Psalm 127:1 – Vain Life: Your House

Christian Walk, Devotions, Family, Jesus

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1 ESV)

In the previous devotion, we discussed the definition of vain and an overview of our series. You can read it here.

From Ryan:

I n the Bible, the building of a house can often be referred to as your life or family (Genesis 16:2, Ruth 4:11, 2 Corinthians 5:1-4). The most important part when building a house, or any building for that matter, is the foundation. I have a favorite Starbucks where I live because of how big and open it is unlike the other two Starbucks in town. The reason it is so much larger and open is because it was built from scratch. They were able to lay the foundation they wanted for it while the other two Starbucks were built on foundations that were previously used for fast food joints. They were constrained by the size of the foundation they were using.

All of our lives are built on foundations which determine their direction. If our goal in life is to retire early, then we Continue Reading →

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Psalm 127:1-2 – The Vain Life

Christian Walk, Devotions, Jesus, Psalm

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:1-2 ESV)

W e are starting a four part daily devotional series called “The Vain Life”. This series focuses on the first two verses of Psalm 127. This Psalm was written by none other than King Solomon. He is the writer of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs also known as the wisdom books. He was considered to be the wisest man in the world. Not because of how smart he was, but because God said he would make him wise (1 Kings 3:12). He had everything his heart desired, yet never seemed to be happy with all the pleasures of the world. Interestingly, King Solomon had a thing for writing about vanity. He writes about it multiple times in Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and here in Psalm 127. If the wisest man in the world writes about something, we might as well learn what it is.

We often think of the word vain as a person who is full of themselves. But, King Solomon was talking about what Merriam-Webster says is: Continue Reading →

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Luke 5:1 – Why is the Power Out?

Bible, Church, Devotions, Ministry

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,
(Luke 5:1 ESV)

A s the church, we want change, we want justice, we want equality, and all manner of noble things. We want to see more children waking up in a home where their father stuck around. We want to see more mothers full of grace and wisdom, living as the individual God created them to be. We want to see more pastors living uprightly, leading with integrity. In short, we want to see heaven’s power brought to bear upon the earth, and when that happens, we crowd around it.

What were those people flocking to, what were they amazed by? Continue Reading →

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Luke 11:4b – The Lord’s Prayer: Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Devotions, Jesus, Prayer, Sin

The Lord's Prayer Devotions

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
(Luke 11:1-4 ESV)

N otice that Jesus’ instruction on prayer does not end with “lead us not into sin” but instead “lead us not into temptation.”  You may wonder, what’s the difference?

Many times we like to approach sin as an imaginary line.  As long as we stay on the right side of the line we’re OK.  But, as soon as we cross to the wrong side of the line we’re sinning.  The result of this mentality is that we often attempt to get as close to this imaginary line as possible without crossing or sinning. Most of us eventually learn that if we keep walking up to the edge of this line, we’ll eventually cross it. Continue Reading →

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Luke 11:4a – The Lord’s Prayer: Forgive Our Sins

Devotions, Jesus, Prayer, Sin

The Lord's Prayer Devotions

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
(Luke 11:1-4 ESV)

A s we pray for our needs we can often forget that our greatest need is forgiveness.  God wants us to experience the freedom of forgiveness: the freedom of being forgiven by God and the freedom that comes from extending forgiveness to others.  Scripture is clear that if we confess our sins to God, He will forgive us and cleanse us (1 John 1:9).  Confession literally means to agree with God.   We are agreeing with Him that we’ve sinned greatly against Him.  We are agreeing that Jesus was a sufficient sacrifice for our sins.  We are agreeing that His mercy and grace are much greater than our sins. Continue Reading →

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Luke 11:3 – The Lord’s Prayer: Our Daily Bread

Devotions, Jesus, Prayer

The Lord's Prayer Devotions

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:

“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
(Luke 11:1-4 ESV)

Just in case we think He forgot, Jesus reminds us here that God wants us to present our needs to Him.  There’s something about praying “Father, hallowed by your name… Your kingdom come…” that puts us in the right mindset to pray about our needs.  Although God already knows our needs, presenting our needs verbally to Him brings us to a point of greater vulnerability and dependence. Just a few verses later in Luke 11:5-13, Jesus gives some thoughts on how we approach God with our needs.  Here are three very practical implications:

Continue Reading →

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