[Dailydevo] Daily Devotion Thursday September 22, 2005

[Barry Ludwig]

Daily Devotion Thursday September 22, 2005

This week's devotions are written by Pastor Ludwig and are based upon well
known Biblical "one-liners."

 

Psalm 23:1

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

 

As a child, I thought that what the psalmist was saying was that God would
give me whatever I wanted. and I wanted a lot!  As I grew I realized some
things about myself and I was taught some wondrous things about God. I
learned that after receiving something I urgently "wanted" it did not
automatically make me happy. I learned that not everything I wanted was the
same as what I needed. Over the years, I was taught by faith-filled women
and men that God does indeed give us what we need for a purposeful and
joyous life but that He does not spoil us like an indulgent parent, with
material wealth for our own use. What we have received over and above our
own need is to be shared with others whose needs are not yet met.

I am saddened at the growing appeal of those who preach a "gospel of
personal wealth" rather than a gospel of grace and compassion. Perhaps we
need to look at the Hebrew of Psalm 23 again and understand it's true
meaning; "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing needful." Let us
depend upon that promise and let us be challenged by it to keep a watchful
eye out for the needy.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://zlc-aa.org/pipermail/dailydevo_zlc-aa.org/attachments/20050922/e4e9da55/attachment.htm