Who I Am In Christ Devotionals

  Lord, you light my lamp; my God illuminates my darkness. With you I can attack a barricade, Or a ridge, or raiders and with my God I can leap over a wall. Psalm 18:28-31 Stressful Life The Lord lights my lamp. He shines light into my darkness. He does it. He didn't have to, but He called me out of darkness into His light. I would be blind without Him. I know right from wrong. On most things. But on some, without His word, I would be lost in the darkness. “I can attack a barricade,” the Psalm says. That's what the psalmist had to do. I don’t have anything THAT hard to do. And I don't foresee it coming. But I have other real challenges. Sometimes life feels so stressful I could spit. God helps me deal with those difficulties. How I Accomplish His Plans for Me I'm thankful that I don’t have to leap over a wall. Now, if God was there when the Psalmist was doing God’s will, He is here for me when I’m trying to work it out. God chose me for a purpose, maybe not leaping over

Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your practice toward those who love your name. Make my steps steady through your promise; don’t let any sin dominate me. Psalms 119:132-133 I get to ask God to be gracious to me. I know the Lord. He has brought me up out of darkness into His glorious light. But sometimes I feel like one groping around in the darkness. I can wonder if He has forgotten me in all His busy schedule.  He hasn't. He knows what I'm going through. I must ask for His help. That's how this relationship works. And I want to learn to say to Him, in the moment, "Turn to me and be gracious to me." I find this model prayer to be so powerful for me. David (the writer of this verse) is a child of God. I am a child of God too. I get to ask God to be gracious to me too.  I'm addressing the maker and savior of everything and asking Him to be gracious to me God rules. And David is asking from the perspective of knowing that he is a believer who sins. He call

  Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning. Rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents from punishing. Joel 2:12‭-‬13 Wandered Away From Him As a believer, I have often wandered away from Him. In some sense, I stray every day. He calls me back. There have been miserable times in my life where I have resisted His work in my life for years. At times I would have looked like an unbeliever especially to those who didn't know me. A few years ago, due to disaster in my life, I began to realize how much I had rebelled. And He was right there. I began to pray for His conviction and that I would seek His face. That I would repent. I petitioned the Lord day after day and started to see it happen. Steadfast, Patient Love Like the verse says, He was gracious and merciful. Not only that, He was an