Daily Bible Reading - Saturday - January 16th

How many times have we wrestled with thoughts and ideas of who we are and what we want to be?  Has God in the past given you ideas and asked you to do something that you really didn’t want to do or felt you could not do?  When I read Genesis this morning the passage where Jacob wrestles with God really stuck out to me.  I got to thinking how many times have I wrestled with God over losing weight.  How many times has He asked me to do something and I just felt I could not do it for one reason or another.  So many times I’ve used the excuse of being overweight to get out of doing something, how lame is that?  When I look back I see how God really wanted to use me right where I was, overweight and all.  There have been so many opportunities for me to do the work of God and yet I turned it down or just refused to do it thinking I was to big and could not be used by God.  God uses us where we are no matter how big or small we are at the time. It saddens me to think of all the times I said no to God with my stinking thinking.  But, how wonderful of a God we serve that he is faithful and just to forgive us, help us get up and even points us in the right direction and helps us walk one step at a time, and He is always there for us to lean on when we get weary.  When I think about it, He’s been there the whole time all I had to do was say “Help me God" and He would of jumped right in.  This really didn’t have anything to do with the way Jacob wrestled with God but it just really hit me when I read the word wrestle.  It’s amazing how God can take one word and really speak to your heart.  I just love it how He does that and how He can take one passage of scripture and speak to several different people and they all get something different out of it, like y’all have said  God always comes down to our level and speaks to us, what a mighty God we serve.

Today’s Reading

Genesis 32:13-34:31
Matthew 11:7-30
Psalm 14:1-7
Proverbs 3:19-20

Daily Devotional

Trust in the Lord with all your heart…(Proverbs 3:5, NIV)

God wants to teach us today to trust Him; to not lean on our own understanding, but truly bypass our challenges and lean on Him. Many people have a difficult time trusting God because they think He's mad at them, or they aren't sure if He wants to do good to them. But I love what I heard someone say one time—God's not mad at you, He's madly in love with you!

Understand today, God is looking at you with good eyes, with sweet eyes, with loving eyes. He's not looking at what you're doing wrong; He's looking at what you're doing right. He is the God of love, and His arms are stretched out toward you today. Why don't you take a moment and let that sink down into your heart. When you begin to really understand the way God sees you, you will begin to praise Him in a whole new way! You'll go deeper and further with Him knowing that no matter what you've done; God loves you because you are His righteousness in Christ Jesus! So let's just throw our shoulders back, let's have confidence in God's love; and remember, no matter what is going on in your life, you can trust God. You can lean on Him because He's for you. He's not against you, and He is ready to lead you into victory in every area of your life.