KEY VERSE:
“The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.” Ps 121:5-6
“The Lord is always watching over me”. This statement has always been so true for me. Back in 2013, before I even knew the Lord, I was in a very dark place. However, the Lord in His grace picked me up from that place and saved me. That day we began a long journey together in which the Lord would teach me, amongst other things, what real love looked like.
I always remember one of the first scriptures ever prayed over me. It was Luke 47:7. Here, we read the very well-known story of the lady who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and very expensive perfume. After Jesus rebukes the pharisees, He then shares with them this very precious verse, “Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, that’s why she loved much”. At first, I believed this scripture referred to loving people much because the more you’ve been through, the more compassion and understanding you can show towards others. While this is true, I have come to learn over the years, as my intimacy with the Lord has grown, that this verse in fact refers to our love for the Lord. When He has saved you from so much and is your solid rock, it is easy to love Him, not out of shame or obligation, but because He is all the things He says he is; because He forgave us and loved us despite all of our inequities. He doesn’t demand our love, nor does He hold things over us or against us. We read in Micah 7:19, “Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean.” The only love the Lord wants from us is the love that comes from this place of freedom.
I often find, and I’m sure you would probably all agree, that our most fruitful times in life come when our intimacy with the Lord is strong. As soon as that slips, however, then everything we do becomes so much more tiresome and unproductive. I discovered this personally last year after suffering with severe anemia which left me drained and with no energy. I could feel my relationship with the Lord suffer and I didn’t have the strength to fix it. In this time, I saw my ministry begin to suffer. Regardless of how much work I put in, it was like running through mud but getting nowhere. My personal prayer life also began to suffer. I just wasn’t seeing the same power I had previously seen. Thankfully the Lord is so gracious that we need only to return to Him, where He is waiting to welcome us back with open arms. One thing I learnt in that time is this - servanthood is our calling but without intimacy with the Lord, it just becomes exhausting.
ACTION STEPS
• Pray with me today, that even in times of uncertainty and strain, we will know the Lord is always watching over us and that our relationship with the Lord will be stronger than ever before.
• Spend some time today sitting at Jesus’ feet and reminding yourself of the way God sees you and thinks of you.
“The Lord is always watching over me”. This statement has always been so true for me. Back in 2013, before I even knew the Lord, I was in a very dark place. However, the Lord in His grace picked me up from that place and saved me. That day we began a long journey together in which the Lord would teach me, amongst other things, what real love looked like.
I always remember one of the first scriptures ever prayed over me. It was Luke 47:7. Here, we read the very well-known story of the lady who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and very expensive perfume. After Jesus rebukes the pharisees, He then shares with them this very precious verse, “Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, that’s why she loved much”. At first, I believed this scripture referred to loving people much because the more you’ve been through, the more compassion and understanding you can show towards others. While this is true, I have come to learn over the years, as my intimacy with the Lord has grown, that this verse in fact refers to our love for the Lord. When He has saved you from so much and is your solid rock, it is easy to love Him, not out of shame or obligation, but because He is all the things He says he is; because He forgave us and loved us despite all of our inequities. He doesn’t demand our love, nor does He hold things over us or against us. We read in Micah 7:19, “Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean.” The only love the Lord wants from us is the love that comes from this place of freedom.
I often find, and I’m sure you would probably all agree, that our most fruitful times in life come when our intimacy with the Lord is strong. As soon as that slips, however, then everything we do becomes so much more tiresome and unproductive. I discovered this personally last year after suffering with severe anemia which left me drained and with no energy. I could feel my relationship with the Lord suffer and I didn’t have the strength to fix it. In this time, I saw my ministry begin to suffer. Regardless of how much work I put in, it was like running through mud but getting nowhere. My personal prayer life also began to suffer. I just wasn’t seeing the same power I had previously seen. Thankfully the Lord is so gracious that we need only to return to Him, where He is waiting to welcome us back with open arms. One thing I learnt in that time is this - servanthood is our calling but without intimacy with the Lord, it just becomes exhausting.
ACTION STEPS
• Pray with me today, that even in times of uncertainty and strain, we will know the Lord is always watching over us and that our relationship with the Lord will be stronger than ever before.
• Spend some time today sitting at Jesus’ feet and reminding yourself of the way God sees you and thinks of you.