Seth Bartal's ADVENTURE

Restore Us (Psalms 82-83, 137, 126)

God, we have fallen away from you and away from the things of you.  In our world of busyness, we have allowed the noise of technology to overpower your voice, and we have made amusement our first priority over spending time with you.  Please restore us, Lord.  Restore us to the place where we first found you – when we were in awe of you and when we welcomed your Spirit into our lives.  Restore in us the desire we had then to know you as our God and to live in a way that brought you honor and glory.  Help us to understand your unique calling on each one of our lives, and give us joy in the fulfillment of that calling.  More than all of the things of this world, we simply need you.  By your mercy and grace: forgive us for our complacency, and restore us.

Beyond the Requests (Psalms 134, 146-150)

I’m not sure what your daily prayers are like, but many of mine come down to asking God for things.  Typically they hover around “bless me,” “help me,” or “give me.”  In each one of those prayers, the idea is that I am lacking and that I want God to help make up my deficit.  These aren’t necessarily wrong prayers, but if they’re all that I pray, then I’m missing something.  The Psalms teach us that, beyond simply asking Him for the things we want or think we need, we also need to praise God.  In one of my seminary courses I learned a really cool way to pray by using the Psalms as the launching point.  First, take the day of the month and add 30 to it 4 times (that gives you 5 Psalms to choose from – on the 31^st, use Psalm 119).  For example, today is the 25^th, so I would choose Psalms 25, 55, 85, 115, and 145.  Secondly, quickly peruse each Psalm to see which one you’d like to pray for the day – this should take only about 30 seconds.  Finally, read through the Psalm line by line and pause to offer God prayers for each part of it.  Keep praying on one line until you have nothing left to say, and then move to the next line.  Developing this discipline is an incredibly valuable piece for your devotional life.  If my instructions didn’t make sense, don’t hesitate to post a comment or send a private message, and I’ll try to offer more insights.

The Lamp (Psalms 119:89-176; 136)

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 119:105 where we read that God’s word is a lamp to our feet.  A better rendering of “lamp” might be “lantern” because it gives a clearer image of what a lamp from that time period actually was.  It was not a flashlight that illuminated a large area in front.  Rather, a lamp shed light on a 2-3 foot radius around it.  People would sometimes place the lamp on a pole and carry it on their shoulders so that the lamp was in front of them illuminating the next step or two.  The point is that God’s Word is such that it gives us direction right now in the circumstances that we face.  Whatever the next step is, the Word illuminates the path.  It doesn’t give us 10 steps down the path; it simply gives us what we need in the moment.  If you’re uncertain of where to go or what to do, look in God’s Word for wisdom and direction; seek His guidance, and He will give it generously.

The Other Side of Grace (Psalms 119:1-88; 72)

Grace is a wonderful thing.  It truly is the unearned joy of the Christian life because you can never behave so badly that you lose it, nor can you behave so good that you deserve it.  Grace, by its very nature, does not demand anything from us; it is simply granted when we choose to trust in Christ’s death for the forgiveness of our sins.  When we accept God’s grace, we realize that we can never measure up to perfection, and we accept that God doesn’t expect us to.  Yet in Psalm 119 we see someone who does everything in his means to live by God’s Word and by His ways.  The truth is, when we allow the reality of grace to penetrate our hearts, the Holy Spirit gives us news desires that we didn’t previously possess: desires to know God more deeply and to please Him with our lives.  We don’t strive to please Him for the sake of earning His acceptance any longer; we strive to please Him because we love Him and we want to know Him more and more.  That’s how the Psalmist can say, “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!” (v. 10, ESV).  Are you seeking God?  Do you strive to know Him more deeply?  Are you pleasing Him with your life?  On the other side of grace these desires exist, and they are the mark of one who has accepted the incredible gift.

Delighting in God (Psalms 37, 71, 94)

Over the past several years I have been seeking to perfect my recipe for grilled pizza.  I have been a pizza lover ever since I can remember, and I’ve always enjoyed grilling food, too.  So it seemed like a natural progression to put the pizza on the grill.  It was an awful mess the first time, but it has improved as I’ve learned better dough recipes and how to form the pizzas.  I delight in making and eating grilled pizza because it brings me great joy.  There are lots of things that we delight in in life: relationships, entertainment, experiencing nature, etc.  Psalm 37 tells us that we should delight in the Lord.  The Hebrew word that gets translated as “delight” means to take pleasure and enjoyment in something, and it carries the implication that the thing is very desirable.  In other words, we should find pleasure and enjoyment in the Lord because He is desirable.  When we delight in Him, we begin to delight in His ways because we understand that His ways are for our best.  As we understand His ways our hearts begin to desire them, and in His generosity, He gives us the desires of our hearts – which are His desires, too.  It’s a progression: delighting in the Lord, delighting in His ways, desiring His ways, receiving our desires.  But here’s the thing: delighting in the Lord is a choice we have to make.  Our natural tendency is to delight in ourselves.  The sacrifice of such a choice is a lack of lasting joy.  In what will you delight?

