Daily Bible Study for Wednesday
September 21, 2016
By: Hanny Lynn Stearns
Fish N
Loaves Ministries, Inc.
“Multiplying
God’s Word Around The Globe”
Chapter Reading
for Today: Please read in
your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered
paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate
translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful
for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their
wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version,
that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I
will keep it with the New King James Version.
One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my
own writing. I am adding red to the letters when
it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.
Bible
Gateway Verse of the Day
2 Corinthians
13:14
The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be
with you all. Amen.
Psalm
100:4
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
and into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless
His name.
Song: Here In Your Presence By: Jennifer Anderson
Psalm 61
Praising God by Doing What We’ve Promised
This is a wonderful review of the many benefits we receive
when we inherit our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord! The Psalms say
that the Lord “daily loads us with benefits.” See Psalm 68:19. The Psalmist
talks about praising the Lord as he keeps his promises to Him. Did you know
that the highest form of praise in God’s eyes are that of obedience and trust?
Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for the many blessings we enjoy as we sit in
heavenly places with our Lord Jesus. We praise You for the many ways You keep
us and protect us as we live in Your house. Father, I ask You to open our eyes,
our spiritual ears and our hearts to receive Your word today with clarity.
Cause us to know You more fully as we study. Show us what we need to change in
our lives so that we can continue to enjoy the full measure of the benefits
associated with being in Your family. May this word go out through me
unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Father, I ask You to
give me the anointing and utterance to speak Your word boldly as I ought. We
purpose to be doers of Your word, knowing that You always watch over Your word
to perform it in our lives when we obey You. Thank You in advance for the
answers, and for taking us up higher in You in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Prayer, prayer and more
prayer. We are certainly seeing the importance that David placed on it in his
life, aren’t we? And so it should be with all of those who are part of God’s
family. Prayer is a vital and highly important tool in accessing the heart of
God as we go into the spirit in prayer and receive His will carried out. Today
we will review several verses that tie into the scriptures we are reading
today. We will look at the many benefits of being a child of God. We will also look
at what it means to fulfill our vows.
Let’s start with a couple of
verses that encourage us to go to God and seek Him…
Jeremiah 33:3
‘Call to Me, and I will answer
you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
James 5:16
Confess your trespasses to one
another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective,
fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
The Lord is inviting us throughout
the scriptures to call on Him – at all times. We are told that we can call on
Him in trouble, and go to Him to praise Him – this should be a daily thing. We
noticed this in the Psalm today. David said that he was “abiding” with God.
What does this mean? It is to remain with Him, or, in other words, to stay with
Him – like staying at someone’s house. When we stay with the Lord, we stay in
His house. And His house is called a house of prayer…
Isaiah 56:7
Even them I will bring to My
holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will
be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be
called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Mark 11:17
Then He taught, saying to
them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it
a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
When we go to the Lord’s house, aka, the “church building” we go to
worship Him, thank Him, bring our tithes and offerings, and read His word. We
Hear from Him as His Holy Spirit moves in the service. All of this is prayer.
God’s house was never meant to be a marketplace with all kinds of buying and
selling going on. Today many have turned the house of God into a marketplace,
but this should not be so. Where my husband and I attend church, there is no
such business taking place. We have been asked by our Pastors to refrain from
discussing business on the church property and there is to be no passing of business
cards. In fact, all that we offer at our church is the word of God, either in a
book, CD, MP3 or DVD – and it is all free of charge. People are allowed to take
three series teachings per family per visit. Freely we have received – freely we
give.
What you won’t find at our church is a coffee bar, restaurant or store
with all kinds of trinkets. People eat at home and have their coffee at home. They
do their shopping elsewhere. When they come to the church they are coming to
worship the Lord and feast at His table of communion. There is nothing else
going on except the preaching, teaching and receiving of the word. We sing and
worship, we pray, we give our tithes and offerings and we hear from the Lord in
a powerful way through our Pastor/preacher/minister. Many get healed and
delivered of all kinds of things from demonic oppression to sickness and
disease and addictions.
