God Rejoices Over Us..Craig Denison Ministries

 God Rejoices Over Us

Craig Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

As children of the Most High God, we are to be marked by contagious, unceasing joy. Through the Holy Spirit we have access to an unending supply of joy that comes from the wellspring of restored relationship with our heavenly Father. God longs to fill us with his joy that we might live the abundant life Jesus died to give us. He longs to make us children fashioned in the image of our Father that we might share his unending joy to a world without hope. May you discover the greater portion of joy available to you through the Spirit as you encounter the heart of your Father this week.

Scripture:“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” >Zephaniah 3:17

Devotional:

Zephaniah 3:17 provides a constant source of joy by revealing insight into the heart of our loving, present heavenly Father. That scripture says, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” As we look at this verse today, I pray that you will be filled with an abundant joy that can only come from a fresh, tangible revelation of your heavenly Father’s overwhelming love for you.

“The Lord your God is in your midst.” You can have joy today because your God is totally and powerfully present right where you are. Scripture says that he will never leave you or forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6), his presence will go with you to the ends of the earth (Psalm 139:7-12), and at salvation you were made into a temple for the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). You can have joy because you are not alone in anything you do. God longs to make his presence known to you in every area of your life. He longs to do life with you—equipping you to live with total joy by filling you with his love every minute of every day.

“The Lord your God is . . . a mighty one who will save.” You can have joy because you have been totally redeemed from the destitution of the world that surrounds you. You are saved from the perils of life without relationship with your Creator. You have been offered to spend eternity with the God of love who laid down his own life for yours. Your God has done a mighty work. You are now his child, healed and set free through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

“He will rejoice over you with gladness.” You can have joy because your God rejoices over you. You are not a failure in his eyes. He loves who you are. He is wholeheartedly glad you are his. He longs to fill you with the knowledge of his gladness today. He longs to give you a revelation of how deeply in love with you he is. The Creator and Sustainer of all rejoices over you as his creation. You are not a mistake. You were made intentionally because your God longed to have relationship with you.

“He will quiet you by his love.” You can have joy because your God will shepherd you to the still waters. His love will guide you to quiet places where your heart can be at rest. He will calm the areas of your life that are burdened and stressed by freeing you with the depths of his affections. You can have peace today in the presence of your heavenly Father no matter what situation you find yourself in. Your God will “quiet you by his love” as you follow the leadership of his Spirit.

“He will exult over you with loud singing.” To exult is to be joyful or jubilant because of a triumph or success. You can have joy today because your God sees you as a triumph. You have been transformed. You are a new creation. You are what God has most desired in the earth. His chief longing has always been relationship with us, and by your faith in Jesus Christ you have given him what he has always wanted. God exults over you today just as you are. He longs for intimate relationship with you. He wants to give you ears to hear his “loud singing” that you might have the same perspective for yourself as he has for you.

In The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning says, "My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it." May you come to the awareness of how deeply you are loved by your God today. May you allow God to love what you have deemed unlovable in your own life. And may Zephaniah 3:17 be a foundation on which you experience the overwhelming joy that comes from God’s inexplicable love for you.

Guided Prayer:

1. Meditate on Zephaniah 3:17. Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight a part of the verse that you especially need today. Take time to allow Scripture to lay a foundation of truth on which you can have abundant joy.

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” >Zephaniah 3:17

2. Ask the Lord to reveal his nearness. Rest in his presence and allow his love to quiet and flood the weary places in your heart.

“For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” >Isaiah 62:5

3. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with abundant joy for today. Ask him to teach you how to live a joyful lifestyle where you experience the fruit of his presence through any circumstance.

“The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” Psalm 147:11

In Scripture, we have a source of constancy and steadfastness for our emotions. If we will allow Scripture to be the basis on which we think and feel, we can experience a joy that is unshakable by the passing tides of circumstance. Scriptures like Zephaniah 3:17 are vital to a healthy emotional life. We need constant reminders of the truth so that we can base our emotions on who God is rather than what is going on with the world around us. May you enter into a new season of abundant joy as you allow God’s word to be your emotional source and guide.

