Wednesday devotion

Every Wednesday, a student is assigned to share a devotion during morning tea. Today (Wednesday) it was my turn to share. Basically, I was asked to share what God has been teaching me lately through His word and through the various classes we have been having. Here is what I talked about. I have not written out all the passages (although I did read them during the devotion) and so I would encourage you to look them up as that will make it all make more sense.

This week, I was reading Mathew and a passage in chapter 8 really stood out to me. Verses 5-10 and 13 really show the awesome power of prayer. Just as God spoke the light into existence, so can He give the answer to a prayer just by saying the word. There is a brilliant description of the power of the voice of God in Psalm 29. Also, Isaiah 55:10-22 really shows the power of God’s word. We bring our petitions to Jesus who is sovereign and if He tells His angels to go, they go. If He tells the stars to shine or the land to produce vegetation, it will be as He commanded. In the same way, any request we bring before the Lord that is within His will, He will answer. It is not a question of His capability because all He has to do is say the word! All thins are of God and therefore belong to Him and so He has the authority to move mountains in order to bring about His will. Mathew 8:5-10, 13 really spoke to me because it made me realise that when I ask God to bring about His will in my life, I can thank Him at the same time because I know that He has already said the word to put things into motion to accomplish it. It is when I come to God in complete faith of what He can and is doing that He is most pleased.
And so I want to pray like David in Psalm 25: “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God.” “Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my saviour, and my hope is in you all day long.” One thing that Kris taught that really spoke to me was on this topic. He said that God will always answer the prayer that is prayed according to His will. God has been teaching me that I need to let go of the worry I have for my future and totally trust in Him because His plans are far greater than mine and His will is far better than mine.
Therefore, there is tremendous power in prayer and God is delighted to answer the prayer that is prayed according to His will.
I went on a run yesterday (and I don’t run!) and so today I hurt. But I realised that running is a good example of how I need to trust God. Running has always been hard for me. It doesn’t take long before I am out of breath and ready to give up. And so that’s when I stop running and start walking. But after a while, I realized yesterday that I could start running again.
Trusting in God is hard! I keep wanting to give up and deal with issues in my life and so I stop running and start walking. But God gives me the strength to start running again, trusting that He will provide the strength I need.
Running hurts because it is stretching my muscles and my lungs further that what is comfortable. In the same way, it’s not always comfortable as God stretches me, teaching me to fully trust Him.
As I learned recently in a passage in Mathew 19, I need to give up everything and put Christ first before everything and follow Him. But it won’t be easy. I found tremendous comfort in verse 26 where Jesus says that it is actually impossible for any man to do this, but with Him, all things are possible! And so I can keep running, in faith, trusting that He will provide the strength I need.
To conclude, Psalm 20:7 says “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”