Deuteronomy 1:1-46
Lord, You call us with Your challenge. You call us to make our
choice. We are to put the past behind us. We are to press on into the
future – with You and for You. We hesitate – and we end up doing
nothing. Help us, Lord, to turn from our self-centred ways. Help us to
walk with You in Your way – the way of faith, the way of obedience.
Deuteronomy 2:1-37
We thank You, Lord, that You are greater
than all our problems. As we look back on the way You’ve led us, help us
to say, “Grace brought me safe this far.” As we look to You to lead us
into the future, help us to say, “Grace will lead me home.” Thank You,
Lord for Your “amazing grace.”
Deuteronomy 3:1-29
Sometimes, Lord, Your blessing seems to
be “so near and yet so far.” Help us, Lord, as we seek Your blessing, to
remember that it is never our own achievement. It is always Your gift
to us. We do not achieve victory in our own strength. You give to us
Your victory. When, Lord, we feel like we are in a barren wilderness,
help us to remember that the place of testing can become the place of
triumph – when we put our trust in You.
Deuteronomy 4:1-43
Lord, You have saved us. Help us to serve
You. In all our service, may we never forget Your salvation. May we
always serve You with “the attitude of gratitude.”
Deuteronomy 4:44-5:33
We thank You, Lord, for the Scriptures.
They lead us to our Saviour – Jesus. The Scriptures speak to us of His
suffering and our salvation. When we think of all that Jesus has done
for us, may we receive, from You, the spirit of thanksgiving – joyful
thanksgiving, heartfelt thanksgiving.
Deuteronomy 6:1-25
Lord, we are called to fear You – and to
love You. We tend to think that fear and love are opposites. You teach
us something else, something very different. Fear and love belong
together. You are the holy God, the God who cannot look upon our sin
(Habakkuk 1:13). We fear You. You show us our sin so that we might be
brought to Jesus, our Saviour. We come to Jesus. We learn how much You
love us – and we begin to love You.
Deuteronomy 7:1-26
Lord, living for You is not easy. We have a fight on our hands. Satan
is a determined enemy. Help us to remember that He’s also a defeated
enemy. When the battle seems to be getting too much for us, help us to
remember that we are “kept by the power of God” (1 Peter 1:3-5).
Deuteronomy 8:1-9:21
We thank You, Lord, that “we do not live
by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3). We need bread for the body. We also
need Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 6:35). Help us, Lord, not to become
too easily satisfied by the things of this world. Help us never to
forget that we need Jesus. Without Him, there will always be something
missing. With Him, there will be a new – eternal – sense of meaning,
purpose and direction.
Deuteronomy 9:22-10:22
Help us, Lord, to listen to You and live
for You, to speak to You and speak for You. Help us to receive from You
and respond to You. Help us not to get caught up in the “What do I get
out of it?” way of thinking. Help us to ask the more important question:
“How can I give myself more fully to You, Lord?”
Deuteronomy 11:1-32
Lord, You give us Your promises and Your
warnings. You show us the better way – and You say to us, “Make sure
that You don’t go back to the old way of living, back to the world’s way
of living, back to the way of life that will never satisfy.”
Deuteronomy 12:1-32
Who chooses what is important to us? Is it You, Lord? or Are we the
ones who are in control? Help us, Lord, not to pay lip-service to You –
without really opening our hearts to You and giving You first place in
our lives.
Deuteronomy 13:1-14:21
Lord, You are the God of love. You are also the God of holiness. We
like to hear about Your love. It makes us feel good. We’re not so keen
on hearing about Your holiness. You are the holy God. You are the God
who calls us to be holy. Help us, Lord, not to be content with the
half-truth, contained in the words, “All you need is love.” We do need
love – but we also need holiness. Help us to “strive … for the holiness
without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
Deuteronomy 14:22-15:23
Lord, You call us to belong to You. This is wonderful. It makes our
hearts glad. You also call us to serve You. We’re not to remain what we
were before we became Your redeemed people. We’re to be renewed –
“beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being changed into His likeness
from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Deuteronomy 16:1-17:13
Lord, we celebrate Your love. We rejoice in Your salvation. Your love
is a dying love. We see Your love in the death of Jesus, our Saviour.
It’s also an undying love. It’s the only love that never dies. It never
comes to an end. It’s eternal love, shown to us in the sacrificial death
of “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
Deuteronomy 17:14-18:22
Help us, Lord, to be obedient to Your Word. Help us, in our
obedience, to remain humble. How can we possibly bring glory yo You if
we’re thinking about how obedient we are when we should be rejoicing in
the great love by which You have saved us and the great power by which
You keep us walking in the way of faith? Even when we’re pressing on to a
closer walk with You, help us never to forget this: “Who is a God like
You, forgiving sin … ” (Micah 7:18-20).
Deuteronomy 19:1-20:9
By Your grace, Lord, You call us to be Your soldiers and servants.
Help us not to be “fearful and fainthearted” (Deuteronomy 19:19). Help
us to be “good soldiers of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3). When we hear
your challenging question: “Who is on the Lord’s side?”, may we give our
committed answer: “By Thy call of mercy, by Thy grace divine, we are on
the Lord’s side; Saviour, we are Thine.”