Extended Reading: Zephaniah 3

Sing a New Song..Brent Rinehart

 Sing a New Song

By Brent Rinehart

“Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!” -  Psalm 96:1

In 2012, Jefferson Bethke released a spoken-word video on YouTube titled “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus.” It has since received nearly 35 million views and launched a best-selling book, Jesus > Religion. Its message is not the only thing that made it so popular. The art form itself is rooted in history and what encourages oral traditions, epics and tales to be passed on from generation to generation. His rhythm, delivery and use of alliteration and rhyme make it infectious.

Many of the world’s greatest pieces of literature began as spoken words – songs even – that were passed down. One example many of us read in high school – The Odyssey – comes to mind. Songs are a critical part of the human experience, so it stands to reason that the same is true of the Christian experience. In fact, there’s a whole book of songs (Psalms) to use as Exhibit A.

Martin Luther once said that “next to the Word of God, music deserves the highest praise.” Many of us can say “amen” to that statement as we gather with other believers to sing worship songs and hymns or when we feel God speaking through praise and worship music from our car radio’s speakers.

Throughout the Psalms, we are urged to sing, dance and play instruments as a sign of our worship of the Lord. But, Psalm 96:1 says “Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!” This idea of singing a new song appears again in Psalm 98 and 149. What does it mean to sing a new song?

As humans, most of us love the familiar. There’s something comforting about a song we know by heart. One we can sing without even looking at the words. We can close our eyes and worship. A few weeks ago, my wife and I were introducing our kids to some old hymns we both use to sing out of the hymnals of the churches we grew up in. Some of these were songs our kids had never heard before, which is kind of strange when I think about how ubiquitous there were to me at their ages. “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine. Oh what a foretaste of glory divine.” Or, “O Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder. Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee. How great Thou art, how great Thou art!”

Powerful words from familiar songs are wonderful and can certainly focus our hearts and minds on who God is. But, here, in Psalm 96, the call is to sing a new song.

To sing a new song to the Lord, we need to experience Him in a new way today. It means being open to God’s leading today, producing new fruit for tomorrow. His mercies are new every morning, so shouldn’t our song be? Our experiences today, no matter how difficult, should lead us to new revelations of who God is and how He is working. And, we can trust that He is working.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4).

Whatever trials we are going through today, we can trust that God is with us. We can trust that His mercies are new every morning. And, we can have faith that He is using our current circumstances to produce new worship material – a mature walk with the Lord that encourages us to sing a new song. We can’t control what happens to us, but we can control our response to it. Will we quit, or will we decide to sing a new song to Him?

A Prayer for Pastors..Emma Danzey

 A Prayer for Pastors

By Emma Danzey

James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”

The calling of being a pastor is one that should not be taken lightly. Pastors hold a lot of power and responsibility. Because of their leadership roles, they are held to a higher standard. They are accountable for interpreting and teaching His Scriptures correctly, shepherding and loving their people well, and being a servant to all. This is a unique gifting and calling on individuals' lives. It is important that we are praying for our personal pastors, as well as pastors all over the world who lead and represent the body of Christ. 

Let's Pray:

Our Good Shepherd, Thank You for giving us pastors who love us so well. Thank You for those who are healthy and whole while they lead and teach. Thank You for convicting them and refining them as they lead us. We pray for a sense of your peace over them as You guide the directions of their churches. We ask that their hearts would be aligned with Your will to proclaim the gospel, teach the church, and send us out into the community and the world on mission. 

You say in 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” We pray this over our pastors. Help them to be prepared to correct, rebuke, and encourage the church with compassion. Give them great patience as we are sinners who are likely to need to hear messages more than once. Help our pastors be able to communicate the gospel of Jesus in every message.

Father, as we pray over our pastors, we pray for their families who equally have been sacrificing for their communities. Give them quality time together, unity, and protection from the work of the enemy. Hold them close and help them to set healthy boundaries with the church and home. We pray that their children would not turn away from You, but that they would see genuine lives of faith lived out at home as well as the church from their parents and be drawn by Your Holy Spirit. So many pastor kids go astray, we pray against this and pray for a mighty generation to come through the family lines of pastors. 

Lord, You tell us in Jeremiah 3:15 that You give us shepherds after Your own heart, who will lead us with knowledge and understanding.” Would You help our pastors to seek Your heart and would You lead them so that they can point us genuinely to Your knowledge and understanding? You are so faithful to place the right people in leadership intentionally. However, we know that the enemy places wolves among the sheep. Would you please reveal any pastors around the world who are false teachers? Remove them from authoritative positions and restore purity and integrity to those who have suffered under their leadership. We ask for healing and wholeness for those who have been spiritually wounded by unhealthy pastors. Please remove the false doctrines and teachings from their minds and hearts and help them to sit under safe and godly pastors in the future. 