It is a place of Jesus’ presence and where the presence of the Lord is
there is healing. This is what church should be about. And of course, we get to
enjoy meeting with other believers who are like minded. We have opportunity to
participate on one of the many service teams because we all know it takes a lot
of work to keep the building clean and make people feel welcome when they
arrive. We need children’s workers, and well, there’s plenty of ways to serve
and be blessed in the house of God – hallelujah!
Next, we know that people can go to the Lord when they begin to feel
overwhelmed. Jesus told us to not allow our hearts to be troubled…
John 14:1, 27
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world
gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid.
From Jesus’ own mouth this was a
command, not a suggestion. David shows us that He went to the “Rock” (The Lord)
that was higher than he was – and he was a king. But he knew that there was a
King that was much higher than he in authority – a place where he could go when
the attacks of the enemy tried to overwhelm him. Now we have Jesus who has
already given us His peace. Therefore, we should be experiencing His peace at
all times. If something is stealing our peace, we need to get to the bottom of
it right away and take authority over it. We have the right and the authority
to maintain our peace no matter what the devil throws our way. Praise the Lord!
Here is another important verse to remember about prayer…
Philippians 4:6-7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Here is another command from the Lord about
taking on anxiety. It is a spirit and we must resist it. We just have to take
everything to the Lord and then trust Him for the answers, the wisdom on what
to do, and the peace to wait on Him. He will direct our path. He has promised.
Here’s a few more verses…
Psalm 18:2, 31, 46
The Lord is my rock and my
fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?
The Lord lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted.
God is our place of refuge, a place of perfect
shelter when we are living right in Him. Let’s look at some encouraging words…
Zechariah 2:5
For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all
around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’”
Psalm 57:1
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You;
and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by.
People who do what God says
are able to remain in His perfect protection. Those who do not obey Him, though
they be His child, will be open to enemy attack in their lives. Many believers
do not take this seriously. Then, they wonder why this or that is happening in
their lives. But when we look a little closer, we see them living according to
the flesh rather than the spirit. This allows satan and his demons access to
the believer’s life. That is why we need to spend time with the Lord in
fellowship and prayer every day. We need to minister to the Lord. Then He wants
to minister to us. After all of that, then we can be of use to minster to
others as He directs us. Let’s look at what He promises again. Dwelling in the
Lord’s house is the best place to be! Nothing can compare. Let’s look at a
couple of verses…
Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever.
Psalm 84:10
For a day in Your
courts is better than a
thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in
the tents of wickedness.
To dwell means to stay there –
always. Being where the glory of God is cannot be compared to any place else.
By remaining there, we are not only safe and secure, but our hearts are richly
blessed in His wonderful and awesome presence! The word of God also promises
long life for us. Again, we must keep in mind that these promises can only
apply to those who follow after God and do what He says to do. Let’s look…
Psalm 91:16
With long life I
will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.”
The promise of a long life is
one that we can take all the way to 120 years! None of us has to die
prematurely. Because of sin, many of us have had our lives reduced to 70-80
years, but that’s not what God had in mind…
Genesis 6:3
And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with
man forever, for he is indeed
flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
Moving on, this chapter tells
us about our inheritance. With Jesus we have an exceedingly great inheritance.
Let’s examine the scriptures…
Zechariah 2:10-11
10 “Sing and rejoice, O daughter
of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord. 11 “Many nations
shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and
they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know
that the Lord of hosts has sent
Me to you. 12 And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance
in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
Colossians 1:9-14
9 For this reason we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be
filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the
Lord, fully pleasing Him, being
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened
with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and
longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the
Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of
darkness and conveyed us into
the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we
have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
This passage, by the way, is a
great prayer for us to pray in our natural understanding before we go into
praying in tongues. It is important to ask the Lord to help believers all over
the world to really begin to grasp the riches of our inheritance so that we can
all walk in victory for the short time we will be on this planet. In this same
chapter of Colossians, let’s go to the subject of staying with the Lord, or
“remaining” with Him…
Colossians 1:19-23
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and
by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or
things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in
your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in
the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and
above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and
steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard,
which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a
minister.
