Devotional for August 18

The Lord Reigns For Ever

146 Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.
2 While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God:
6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:
7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners:
8 The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous:
9 The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
10 The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. Psalm 146 (KJV)

The Morning Exhortation

The one who knows only success is weaker than the one who knows both success and failure. If all you have ever done ends in success, it becomes too easy to trust in your own strength. The bigger that bubble gets, the bigger the mess it will leave when it blows up in your face. Nothing fertilizes the evil root of pride better than an unbroken string of successes. Guard your heart against all forms of pride. Not only against the common forms like arrogance, vainglory, and conceit, but also against the opposite forms like timidity, envy, and pretense. Any pride allowed in the heart gives the enemy a foothold. Pride is the dominant spirit controlling those who are in the flesh. The Bible tells us that all who are of a carnal mind, and sow to the flesh, will reap from the flesh disease, suffering, pain, and death.  Be diligent and repent! Be sober, set your mind on the things above, and be watchful against the deceitfulness of your own heart. Only God is worthy to sit on the throne of the human heart. 

Question

How can we know God?

Answer

A couple of thousand years in the making, the Holy Bible is the golden record for all who want to know the living God (Scripture). All who love the word of God, love God (Scripture). All who have the word of God abiding in their heart, have God abiding in their heart (Scripture). With the word of God and life experience comes wisdom (Scripture). Without meditating on the word day and night we are easy prey for the loud, constantly in the face, tempting voices of folly all around us (Scripture). Be ye doers of the word and you will come to know the Lord through personal experience (Scripture). 

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

Grant to me, Lord. I pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that I, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.