READING:
One-year plan: Psalms 36-38, Romans 7
Two-year plan: 1 Samuel 1:1-2:11, Luke 16:1-13
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I was a young pastor in the early 1980s, and I was attending a collegiate ministry conference in my home state of Ohio. I don’t remember much about the event itself—except one particular breakout session led by a college minister. The topic was “scripture memorization,” and the leader taught us within an hour how to memorize the Word. To illustrate his technique, he guided us to memorize Psalm 37:23-25 – “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.”
That training took place a long time ago. I was just a rookie pastor, and I could not say then, “I have been young, and now am old.” At the time, I was most blessed as a young man by the psalmist’s understanding that God directs the paths of His own and upholds them. Now, decades later, it’s the latter part of these verses that most captures my heart today: “I have not seen the righteous forsaken, not his descendants begging bread.” God does indeed establish the steps of a good man, and He does not forsake His own.
He holds us in His hands. Amen.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: How have you seen the Lord direct your paths?
DAILY PRAYER: “Thank You, Lord, for guiding my life.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: Psalms 39-44, Romans 8
Two-year plan: 1 Samuel 2:12-4:1, Luke 16:14-31