Hear Archives - Pastor Terry Lema's Daily Devotions

I love reading the Book of Psalms. People often say to me that they need to “learn” how to worship. My response has always been, “Read the Book of Psalms. Read it not only with your mind, read that book with your heart.”

The Book of Psalms leads us into worship. It teaches us that we can express the deepest desires, fears, and even doubts in our hearts. It teaches us that God hears us, and loves us, and responds to us in His faithfulness whether we are soaring or barely crawling through life. It teaches us that when we focus our attention on Him, we can be victorious in all things.

It teaches us something else also, and I saw that this morning as I was reading David’s Cry for Help in Psalm 143. The New King James Version renders verse 8 as: “Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, For in You do I trust.”

I have an online program which allows me to read other translations, so I looked up Psalm 143 in what is rapidly becoming my favorite, the Holman Christian Standard Bible translation. It reads: “Let me experience Your faithful love in the morning, for I trust in You.”

“Let me experience Your faithful love…” Experience. We are to experience (which means practical contact or encounter with) God’s lovingkindness (faithful love).

David understood that to “hear” God is to “experience” God. Each morning David anticipated an encounter with God’s faithful lovingkindness – no matter what his enemies might be planning for him that day. That, beloved, is worship in its humblest form.

May you “experience” Him today. Amen.

2 Chronicles 7:13-14: “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” [NKJV]

Many Christians leaders are calling for a day of fasting and prayer tomorrow, March 29. They are also asking Christians to stop at 7:14 PM every night during this crisis and pray 1 Chronicles 7:14. That certainly seems a prophetic word since we are in the midst of a “pestilence” in our land.

We can’t gather in our buildings in most places across this nation. We are to self-isolate to prevent the spread of this COVID-19 pestilence. But I have learned over the years that there is no time nor distance in the power of the Holy Spirit and prayer.

So, let’s join the world and set a timer on our phones, watches, Kindles or whatever to remind us to stop what we are doing at 7:14 PM and pray and repent and humble ourselves before the LORD our God Almighty.

The United States is a great nation, one of the greatest in history. Our people have invented more, done more, that we probably even realize.

Still, there is much for which we need to repent. We are a divided nation under the control of greed and covetousness. We are a nation that sheds the blood of innocents every day. We are a nation that often disregards the poor and the marginal of our society. We spew hate from our media and social media. Many of our churches have become bastions of complacency and heresy.

God promised, however, that if we seek His face, if we turn from our wicked ways, He will hear and forgive and heal our land. 7:14 PM Prayer. Amen.