Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD     and take refuge in him!   Let all the upright in heart exult! Psalm 64:10 ESV We might assume the righteous one would rejoice in Himself. We might think that righteous people would be all self-congratulatory. Yet the psalmist commands the righteous to rejoice in the LORD. We become righteous through faith in the LORD. We don't become righteous by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We need to take refuge in Him. We need to take refuge in God from the condemnation we deserve for our natural unrighteousness. We need His salvation. We need Christ's righteousness to be credited to our bankrupt spiritual accounts. We have every reason to rejoice in the LORD. If our salvation depended on ourselves, we'd be miserable. After all, we let ourselves down, never mind God Himself. Yet because salvation depends on God we have hope. 'God of our salvation, we rejoice in You for sending Christ to bear our punishment and to be our rig...

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? Hebrews 12:7 ESV  We might not like the thought of being disciplined. Yet discipline is a quality we all need to develop. By being disciplined, hopefully we become disciplined.  God can use difficult circumstances to discipline us. The Hebrew Christians were coming to realise that the Christian life requires endurance. They were being persecuted for abandoning Judaism for Christ.  The writer to the Hebrew Christians was helping them to realise that God could turn what seemed like a negative into a positive. Getting disciplined by our parents never felt good at the time. Yet hopefully it produced the good outcome of making us disciplined.  None of us are naturally self controlled. We need God to develop that fruit in us. He often does so through challenging circumstances, but He always gives us the grace to endure.  'Dear Father in...

Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me. Psalms 103:2 (NLT) We have every reason to praise the LORD for all His goodness to us. Sadly, we have a tendency to forget all the good things He does for us. Everything good we enjoy is a gift from Him. God is the Source of everything good. Food, drink, shelter, relationships; all ultimately come from His hands. God forbid that we would forget all the benefits He provides for us. The greatest thing God does for us is to give us eternal life, through faith in His Son, crucified on our behalf. If we trust in Him, we are safe for eternity. We mustn't become like spoilt children who forget His goodness. To remember is a conscious decision. Some things we'd rather forget. God's goodness is something we should consciously seek not to forget. 'LORD, we praise You for Your goodness to us, in Christ Jesus ultimately, in whose name we pray, amen'.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26 ESV The words of this blessing were famously turned into a song by Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes. It was adopted around the world as a way for Christians to bless people as the lockdowns struck during the coronavirus pandemic. Originally, it was a way for full time ministers of God to bless the people of God as a whole. There's a sense in which God blesses everyone. The sun shines and the rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. Yet if we want to be truly blessed for eternity, we need to trust in the LORD Jesus Christ for salvation. We deserve God's curse upon us for our sinful rebellion against Him. Thankfully He wants to be gracious to us and to give us people. He's not waiting to catch us out or to trip us up. Many Christians even think Jesus will have His head in His hands when He meets ...

 Come and hear, all you who fear God,     and I will tell what he has done for my soul. Psalm 66:16 ESV As John Newton, the former slave trader turned preacher put it, 'grace taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed'. It seems contradictory that we should fear God and love Him, yet it is possible. Because a child loves his dad, he fears to disappoint him: so it should be with us and God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. The love of God is the heart of wisdom. There's no fear in love: in the end, God will assuage the fears of all His people. We will fearlessly rejoice in our Saviour for all eternity. We can start right now. That's what He's done for me, the worst of sinners, He's saved a wretch like me. If there's hope for me, through Christ crucified, there's hope for anyone. We need to fear God and the fact He had to sacrifice His beloved Son on our behalf. That's ...

  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ John 7:38 ESV By nature, we're dehydrated spiritually. We're like a barren, desert land. We need Jesus to hydrate us spiritually. Only Christ can quench our spiritual thirst. He doesn't simply do so for our sakes. He does so in order that we might become a blessing to others. Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. As Ezekiel promised, so Jesus fulfilled. To believe in Jesus isn't just to have a glass half full; it's to be overflowing with blessings for other people. If we receive Christ by faith, we're not to be stingy with Him. We're to call others to repentance and faith in Him. By doing so we bless others eternally, if they take us up on the offer. 'Sovereign Lord, please quench our spiritual thirst, and help us to hydrate others spiritually too. We ask this for Your honour, amen'.

for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose. Philippians 2:13 (NIV) 'Please be patient with me, I'm a work in progress!' We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which He prepared in advance for us to do. We can't take credit for our own good deeds, they're only by the grace of God. Our wills are to be aligned with God's will. We're not to be wilfully sinful, but to seek first God's kingdom, and His righteousness. It's not enough to have a good will, we actively need to act positively in life. The best of intentions aren't enough. If we don't put good intentions into practice, they're not very worthwhile. We're to live righteously and Christlikely.  God's good purpose for us is for us to will and act in accordance with His perfect will. He might permit things that aren't ideal. Yet He wants what's best for us. 'God, please work in us to will and t...

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV) This is an astounding verse. The Lord Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God, the personification of perfection. Yet God made Him to be sin for our sakes. We are sinners by default. We deserve God's wrath for eternity. Yet the eternal Lord bore Father God's wrath upon the cross, so we don't have to. Not only did Jesus become sin for us, but if we trust in Him, we can become the righteousness of God. As Habakkuk said, the righteous shall live by faith. We need to trust in Christ to make us righteous. Many people vainly hope and assume that God can simply let them off with no consequences for their iniquities. It took Jesus's broken body and shed blood to deliver us from the condemnation we deserve. There's no other way for us to be acquitted of our wrongdoing. 'God, please forgive our sins, and make us righteous through faith in the Lord...

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5 (NIV) We're never to graduate from Jesus. We don't need a 'second blessing.' He is enough. We're to remain in Christ. If we produce anything good in our lives, it's thanks to Him. Without Him, we can do no good thing. The fruit of Jesus's Spirit is love, joy and peace etc. If we possess these qualities in increasing measure, we will become fruitful spiritually. We're to become increasingly Christlike in our lives. Jesus is the Source of every good thing. He's not just a good example. He's the Sovereign of the universe. 'Dear Lord, please help us to recognise our helplessness without You. May we consciously depend on You to be spiritually fruitful. F...