b. Romans 9:7 or, seed
c. Romans 9:7 Genesis 21:12
d. Romans 9:9 Genesis 18:10,14
e. Romans 9:11 NA puts the phrase “not of works, but of him who calls” at the beginning of verse 12 instead of the end of verse 11.
f. Romans 9:12 Genesis 25:23
g. Romans 9:13 Malachi 1:2-3
h. Romans 9:15 Exodus 33:19
i. Romans 9:17 Exodus 9:16
j. Romans 9:20 Isaiah 29:16; 45:9
k. Romans 9:25 Hosea 2:23
l. Romans 9:26 Hosea 1:10
m. Romans 9:28 Isaiah 10:22-23
n. Romans 9:29 Greek: Sabaoth (for Hebrew: Tze’va’ot)
o. Romans 9:29 Isaiah 1:9
p. Romans 9:33 “Behold”, from “ἰδοὺ”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
q. Romans 9:33 Isaiah 8:14; 28:16
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Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie
P.O. Box 4000
Riverside, CA 92514-4000 United States
Phone: 1(800)821-3300
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