Who I Am In Christ Devotionals

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I could learn your statutes. Psalms 119:67,71 Why am I in pain? Sometimes, only God knows the exact answer to that question. Sometimes, with a little patience and waiting on the Lord, I can figure it out; I can understand it enough. I’m sure there are always depths to any situation that I don’t fully comprehend. And maybe the simple answer is the best one today. This passage from Psalm 119 says, “Before I was afflicted, I went astray…” (And by the way, I’m skipping some verses in the passage today, but please read Psalm 119:65-72 if you have the time today) Those are sobering words. I went astray, so the Lord afflicted me. Or some would rather say it like this, “The Lord allowed me to be afflicted.” My heart and my behavior matter. They matter to me, to my family, my place of employment, my community, my church, and the church. When my heart and behavior are astray, it aff

  Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Psalms 105:4 (CSB) Always--that’s one of those easy-to-zoom-by words. We toss it around like so much change in our pockets.  Always. What does the Psalmist mean when he says it?  I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I think he means it. He means always: in all things, in the good times and in the bad, continually.  Seek his face. I’m not about to say I understand the fullness of what that means. I know I only get a little piece of it. I get this though… It’s relational. It’s not like sending a text or an email. It’s talking. It’s heart to heart. It’s conversational. It’s face to face. It’s wanting to be in His presence now. First the verse says, “Seek the LORD.” One Hebrew scholar defined the word seek like this… The Hebrew word is “dārash, "seek with care," that is, because you care" about someone or something, "examine, inquire" about something, then "seek," often, "seek to kno