We must pay close attention to
the area highlighted in yellow. It is our responsibility to work out our
salvation. We have to remain in the faith. Some have tasted the goodness of
salvation and turned back to the world. They had no hope after that. But that’s
not us, is it saints? We know whom we have believed in…
2 Timothy 1:12
For this reason I also suffer these
things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
God’s power is perfect in our weakness. We just have to keep turning to
Him and not our own ways or strength. Before we get to the “grand finale”,
let’s look at how His mercy and truth sustain us…
Proverbs 20:28
Mercy and truth
preserve the king, and by lovingkindness he upholds his throne.
The right ways of God are what
will hold up the Christian - regardless of situations or trials. The Lord is
righteous – meaning right in all He does. By focusing on Him constantly, and
His ways, we can’t help but succeed in our walk as Christians. One of God’s
names is Jehovah tsidkenu. Living right will sustain us. Sins will only bring
death and take us down. There is no room for that in the Christian life. One
must get right with God immediately if they have sinned in any way. He is so
quick to forgive us and restore to us the joy of our salvation – hallelujah!
The final point to make in
today’s chapter is about fulfilling our vows. David mentioned his vows to God
not once but twice in this section of scriptures. It is highly important to
God. We could do an entire study on this. Let’s look further…
Psalm 22:25
My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those
who fear Him.
Psalm 50:14
Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the
Most High.
Psalm 56:12
Vows made to You are
binding upon me, O God; I will render praises to You,
Psalm 76:11
Make vows to
the Lord your God, and pay them; Let all who are around Him bring presents to Him
who ought to be feared.
What do we see in all of these
verses that talk about vows? In each one there is either thanks or praise. Then
we see that the Lord is telling us to pay them. He also tells us that they are
binding on us – meaning they are like a contract with Him. We have told Him we
would do something, and He fully expects us to “pay up” every day. Many
Christians do not take this seriously. They may go to church and sing worship
songs and make promises with their lips, but their hearts are far from keeping
those promises.
For example, I once made a
promise to the Lord that I would weigh a certain amount and no more for the
rest of my life. When I was still battling with food addiction, I was having a
tough time keeping that promise. But the Lord was right there to remind me
again and again that He expected me to give Him what I had promised. He desires
above all else that His people do what He says and that they fulfill their
promises to Him. This is the truest form of worship. For me it is a lifestyle
of fasting. I do not eat like the rest of the world. I carefully choose what I
will eat to keep my body healthy and strong.
I do this to honor the Lord
and to be able to do the work He has for me to do. Whether it is preaching, teaching,
or traveling, I must also spend a lot of time searching His heart’s desire for
me and the scriptures. I must be in good physical condition to keep up with the
busy schedule. The Lord wants all of His children to be healthy and strong. It
is not pleasing to Him to see us broken down. Let’s look at another scripture…
Jonah 1:16
Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice
to the Lord and took vows.
This is in the book of Jonah
after the men threw rebellious Jonah overboard. They were afraid of God at this
point because they saw what happened to him for not doing what the Lord had
asked him to do. Jonah was an open door for enemy attack. God was not pleased.
People say a lot of things to the Lord when they get into trouble. It might
sound like this, “Oh God, if You will get me out of this I will serve You for
the rest of my life.” Ever hear anything like that? What a person will promise
the Lord when their back is against the wall, or their bottom is firmly seated
in the belly of a great fish matters to the Lord. He takes our words seriously.
What God says - He does. He made us in His image and likeness. So what we say,
He expects us to do.
I myself have acted like a
stubborn mare in times past. As much as the Lord showed me His love, patience
and forgiveness, I was bucking and kicking like a wild “bronco.” I had not
considered myself quite like that, but looking back now, I see that I was. I
tried everything to be able to “eat just a little more” or have something
altogether wrong. Our flesh is our worst enemy in this life. The devil takes a
second seat to the desires of the human flesh. That is why he has such a good
time using the flesh to get people out of the will of God.
He starts people off by
focusing on the desire of the flesh, then he begins to reason with them, and
finally he makes a suggestion. If the person has engaged this far, he is sunk.
Once the devil has us in the realm of reasoning with him, it is all over but
the crying and remorse. But if we keep him in the faith realm by speaking out
the word of God in faith over our situation, then we have him beat. He cannot
stand against a man’s faith in God or His word – hallelujah! We do have many
ways in the word of God to stand against the forces of evil.
