IDOK DEVOTION FOR FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2010
Praise Reports, Prayer Requests and Updates:
Can you believe it? It’s Friday again already — well, it will be when this is posted!
I read Proverbs 2 early this morning. It’s a chapter informing us we are wise when we seek wisdom. Verses 1 through 4 are IF verses and verse 5 is a THEN verse. If we do verses 1 through 4, then we will receive what ABBA promised. The chapter is full of good stuff! Like these verses 11 Discretion will guard you, understanding will watch over you, 12 To deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things; Ain’t that the truth! Exercising God-given discretion will keep us out of all kinds of trouble.
But the verse I want to settle on for this writing is verse 21 For the upright will live in the land and the blameless will remain in it;
This land of wisdom, discretion, understanding, protection and safety is the place to be, wouldn’t you say? And verse 21 says the upright will come to live there, yet it is the blameless that remain there. Why is that? This is the picture that came to me as I pondered this verse: A beautiful clearing. The grass is green and lush, dotted with splendid multiple colors and pleasant blending fragrances, bordered and punctuated with ancient oaks and willows, all cuddled by a gentle, soothing breeze; and a swing beckons me from the branch of a massive oak and a table invites me set beneath the boughs with fine lace and linen coverings heavy laden with crystal gold-rimmed goblets brimming with iced tea and fresh mint alongside silver serving trays loaded with cheeses, breads, fruits, candies, pastries, every thing to appease and gratify every taste bud in my salivating mouth. And if this were not enough there on a nearby hill is a house, but not just any house; it’s my house! And the mortgage is fully paid and every detail of the house delights me — I wouldn’t change a thing! Would I stay in such a place? Heavens yes!!! Would the place remain beautiful and splendid? Only if I tended it!
All the wisdom, revelations, discernment, knowledge ABBA gives us is ours to keep IF we tend it. We arrive at a place of learning, a place of wisdom and discretion, understanding and yes protection and safety as we humble ourselves and take on His Uprightness. So why not tend this gift of His Uprightness and seek to be blameless in thought and conduct so we can REMAIN in that place of ever increasing beauty and splendor? Beats me! Just lazy I guess.
1 My son, if you will receive my words
And treasure my commandments within you,
2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom,
Incline your heart to understanding;
3 For if you cry for discernment,
Lift your voice for understanding;
4 If you seek her as silver
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
5 Then you will discern the fear of the LORD
And discover the knowledge of God.
To review the list of names for prayer, please click here.
ABBA, I don’t know that I have done this justice but I pray You will take up my lack and abundantly supply to the hearts of our IDOKs and Readers what You mean in this portion of Scripture. I pray for a salivating heart for You and Your Word for myself and all our IDOKs and Readers. I pray that we will overcome any laziness and preoccupation with the urgent and necessary things and become enthralled with You the Imperative. I pray You will day by day impress upon me, in me and through and through that this frame of mine houses Your Spirit. I am thinking about that fact these recent days and I think it should move me more than it has. I pray it yet will.
I am so pleased and grateful to hear the good reports regarding Jason and Mike and Alice, the stepson and Baby Ryder. Thank You. And I pray for Alice as she undergoes the cataract surgery that it will be textbook perfect and her vision will improve, even be reversed to a much better time. And we pray now for the remaining names on our list for coming good reports from all of them too. And for safety and protection for our IDOK Troops. For their families to be provided for and may they all conduct themselves in a worthy manner.
Again we pray for Christian Churches that they be Houses of Prayer and particularly three congregations that they be praying as never before and each see You manifest Yourself lifting up JESUS to all who are watching. And, ABBA, I pray for the D’Angelo Family that they will be open and receptive to what You want to do for them and in them. Thank You for hearing our prayers and giving to us better than we ask. Amen and amen in JESUS Mighty and Holy Name.
