Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 16 April 2022 || Saturday Message
Read Joni and Friends Daily Devotional 16 April 2022
Topic: Unlovely Traits
Scripture: “Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.” – Psalm 86:1
Message: My spiritual battleground is not over a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of port.
It’s not in a disco or a movie theater. My spiritual battleground is not a backyard fence over which I gossip to my neighbor, nor is it a fast car I race past the speed limit. My paralysis prevents me from reaching for common temptations. That’s why my spiritual battleground is on the field of my thoughts.
I possess a very unlovely trait: I will waste precious time in idle daydreams. I hate it because wasteful fantasies distract me from the real concerns of life, causing me to feel restless and dissatisfied with the way things are.
I draw comfort, though, knowing that my unlovely traits furnish me with my best discipline. The very fact that I am ashamed of myself drives me to God. I lie in the dust of my self-despair at His feet and find safety and acceptance. My lazy thoughts make me contrite and repentant, and I am humbled that I have to come so often to God for cleansing.
If we are to have power with the Lord, to be dear to Him, if our prayers are to prevail and if we are to be most useful to Him, we must jerk right-side up those wrong and unlovely traits in our lives.
Amy Carmichael has said, “No word can declare with what longings Divine Love waits until the heart, all weary and sick of itself, turns to its Lord and says, ‘Take full possession.’”
Lord, I am poor and needy for I am so often overwhelmed by the unlovely traits in my life. May these things drive me to You, whether it’s pride, halfheartedness, peevish temper, or impurity in thought, word, or deed. Good Lord, hear my prayer, and in hearing, please forgive.
Joni And Friends Daily Devotional 16 April 2022 is taken from Diamonds in the Dust – By Joni Eareckson Tada