THIS is the Day (Psalms 121, 111-118)

I’ll never forget one day I had in Brazil when utter frustration consumed me.  To be honest, I don’t remember exactly what the frustrations were, but I know I was mad about something and it was taking over my thoughts.  I was driving from our apartment to the school where we were teaching, and I was reminded of a song I learned a long time ago that was written using a phrase from Psalm 118: “This is the day that the Lord has made.”  When we realize that God is the author of our days, our frustrations seem a little less significant because we know that God, in His grace, mercy, and love, is allowing us to face them.  Regardless of today’s circumstances, I must get to the point where I recognize God’s gift of the day, and I must choose to rejoice and be glad even if the circumstances are frustrating or challenging.  The reason I say that I must choose to rejoice and be glad is that the only other alternative is bitterness.  If I don’t choose to rejoice and be glad, then bitterness takes over, and I feel that I have been dealt an unfair hand in life.  It’s because I know that God loves that I can rejoice in today – He won’t give me anything that isn’t for my benefit.  So today make the choice to be glad and rejoice in what the Lord has given you.

The God Who Upholds (Psalms 131, 138-139, 143-145)

There are certain circumstances in life that I never want to face: the premature death of a loved one, suffering from a natural disaster, loss of mental capacity, etc.  Honestly, I could make a pretty long list here.  But here’s the thing that I know: regardless of what I face in life, I can hold fast to the knowledge that God will be there to uphold me in the midst of it.  There is no trial in life that He is incapable of sustaining me through, and His Word promises that He will never abandon His people.  Regardless of what you’re going through right now, God is there and He cares.  He hasn’t left you, and He isn’t going to.  His desire isn’t that you live a life without hardships; His desire is that you grow into the person He wants you to be, and sometimes that means facing difficulty.  Be encouraged today to know that, if you have placed your trust in Christ’s death, God is with you; He is not leaving you on your own but is by your side as you walk through all of life – the good and the bad.

Tomorrow Comes (Psalms 30, 108-110)

It’s ironic that I’m writing about tomorrow since yesterday I wrote about today.  The truth is that today sometimes carries with it some incredibly hard circumstances.  Sometimes in today we have to muster up our courage to bury a loved one, to have a difficult conversation, or to face our critics.  And even though the tasks of the day may be defeating or emotionally draining, David reminds us that joy comes with the morning.   After all, each day is a new day, and it’s a new opportunity to see God’s gratuitous mercies in our lives.  When today is hard, remember that tomorrow comes, and it’s only a few hours away.

Today Counts (Psalms 57, 95, 97-99)

Last night my Mom shared a story about my Grandmother.  Apparently when my Grandma was a little girl her mother would allow them to have a dinner of strawberry shortcake once a year when the strawberries came ripe.  My Mom said that sometimes it’s good to change the rules for a day, and I couldn’t agree more.  The problem is that sometimes we change the rules for more than just a day.  When temptation comes, sometimes we get in the mindset that today isn’t that big of a deal.  I’ll stand strong tomorrow, we think.  And then tomorrow comes and we live a deja vu.  The thing is: today counts.  If you hear God’s voice today, don’t delay in responding because today is of utmost importance.  You don’t know if you’ll have tomorrow; all you know you have for certain is what is right in front of you now.  What you do today matters more than what you did yesterday, a week ago, or a year ago.  You cannot change what happened in the past, but you do have control over today.  So make the most of today – refusing to be debilitated by your past and refusing to live in tomorrow.

Soul Thirst (Psalms 5, 38, 41-42)

There is a thirst that exists in our souls, but often our lives are too full of other things to be able to recognize it.  We keep ourselves busy and distracted with technology and entertainment so that we rarely have those moments of solitude in which our thirst becomes apparent.  We move from one thing to the next with the hopes that we will finally be satisfied, but the many wells from which we drink simply leave us thirsting for more.  The Psalmist likens our thirst to that of a deer panting for water – it’s a thirst for the very thing that brings sustenance to life.  And yet our hunt for the source of life is often cut short because of the many other things that provide temporary satisfaction.  But don’t be deceived: the other sources do not substance, they only numb.  And once the thirst returns, we realize that the satisfaction was only temporary.  It is only in the Lord that we will find lasting satisfaction for the thirst that is deep within our souls.  Put away the distractions for a period of time each day – turn off the cell phone and find a place of solitude.  There you will find that you the deep thirst of your soul will be satisfied in the Lord.