Psalms 103:1-5
“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.“
Psalms 103:1-5 NIV
As we reflect on 2023 let us praise the Lord for everything!!! Not just the good, but the heartache, hurtful, stuff we just did not understand. Let us not drag it into 2024. We need to be thankful for all of God’s grace 2023 held for us.
As we look forward to 2024 with eager expectation for God to guide us in His plans, let us praise His Mighty Name for what He will have each of us do!!!
David, the shepherd king of Israel, gives the most beautiful and complete exhortation to bless the Lord for His grace and mercy, as he catalogues many unfathomable truths within this simple and well-loved Psalm. He offers the most far-reaching entreaty to give thanks and praise to our great God and eternal Redeemer as, step by step, he details the magnificent, redemptive truth that mirrors our own Christian walk.
He starts to catalogue the tender mercies of our God and the amazing gospel truths that have impacted the lives of so many who have trusted in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. Despite their simplicity, his words of awe and wonderment engender in each of our hearts a timeless truth that was as far-reaching in the life of David as it is today. It is a gospel that continues to reverberate down the corridors of time into our own redeemed lives so many thousands of years later.
How thankful we are for the Cross of Christ, for as David reminds us, the Lord forgives our sins. All our sins. This single gift of salvation, by grace through faith, should be sufficient to merit our eternal and never-ending thanks and praise.
We read that He also heals all our diseases. Our newly born-again life is being transformed, day by day, into His own image and likeness. Our inner man is growing in grace and in a knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, as we walk in spirit and truth and abide in Christ and He in us. One day our natural body will be changed into a glorious and eternal body and we shall be like Him.
As we reflect on this 103rd Psalm of David and the privileges that are ours in Him, let our hearts and souls bless the Lord for His goodness, His grace, and His mercy, and let us never cease to thank Him for His unfathomable gift of salvation.
Let us offer Him our grateful thanks and praise, for He is our great God and eternal Kinsman-Redeemer. May His loving-kindness and eternal mercies produce in our hearts awe and wonder for this timeless truth. That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that all who believe on Him, will not perish but have everlasting life.
Praise His holy name!
So for the 1st day of 2024 the devotional goal for each of us is to Praise the Lord or if your version reads Bless the Lord then do it today. Remember His Benefits!!!!
So on behalf of all of us here at Intentional Intimacy Ministries we wish you a very Blessed New Year full of God’s Direction and abundant blessings!!!
Father, thank You for this new day this new year 2024 and pour out Your abundant blessings upon my friend and family today. Lord, thank You for new beginnings. What an incredible day this is with a fresh year's potential stretched out before us. Lord, we want to be found faithful this year in each and every opportunity You bring to us. Thank You, Lord, for new beginnings. Lord, use us to be a blessing to family and friends today.
Father, we love you. Amen
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