Johnny Hunt - God is Faithful

God Is Faithful: MyDaily Devotional

2014 by Thomas Nelson

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Other Scripture quotations are from the following sources:

THE KING JAMES VERSION (KJV). HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. All rights reserved. The Message (MSG) by Eugene H. Peterson. 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved. NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE (NASB), The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. All rights reserved. THE CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH VERSION (CEV). 1991 by the American Bible Society. Used by permission. Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT) 1996 and The Living Bible (TLB) 1971 used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

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T he Bible says that God is always faithful. He never changes and you can count on Him in every circumstance. This devotional has been created by fifty devoted men of God as a reminder of the faithfulness of our Lord every day.

In your daily walk with the Lord, you can turn to Him and He will invite you to be faithful as He is faithful. Each day is filled with devotions that cover the emotions of everyday life and encourage you to spend time in Gods Word.

It is our prayer that each devotion will be a blessing and touch your heart as you draw closer to the One who loves you unconditionally. For He has promised to never leave you nor forsake you.

Dr. Johnny M. Hunt
Senior Pastor
First Baptist Woodstock
Woodstock, Georgia

CONTENTS

WEEK CONTRIBUTOR

When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long.

PSALM 32:3

W hich do you want firstthe good news or the bad? Many of us choose the bad news. Maybe we want to save the better for last. Or maybe the bad sweetens the good for us. The bad news of Psalm 32:3 can definitely make the good news sweeter.

And the bad news is the price of keeping silent about sin. When David kept silent, he reported, my bones grew old through my groaning. The implication is to confess your sin and experience Gods forgiveness.

Confession is the only means of receiving Gods forgiveness. Those who hope to receive righteousness in return for their good works misunderstand the law. God gave us the law so we could recognize our sin (Romans 3:20); God gave us His Son so we could be forgiven of that sin. And this is the process of forgiveness:

Conviction: For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer (Psalm 32:4).

Confession: I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin (Psalm 32:5).

Confidence: You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance (Psalm 32:7).

Holy God, help me be aware when You are convicting me, ready to confess from those sins, and freed to live confidently in Your presence. I am grateful that You called me to be Your child.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

PSALM 32:12

I ts a startling description of a man after Gods own heart.

According to John Phillips in Exploring Psalms, Volume One: An ExpositoryCommentary, David was one of the greats in all of Scripturea great saint, a great sage, and a great sovereign. But he was also one of the greatest sinners of the Bible. Phillips writes, He sinned with a high-handed rebellion and with a depth of cunning and duplicity which would astonish us did we not know the wickedness of our own hearts.

David was a haunted man after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, but for an entire year after his sin, David put up a bold front. When God finally sent Nathan to confront David, the broken man recognized his sin, cried tears of repentance, and accepted Gods offer of forgiveness.

David then promised in Psalm 51:13 to teach transgressors Gods ways. David did so by writing Psalm 32, a Maschil or teaching psalm from the Hebrew hymnbook. Promise kept!

And what a blessing for subsequent God-followers! As St. Augustine wisely said more than fifteen hundred years ago, The beginning of knowledge is to know thyself to be a sinner. He kept a copy of Psalm 32 over his bed as a daily reminder of his need for Gods grace.

Spirit, thank You for helping me recognize my sin. Jesus, thank You for taking on the punishment for my sin. And thank You, God, for this grace-filled process of forgiveness.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

PSALM 32:1

I n our postmodern culture, youd think sin were a four-letter word. Rarely in mainstream media is sin a topic of discussion. Problems in peoples lives are caused by a variety of things (parenting, socioeconomics, physiology) other than sin. In Psalm 32, though, David used four different words for sin.

Transgression is rebellion, a revolt against a lawful authority. David had disobeyed Gods commandment: You shall not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14).

Sin is missing the mark or falling short of the target, the ideal, or Gods established standards. As the apostle Paul noted, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

Iniquity refers to being twisted, crooked, or bent, and human nature is definitely warped like that instead of being straight, perfect, and true. This condition is what we call original sin, that is, the corruption of Gods very good man and woman.

Deceit refers to the insincerity and duplicity of human nature. David chose deceit and guile over truth, seeking to hide his sins, and, when that failed, pretended nothing was wrong. We too can pretend that we have done, said, or thought nothing wrong; we can pretend righteousness.

In order to help us recognize our transgression, sin, iniquity, and deceit, God chastens us, lets us deal with consequences, allows us to hit rock bottomso that we may know His forgiveness and cleansing. And that is grace in any culture.

Thank You, Almighty God, for the Scripture that helps me recognize my sin, for the Holy Spirit who convicts me of that sin, and for Your forgiveness that awaits my confession.