Devotional for July 2

Left Up Your Heads

1 The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah. Psalm 24 (KJV)

The Morning Exhortation

There will be mornings when you wake up feeling like an ugly duckling still in its shell. So what? Nowhere in the Bible does it say we should let our feelings rule us. Quite the opposite. The Bible commands us to walk by faith, not by sight. This beautiful truth will set the swan within you free. In the beginning, the spiritual baby duck has a faith that needs to seek and strive, but it can often seem like there is little progress. Continue wrestling and keep pecking until you breakthrough! Cast down every doubt and uncertainty. Counter with praise and thanksgiving for the goodness and faithfulness of God. Hold on to the knowledge that God means to bless you and keep praising until God grants the assurance of faith that allows your soul to rest with a confident expectation that He has granted the blessing. And then look to Him, even in the mist of contrary winds and the utter darkness of this world swirling all around you, to perform that which He has promised. Have faith in God, trust Him, and He will never fail you. Joyous is the day when at last we are brought to the full assurance that we can trust God to fulfill His every promise.

Question

How do we get the assurance of faith?

Answer

The hinderance is completely on our side (Hebrews 10:22), God is more willing to grant us the full assurance of both His present and future salvation than we are willing to receive it (Romans 8:32; Isaiah 65:2; James 4:1-3). The assurance comes from right motives (Proverbs 16:3), and fighting through the shell of this flesh-oriented world in which we live (Romans 12:1-3; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Hebrews 10:35-36), which is the necessary testing of our faith (1 Peter 4:12; James 1:2-4). Fight back with affirming your complete trust in your Redeemer in the mist of every storm of doubt (Galatians 2:20). The good fight of faith is won only by steadfastly holding on to the fact that without Christ we can do nothing (John 15:5), and thereby choosing to rely on God alone (Matthew 11:25-30, 16:24-25; 2 Peter 1:2-4). When we accept our weakness (Psalm 115:1) and experientially learn to have no confidence in our own natural strength (Philippians 3:1-3), then can God grant us the assurance of faith that makes us strong (Philippians 3:4-8; 2 Corinthians 12:9-10; Habakkuk 3:17-19; Jude 1:21-25).

The Prayer Appointed for This Week from the Book of Common Prayer

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant that all of us may be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.