Deuteronomy 20:10-21:23
We thank You, Lord, for Your amazing love – “while we were Your
enemies we were reconciled to You by the death of Your Son” (Romans
5:10); “Once we were no people but now we are Your people; once we had
not received mercy but now we have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).
Deuteronomy 22:1-30
Help us, Lord, to be caring people. Where does this love for one
another come from? It comes from Your love for us. Where there is a
growing appreciation of Your love for us, there will be an increasing
commitment to sharing Your love with others. Help us to love people
without loving the ways of those who “live as enemies of the Cross of
Christ” (Philippians 3:18). May our love for them be a true expression
of Your love for them. May it call them to return to You, to be forgiven
by You, to make a new beginning with You.
Deuteronomy 23:1-25
Show us, Lord, what we really are – without You. Make us, more truly
and more fully, what You want us to become – by Your saving grace. Fill
us with Your holiness – and fill us with Your love. You’ve lifted us out
of our sin and into Your salvation. This is Your doing. It’s not our
own achievement. we’re called to be Your holy people – but we dare not
imagine that we’re better than everyone else. We’re set apart for You –
but we must never forget that we’ll never be anything more than sinners,
saved by Your grace. Your love has reached. Your love changes us. Make
us more like Jesus – walking with You on the pathway of holiness and
reaching out, in love, to others, inviting them to receive the Saviour’s
love and respond to His call: “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19).
Deuteronomy 24:1-25:29
We thank You, Lord, that You love us. We thank You that You have done
great things for us. We think of Your great love. We think of all that
You have done for us – and we say, “To God be the glory.”
Deuteronomy 26:1-27:10
Lord, You have saved us. You call us, now, to live in obedience to
Your Word. Teach us Your way, Lord, and help us to walk in it. May the
light of Your love shine upon us. May Your love for us fill us with more
love for You.
Deuteronomy 27:11-28:24
Lord, You speak to us Your Word of warning – and Your promise of
blessing. You call us back from the way of disobedience – and on to the
pathway of obedience and blessing. Where does the blessing come
from? Does it come from our obedience? No! It comes from Your love. It
comes from Your promise. Your love reaches us in our sin. Your blessing
increases in us as we learn to turn from our sin and give You first
place in our lives.
Deuteronomy 28:25-68
Why, Lord, do You speak to us the Word of warning and the promise of
blessing? There is a good way to which we must turn – and there’s also a
bad way from which we turn. How can we really appreciate and embrace
the good way if we do not see the clear contrast between the good way
and the bad way? Help us, Lord, to choose the good way – to choose
Jesus, who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6).
Deuteronomy 29:1-29
Lord, Your Word speaks to us about the “secret things” and “the
things that are revealed” (Deuteronomy 29:29). There are some “things”
that we will never understand. These “things” belong to You, Lord. Help
us to focus our attention on “the things that are revealed”, the
teaching that comes to us from “the holy Scriptures”, the Gospel which
brings us to Jesus, our Saviour – calling us to put our faith in Him and
live in obedience to Him (2 Timothy 3:14-17).
Deuteronomy 30:1-31:13
Lord, You are not a god who keeps his distance from us. You are not a
god who keeps his silence.You come near to us. You speak Your Word to
us (Deuteronomy 30:11-14). How do we know that You are near to us? How
do we know that You speak Your Word to us? Jesus is “God with us”
(Matthew 1:23). He is “the Word made flesh” (John 1:14). Thank You for
Jesus – He comes near to us and He speaks to us. Help us, Lord, to
treasure His presence and to respond to His Word.
Deuteronomy 31:14-32:18
We sing to You, Lord. We sing our song of praise. It’s the song of
Your salvation. It’s the song that gives glory to You. May our song of
praise be more than words. May it be the song that arises from our
hearts. May it be the song that comes from lives that are being
transformed by Your grace.
Deuteronomy 32:19-33:17
Lord, You speak to us the Word of condemnation. You tell us that we
are “a perverse generation” You tell us that “You will hide Your face
from us” (Deuteronomy 32:20). You also speak to us the Word of
compassion – “The Lord will … have compassion on His servants, when He
sees their power is gone” (Deuteronomy 32:26). Help us, Lord, to hear
the Word of condemnation – to know that “our power has gone”, so that we
can hear the Word of compassion, the Word that comes to us in our
weakness, the Word that brings us into Your strength – “a new creation
in Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Deuteronomy 33:18-34:12
We thank You, Lord, that You are “the eternal God.” You are “our Refuge.” You hold us in Your “everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27). This doesn’t mean that life will be easy for us – but it does mean that You will be with us – whatever happens, and You’ll never let us down. You’ll always be there for us. You are “for us” – whatever problems we may have to face, may we learn to say, with triumphant faith, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
Deuteronomy 33:18-34:12
We thank You, Lord, that You are “the eternal God.” You are “our Refuge.” You hold us in Your “everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27). This doesn’t mean that life will be easy for us – but it does mean that You will be with us – whatever happens, and You’ll never let us down. You’ll always be there for us. You are “for us” – whatever problems we may have to face, may we learn to say, with triumphant faith, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
No comments:
Post a Comment