DYSMAS CONDUIT

FREE FOOD

(Isa 55:1)

MONDAY, JANUARY 18, 2010

Question for the day: What is the deepest desire of your heart?

What can we pray with YOU about today?

Good morning,

This is just a reminder that every day, while we are studying God’s Word to add to our website, someone from our ministry, Dysmas Conduit, is holding you up before the Lord in prayer. May He greatly bless you today as you pursue His will and He is glorified through you.

God’s blessings, our love,

George & Sidney Granger

CURRENT PRAYER REQUESTS:

Please pray for Mike and Sandy Brommer as they spread the Lord’s Seed and witness to His glory while on the road today. Please pray also that the Lord will lead them to Kingdom-profitable loads to carry, and that He grants them safe passage today.

Please continue to pray for Billy Hamburg. He had another surgery and two more tumors were discovered. Discussion is forthcoming concerning bladder removal. Please pray for the Lord’s Hand to help him overcome his anxiety as well as the cancer.

We were at U of M yesterday. Keegan's surgery time is now 11:30 am on Monday. Please pray that it goes well even though it is not the first case of the day for the doctors and staff. Please pray that they are well rested and have all of the endurance that is need to repair Keegan's heart.

Thank you for all of the prayers. We will let you know how he is doing as soon as we are able to.... --David & Traci

Please continue to lift up Carolyn Young and her family in your prayers. She has been diagnosed with cancer (not breast cancer as originally suspected). Most recently, in addition to masses in her lungs and in her neck, several masses have been detected in her brain. While all of this is very serious, Carolyn asks for us to join her in praying to a God for whom all things are possible. She shared how yesterday when pain medications were having little effect on some tremendous pain she was experiencing, that shortly after prayers were offered she did get relief from her pain. She will be undergoing additional tests over the next several days and will continue to receive treatment for blood clots in her lungs.

She is asking that in all this God's holy name is glorified. --Pastor John

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TODAY

January 18, 2010

The Desires of His Heart

Jennifer Erin Valent

"Delight yourself in the LORD

and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 37:4 (NIV)

Devotion:

When I was young, my girlfriends and I used to play a game where we would choose different ideals we had for our lives, from whom we wanted to marry, to what car we wanted to drive. Life seemed so simple then! In just one short game, I could plan my life out from start to finish. Funny thing is, I never did marry Johnny Depp, I don't live in a mansion, and I don't drive a Porsche.

Well, I was young, and it's certainly a blessing that I didn't end up having to live out the life I planned for myself then. But what about now? As an adult, I've had plenty of dreams for my life. I think I'm pretty intuitive about myself, and I've got a good idea how I think things should go. And since Scripture says the Lord will give us the desires of our hearts, shouldn't these things be coming to pass?

Maybe not. The Lord knows a whole lot more than we give Him credit for, and maybe what He has planned for our lives doesn't match up with what we have planned.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "‘For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (NIV).

What a promise! In just a few words, this verse tells us how much God loves us and how much He wants to bless our lives. He wants our short walk on this earth to be worth so much! But then, what about those desires of our hearts? Where do they fit in?

The Hebrew definition of the word delight in Psalm 37:4 is interesting; it involves the idea of being soft and pliable. Makes me think of clay. I've used small blocks of clay before, and in order to be able to work with one, I need to hold in it my hands and get it warm and soft, ready to be formed into the shape I intend for it to be. Sound familiar? "Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand" (Isaiah 64:8, NIV).

As the Potter forms us, we begin to know Him more. His thoughts become our thoughts. That's when God does more than grant us the desires of our hearts; He actually provides us with those very desires. We no longer want what we thought we wanted, we want what He wants. And it is most certain that whatever the Lord wishes to bring to pass in our lives, He also desires to freely give us.

We're so often caught up in our own ideas that we forget to listen to His. What a difference it would make if we had God's best intentions at heart. If we could just step out in faith that our Father wants our very best, and that of all things on this earth, we could never have better than what He gives. What peace that would bring to us all. What delight that would bring to our Lord.

And what gifts that would place at our feet when He both provides and fulfills the desires of our hearts!

Father, help me to see how much You love me and how much You want for me. Take my heart in Your hand and fashion it after Your own heart so that I will know the beauty of what You desire for my life, in Jesus Name, amen.

Application Steps:

Make a point of counting your blessings daily. When we focus on God's many blessings, we see more and more how much He loves us and how many good things He gives us.

Scripture is full of God's promises to us. Search for them and remember them! God's unchanging nature and unfailing love are the cornerstones of faith. If He said it, He meant it, and those promises are a reassuring haven when life seems out of control.

Reflections:

Which of God's promises will remind me during today's particular challenges that I can trust the Lord with my future?

In what ways has the Lord blessed me already today?

Power Verses:

Ephesians 1:3, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." (NIV)

Luke 12:6-7, "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." (NIV)

YOU TUBE SONG FOR TODAY

On Eagle's Wings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rRea9qnjK4

…and…

Taking a trip on the Bible Bus

Hebrews 13:3-16

[2] Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

[4] Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. [5] Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

"Never will I leave you;

never will I forsake you."

[6] So we say with confidence,

"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?"

[7] Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. [8] Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

[9] Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. [10] We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

[11] The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. [12] And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. [13] Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. [14] For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

[15] Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name. [16] And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.