Let’s make this personal for a
minute. How do you feel when someone promises you something and does not
fulfill that promise? It is pretty painful, isn’t it? Think of a child who is
on a little league baseball team. His busy, hardworking dad promises to be at
the game, but fails to show up. He gets delayed at work. His job was more
important to him than his little boy. How does the child feel when he keeps
looking at the stands hoping for his father to arrive and cheer him on? He is
heartbroken when, at the end of the game, his father never arrived. And because
of the broken promise, this kid certainly did not play his best, walking away
terribly hurt.
Now let’s think about our
loving Father in heaven. Let’s think about Jesus and all He did for us so we
could have eternal life. What if Jesus had failed to do the things He had
promised to the Father? We would all be damned for eternity – that’s what.
Promises are binding. They mean something to the person who the promise is made
to. God has never broken one promise to us. Why should we even consider
breaking our promises to Him? Look at what Jesus said…
Matthew 5:33-37
33 “Again you have
heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall
perform your oaths to the Lord.’34 But I say to you, do
not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 nor by the earth,
for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear
by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your ‘Yes’
be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil
one.
Here Jesus was telling the
people that we need to say what we mean and mean what we say – to God and to
others. Anything other than doing this is evil. We want to be known as men and
women of our word. We must do what we tell others we are going to do. If we do
not really plan to carry something out, we need to keep our mouths firmly shut.
It has taken me a long time to really get this. I needed to be paying more
attention to what I was saying and taking it more seriously. I will be the first
to raise a hand and say I have failed in this. Oh, but there is hope - thank
You Jesus! Let’s look at a couple more…
Numbers 30:2
If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some
agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that
proceeds out of his mouth.
Ecclesiastes 5:5
Better not to vow than to vow
and not pay.
Twice in today’s chapter David
mentions the vows – both the making of vows and the fulfillment of them. He
wanted to show God His praise, appreciation and adoration by daily fulfilling
his vows. That, my friends, makes the Lord well pleased. We have all missed it
in this area at one time or another, but those days can be over from this point
forward. From now on, we can watch what we are saying – both to the Lord and to
people. My former boss once told this about our clients, “Hanny, if you are
going to promise anything to the client, promise only the minimum that you know
you will do. Then, after that you can do extra and they will be thrilled.” That
was good advice and I didn’t forget it – but I have not always practiced it.
This is the time for the
church to rise up and shine like the stars for the glory of the Lord in the
earth. The end is so near and the Lord is looking for a people who will honor
Him completely. He is coming back for a spotless church. The Lord wants to
bless His people with greater responsibilities and rewards. We have to do our
part. If we make a promise to Him and keep it, this will bless His heart and be
well pleasing to Him. This will be the highest form of praise to Him –
obedience by doing what He tells us to do, and keeping our end of the deal by doing
what we said we would do. We both have roles in this life. God does His part
when we do ours. We looked at a lot of the promises of God in this chapter. He
daily loads us with benefits. Now we must do our part and daily perform our
vows.
Questions:
Think about all the benefits that the Lord has given you
because you are His child. Which ones mean the most to you and why?
What promises have you made to the Lord? Have you been
keeping them? If not, take it to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and strength
to do better in the coming days.
What will you commit to doing differently as a result of this
study?
Who can you share this Bible study with?
There are three main points to
consider from today’s study…
The Lord daily loads us with
benefits
God expects His children to fulfill their
promises to Him
Jesus told us that we should say
what we mean and mean what we say
Let’s
pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for the many things that You have done for me. Father,
I ask You to forgive me for the times I have let You down by not doing what I
promised. Lord, I ask You to remind me of anything that I have promised that I
may have forgotten. Help me to see how to get things right with You. Thank You
that it is never too late to repent and receive Your loving forgiveness through
Jesus Christ our Lord. I want to glorify You in every area of my life. I ask
You to cleanse me from all unrighteousness in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
What
new promise will you make to the Lord?
And God Said… You fill in the blanks.
Psalm 61:8
So I will
sing praise to Your name forever,
That I may daily perform my vows.
That I may daily perform my vows.
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