CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH THE LIVING WATER DEVOTIONAL FOE AUGUST 2, 2024 : TOPIC – YOU ONLY HAVE WHAT GOD GIVES
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CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH
THE LIVING WATER (January-December, 2024)
DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE
DATE : Friday, August 2, 2024
TOPIC: YOU ONLY HAVE WHAT GOD GIVES
MEMORISE What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good (Psalm 104:28)
READ :Psalm 104: 27-33
[27]. These all wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season.
[28]. What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
[29]. You hide Your face, they are troubled;
You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
[30]. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth.
[31]. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works.
[32]. He looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the hills, and they smoke.
[33]. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
EXPOSITION
If people don’t know God well and don’t realise their own limitations they might think they can take credit for what they achieve. It’s hard to live for God and others, if we don’t understand that we need God. If we don’t know certain things about ourselves, we might become more arrogant. The truth is that, one can only have and gather what God releases (line 28; cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). You can never succeed in possessing, or accumulating anything out of God. You will struggle to have abundance good things until God opens His hand of providence to you. God, in whose hand all things are, and from whom all things come, opens His hand of providence, and liberally and bountifully gives whoever He pleases. If God can open His hand to give you, it behoves you, too, to open your hand wide to give to the poor and needy around you (Deut. 15:11). In Psalm 104:29, we see another two important commodities only God can supply: peace and breath. The Scripture says, You hide your face, they are troubled; you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. The implication is that, if God gives you peace, be peaceful to others, and don’t be troublesome in any way to other people.
Above all, you are alive today because God gives you breath. As long as you live, learn to praise and sing to Him everyday (line 33). Let your life have a positive impact on other people’s lives. Whatsoever God gives you, use for His own glory.
PRAYER POINTS
1. Lord, open my understanding to know and enjoy You the more
2. Father, reveal Yourself as the God of abundance in my life.
3. Pray for the attitude of giving in our churches.
SUGGESTED HYMN FOR TODAY
CAC GHB: 347
1. God is here and that to bless us
With the spirit’s quick’ning pow’r,
See, the cloud already bending
Waits to drop the grateful shower,
Chorus:
Let it come, O lord we pray thee!
Let the shower of blessing fall;
We are waiting, we are waiting;
Oh receive the hearts of all!
2. God is here! We feel His presence
In this consecrated place;
But we need the soul refreshing
Of His free, unbounded grace,
3. God is here! Oh, then believing,
Bring to Him our one desire,
That His love may now be kindled,
Till is flame each heart inspire.
4. Saviour, grant the pray’r we offer,
While in simple faith we bow;
From the windows of Thy mercy
Pour us out a blessing now.
Amen.
EXTRA READING FOR TODAY:
Isaiah 8, 9, 10