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"Birthday Candles" by Hollie Ruthberg
Psalm 90:(0) A prayer of Moshe the man of God:
(1) Adonai, you have been our dwelling place
in every generation.
2 Before the mountains were born,
before you had formed the earth and the world,
from eternity past to eternity future
you are God.
3 You bring frail mortals to the point of being crushed,
then say, “People, repent!”
4 For from your viewpoint a thousand years
are merely like yesterday or a night watch.
5 When you sweep them away, they become like sleep;
by morning they are like growing grass,
6 growing and flowering in the morning,
but by evening cut down and dried up.
7 For we are destroyed by your anger,
overwhelmed by your wrath.
8 You have placed our faults before you,
our secret sins in the full light of your presence.
9 All our days ebb away under your wrath;
our years die away like a sigh.
10 The span of our life is seventy years,
or if we are strong, eighty;
yet at best it is toil and sorrow,
over in a moment, and then we are gone.
11 Who grasps the power of your anger and wrath
to the degree that the fear due you should inspire?
12 So teach us to count our days,
so that we will become wise.
13 Return, Adonai! How long must it go on?
Take pity on your servants!
14 Fill us at daybreak with your love,
so that we can sing for joy as long as we live.
15 Let our joy last as long as the time you made us suffer,
for as many years as we experienced trouble.
16 Show your deeds to your servants
and your glory to their children.
17 May the favor of Adonai our God be on us,
prosper for us all the work that we do —
yes, prosper the work that we do.
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The candles on a birthday cake count the years: good years and hard years, sweet years and bitter years. In our celebration we often choose to remember just the happy times, whether it is our birthday or that of a loved one. If we could choose, all the years–all the days and the hours–would be sunny and trouble free. However, in the silence of the night, we know that some days have been tough, and tough days will come again.
It is those days when we have seen trouble that draw our hearts to seek God’s help, protection, and guidance. It is the hard times that deepen us. They teach us that in God’s mercy and grace, we will have the victory. We might be struck down, but we will not be destroyed; persecuted but not abandoned; perplexed but not in despair (see 2 Corinthians 4:8-9).
The psalmist says that we should number our days–times of affliction as well as good times–“that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). The morning brings us satisfaction in God’s unfailing love, “that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (v. 14).
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Hymn for Today: "How Firm a Foundation from John Rippon's Section of Hymns
1. How firm a foundation you saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in his excellent Word!
What more can he say than to you he has said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
2. "Fear not, I am with you, O be not dismayed,
for I am your God, and will still give you aid;
I'll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
3. "When through the deep waters I call you to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow,
for I will be with you in trouble to bless,
and sanctify to you your deepest distress.
4. "When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie,
my grace all-sufficient shall be your supply;
the flame shall not hurt you; I only design
your dross to consume and your gold to refine.
5. "The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no never forsake!"
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Thought for Today: Luke 1:“Praised be Adonai, the God of Isra’el,[Luke 1:68 Psalms 41:14(13); 72:18; 106:48]because he has visited and made a ransom to liberate his people
Footnotes:
74 to grant us that we, freed from our enemies,
would serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness
before him all our days.
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Please Pray: For the development of Christian leaders in the Netherlands.
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