August 30 Daily Devotional

Monthly Theme:

These meditations are on the psalms. All those songs about Zion, the temple, and the Son of David really make sense when they are sung In the New Testament church.

Bible Reading:

Psalm 143

Bible Text:

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground (Ps. 143:10).

Devotional:

We who believe in Christ are exempt from punishment. We have escaped hell and no longer bear our guilt. We may count on strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. And yet that is not the whole gospel. The goal of the gospel and the highest purpose of our lives is that we should do the will of God.

Beaten by his enemies, the psalm writer suffered pain and asked for deliverance. All of us should do the same when we feel the pinch. But it isn't hard to pray for deliverance from sin and pain. It's more difficult and more important to pray, "Teach me to do your will... may your good Spirit lead me."

We need to pray not merely to know God's will but to do God's will, because there's a big difference between knowledge and practice. When we do the will of our Liberator, we are really free. The psalmist said, "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God." We are transformed into new people when God's will becomes our will.

Since none of us can make the Word and will of God our own simply by wishing, we hand the reins over to God: "May your good Spirit lead me on level ground."

Level ground—not rough territory that trips us up every time. We want to travel on God's highway, by his power, and reach his goal.

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published in 1994. This edition is copyright by Faith Alive Christian Resources, from whom may be ordered Daylight, the predecessor of Twilight.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this edition of Twilight are from the New International Version

Be sure to read the "Preface" and the "Acknowledgments" by the author.