Our Great God, Hebrews 13:17 reminds us to have confidence in our leaders and submit to their authority because they keep watch over us as those who must give an account. Help us to do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden because that would be no benefit to us. Help us to trust in those healthy pastors whom You have placed in leadership roles. Give us strength to trust in them and know that they give an account to You. Provide them joy and help us not to be a burden but a delight for them to serve. Help us to have softened hearts to their sermons and open ears to the messages You lead them to share with us. We pray for healthy churches that are led by healthy pastors who love You with their whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and love others well. Amen.

Idolatry..Heidi Vegh

 Idolatry

By Heidi Vegh

“They traded the truth about God for a lie. So, they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise. Amen!” - Romans 1:25

I often find myself in places of discontentment, heavily bombarded with opportunities to compare myself to others and allow the monster of idolatry to sit on the throne of my life. I wish I could be like her, look like her, have a business like her, or even have children like hers. I measure my accomplishments up against unrealistic expectations that the world has placed on me and place the importance of them before God, essentially worshiping the hustle to get where I want to be and much more. This, my friends, is a sin.

The sin of idolatry is nothing new. In Ecclesiastes, we read, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” We fight the sin of idolatry just as the people did in ancient Israel. It may look a bit different or be packaged differently, but the sin of idolatry is alive and well.

When the Israelites became discouraged as they wandered in the desert, they allowed themselves to be distracted by their world and forgot about God and how he had freed them from slavery. They erected a lifeless, golden calf made from the riches they had taken with them from Egypt.

“The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak and eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear and mouths but cannot breathe.” - Psalm 135:15-17

They worshipped the golden idol and made sacrifices to it. This was empty and worthless. However, they believed that this idol would help them or save them. They were aiming their worship at the wrong thing, taking matters into their own hands. 

“They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it…” Exodus 32:8

This may sound ridiculous to some; however, we do the same thing. In our current world, it is so easy to set things before God and forget His faithfulness in our lives. We become overwhelmed by our own needs, desires, and abilities that we are tricked into believing that we are completely self-sufficient. Even the most devout Jesus followers tend to fall into this trap of idolatry. 

We have a jealous God, meaning that He is vigilant and fiercely protective of us. He wants our affections to be aimed at Him and not the world. Not just for His sake but also ours. He knows that the idols of this world will never satisfy. Only God can truly satisfy. 

God will not tolerate idolatry and longs to set us free from this sin. When he created mankind, he created us with a heart that desired worship, and it was intended that we worship Him and Him alone. He wanted to be close to His people and have deep loving relationships with Him. When we are focusing on things other than God to fulfill us, we are tempted to believe that we need something more and that God is not enough. 

Humans longed to be affirmed, and it is so easy to look to other humans to obtain this and not to God. But this is empty and worthless. Humans are flawed, and God is perfect. God's approval is rooted in who Jesus is and what He did, not by what we accomplish or how we perform. 

We tend to idolize our jobs, our families, our marriages, our social media presence, or our wealth. We think that if we have the next best thing, the approval, or the riches, then finally, we will be happy. We strive to make our own happiness and to take control when we should be surrendering. 

But even after all this, God is still the same. He is still the same loving and jealous God that He was in the days of Exodus. He longs for us to reach for Him, worship Him, and love only Him. Remember, only God can truly satisfy. We could search to the ends of the earth to find something to fulfill us like God and we will always come up short.

Intersecting Life and Faith:
Reflect on your priorities. Are there things in your life that you worshipping other than God? How can you shift your life to put God first? It may be taking a break from social media, hiding your credit card, or simply shifting your time to be spent with the Lord first during your day. Spend some time with the Lord asking Him to show you where you have idols in your life and ask for forgiveness. Ask the Lord to show you how to remove the idols and to give you the strength to do so. Relish in the freedom and fulfillment of the Lord when you surrender your idols and put God first in your life.

Further reading:

• Exodus 20:3-6
• Jonah 2:8
• Galatians 1:10
• Jonah 12:43
• Colossians 3:23-24