Devotionals

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Doubt or Shout


Read: Psalm 42:1-5
1) As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2)My soul thirst for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3) My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?” 4) When I remember these things I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast. 5) Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.

Focus: Psalm 42:5
Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed with me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.


We all have doubts from time to time, but what are we thinking when we do? What are we believing or rather “who” are we believing? The devil c an speak to us in so many ways; through friends, family, co-workers, the media and even some of our Christian brothers and sisters. He will also drop a word in our ear or bring back a memory from our past to cause doubt

Often times, we may not realize or consciously remember the negative things that were done or said to us in our past. Or if we do remember, we may not be aware that these things are causing doubt. We may doubt our abilities, our worth, our intelligence and intellect. Any of these wound familiar (if they weren’t said to you, you may have heard them said to someone else); “You’re so stupid!”, “You’re not worth a dime!” or “You never do anything right!”
Negative statements that use the words “never” and “always” are the deadliest and most destructive. They take root in our minds and each time a situation or circumstance arises that is similar to a past experience, an alarm goes off inside and that old familiar phrase begins to play over and over in our minds and in our hearts.

We often times, make the mistake of using our earthly and worldly experiences to gauge and judge the Lord’s love and intent for us. We allow these negative impacts to cause us to doubt God because of doubting ourselves and those who have “hurt” us. We tend to put God on the same level of our understanding of trust and love; as we do those we have trusted and loved. Until we learn better.

And here is how and where we learn better – God’s word! When we learn to trust God by His word, He will remove all doubt! By “praise” and “prayer”, and cease the hauntings that affect our present relationships. As our relationship with Him grows, so we are freed to develop positive relationships in our lives. Ps.42:5 tells us to “hope in God”. This hope develops a trust in Him and allows Him to open our spiritual “eyes” to see ourselves as He sees us. Then we learn how to “turn off” those negative effects from our past.

Ps. 42:5 also tells us that we “shall again” praise Him for the help of His presence. Boy, is that phrase loaded! “Shall again”; shall: must, can, definitely, surely. Again: repeat, return, another time, once more, back. Praise: glorify, express favorable judgment, commend, exalt, uplift. Help: aid, assistance, support, improve, relieve, rescue, save, benefit. Presence: within one’s immediate vicinity, nearness, proximity, the state of being in a designated place or area. Using the definitions provided, we can see that as we praise Him repeatedly, He will give us aid, assistance, support and He will rescue, save and relieve our distress, we will benefit from His nearness an being right there with us (immediate vicinity).

In other words, He has promised, “to never leave us nor forsake us” and our praise only draws Him nearer and us to Him.
So let us draw near to God and draw Him near to us by our praise, and remove the haunting doubts that affect our daily lives. See yourself (or help someone else see themselves) as God does – as a worthwhile, intelligent and/or intellectual, positive-minded “can do” person.

Amen and God bless.

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