Starter Jacket

Daily Reading: Proverbs 13

Scripture Focus:  Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13.12)

Devotional Thought:  When I was in elementary school everybody had Starter jackets of their favorite NFL teams. I was never one to be super into sports, but for some reason I loved the San Francisco 49ers. And man did I really want one of those Starter 49ers jackets.

So for Christmas that year, I begged and pleaded for my parents to buy me one. I knew the likelihood was slim because money was tight and the jackets were not cheap. When Christmas morning came, I knew for sure my jacket was under the tree. Wrapping paper flew off gift after gift, but my jacket never showed up.  When the last present was opened and I had no jacket, I thought all hope was gone. Then - out of nowhere it seemed - my mom brought out another present. She handed it to me and as I cracked the seal of the box, I saw my jacket. I came to appreciate and understand the value of that jacket so much more since my mom held off that short period of time.

I think it's much the same way with God. I think there are situations, hurts, or requests that we present to God and wait hopefully. However, as time lingers on with no answer or an answer we perhaps didn't want, our heart begins to hurt. We begin to ask questions about why? Or plead for some kind of understanding. It's often in these periods of longing or when hope seems to have disappeared that we see God's love for us most. It's in this period of longing that we see God fulfill scripture from Romans 8.28 (NIV) "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him."

God has a Starter jacket for you!

Kenny McQuitty

Prayer: Thank you, Lord God, that in all things you are working for my good.  Even in the waiting, you are working.  I trust in you.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 8.1-9

1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,

7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!