Today’s Reading: Psalm 116-118, 1 Cor. 7:1-19

Today’s Reflection:  Psalms 116:6    The LORD preserveth the simple:  I was brought low, and he helped me.

What a comforting promise found in this precious jewel of a verse!  “The LORD preserveth the simple…”  The Hebrew word from which the translators derived the English word “simple” also means “naivete” which is defined by Webster as “native simplicity; unaffected plainness or ingenuousness [innocent and unsuspecting]”.  Today we would say “Naïve”.  Typically, in today’s culture, this word is used in a negative application; however, when it comes to trusting The Lord, the more “naïve” we are in His presence, the better off we are!  It is when we become too experienced and sophisticated that we start leaning on our own understanding instead of trusting The Lord with all our hearts!  Oh what JOY that The Lord rewards simplicity with preservation!  This means that the vulnerabilities we expose ourselves to by being so naïve in His presence are eliminated by our vulnerable, child-like faith in Him to cover for us!  It is difficult for the intellectual to “come down” to this level of simple trust in God, and yet their lives become more and more complicated when they trade their own intellect for the shielding hand of the Almighty.  Think, Oh intellectual one, how much better off you would be, had you the benefits of One who does all your thinking, planning, protecting, and strategizing for you, and who has a 100% perfect success ratio in doing so!  Will you insist on staying in the height of your intellectualism, or will you at last humble yourself to the low estate of simple trust in God to see you through?  No doubt, if you will do the latter, you will experience the same deliverances all of God’s simple children experience when they put their entire trust in His sovereign hand at work in their lives.  In conclusion, the Psalmist also said, “I was brought low, and he helped me.”  Know assuredly that you will not meet Him in your height, but in your low places.  Why?  Because God makes no appointments with prideful men, but with men of low degree!

~ Pastor Gary Caudill

Today’s Reading: Psalm 113-115, 1 Cor. 6

Today’s Reflection:  Psalms 115:12    The LORD hath been mindful of us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.

If, at the end of my life, others know then what I know now, then life will have been lived to its fullest!  What, might you ask, do I know?  I know without a doubt that the LORD hath been mindful of us!  When a single solitary life in this realm of time has been marked by eternity, oh what an occasion to observe and rejoice over, but it does not stop there.  It isn’t just that He has been mindful of me personally; it is that He has been mindful of US… ALL of us!!

Perhaps for some I might need to point out the evidence showcasing and illustrating this fact, as all do not easily or readily see or recognize it.  But make no mistake, the unseen hand of God Almighty is evident in all our lives if we look close enough!

First, consider the fact that though you are troubled on every side, yet you are not distressed.  This means that you are not so hemmed in closely that there is no way of escape.  Oh, you may not see the escape, but we are promised that with every temptation (meaning every trial), God always makes a way of escape (1 Co. 10:13)!

Furthermore, while you stand there perplexed, and while you are waiting even now for the “way out”, you do not despair because at the end of the day The Holy Spirit gives you faith to still believe when you don’t have a leg to stand on!  In other words, HOPE still LIVES even though your situation feels like death!  Stronger people have crushed under lesser burdens than you, and yet you are not alone!

Look at you; even when you are persecuted by all human relations, yet God has not forsaken you!  Even though you have been cast down, God has KEPT you from destruction!  You are invincible until God is through with you!!

So be encouraged, child of God, that despite all the negatives, God in fact IS mindful of you even in this very moment, and the proof is in your survival through the fires of adversity.  Let us rejoice today that we are still on His mind, and He is not finished with us yet.  Just wait until He is finished, and you’ll see!!

~ Pastor Gary Caudill

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Job 1:20-22 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD have, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.  In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

When God exposes our devotion to Him, He strips us of all the layers which may prohibit others from seeing where our heart is.   For Job, after all the layers in this text were stripped from him (his property and his children), he was found still worshipping, because as blessed as he was, his worship was not contingent upon what he held in his hand, but Who he adored in his heart!

And so it should be with us!  If God were to use our life as a testimony of His worthiness, would He want the world to get the impression that we deem Him worthy because of His presents (the things He gives us), or because of His presence (the person He is)?

The condition of mankind in their darkness is such that all blinders must be taken off before they can see God in all His glory!  Having said that, God chooses to use those of us who are redeemed by His grace as instruments by which to reveal His redemptive plan to fallen man.  In doing so, for the benefit of the blind who must see, He sometimes removes all things in our lives which might cause them to remain clueless and blind as it relates to our reason of devotion to Him.

Having said that, the question remains; IF He were to strip us down to nothing but our raw, exposed, inner devotion with no layers causing others to be misinformed of our true intentions, what would they then see?  Would we still be devoted?  Would we still worship our Lord?  Would they at last be convinced that He IS our life, whether we live in comfort or distress while serving Him?

Perhaps not even Job was fully convinced of his own devotion until after he lost it all.  I can’t say that for certain, but it is at least worth considering that it is possible.  It is possible that Job needed to KNOW what God already knew, but the only way Job could walk in confidence was for God to reveal it to him in a way that he would be unforgettably convinced.  And MAYBE God is showing YOU too, so that when He blesses you again, you’ll know where your true strength lies…IN HIM!!!

P.S.  HERE is a POWERFUL sermon on this same passage of scripture by Bro. Jonathan McNeese, which inspired me to write this devotion today.

Pastor Gary Caudill

copyright © by Gary D. Caudill, all rights reserved

Listen to “Do a Mighty Thing!” by The Caudill Family HERE on YouTube.