Devotions -

“I love you, O Lord, my strength.” -Psalm 18:1

The note in my study Bible says that “love” here is not the usual Hebrew word for love. It emphasizes intimacy, expressing David’s personal devotion to the Lord. What a sweet picture it brings on this Wednesday morning! As I take a few moments to reflect on my own personal devotion to the Lord, I ask myself… is my love for God, like David’s love here, one of intimacy and devotion?

David doesn’t just shallowly say he loves God. He continues in his praise to our Redeemer: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,and I am saved from my enemies.” (verses 2 & 3)

I desire to delight in the Lord. One way I can do this is in prayer and praise. We can use the Psalms as a springboard for our prayers- try it with this passage! This morning, this is what the first verse prompted me to pray. “I do love you, Lord. You are worthy of my love- and have proved yourself so in my life time and again. I can see your faithfulness in the Word (thank you for your Word!) but you don’t stop there!! You are so kind to me. So faithful and really patient to grow me up in knowledge of You and love for You and how to walk that all out. Thanks. And your Word says you are my strength. Please make that real to me today as I try to integrate the young children into our new school. I want our family life to be pleasing to You- help me not to put teaching and our schedule above loving my kiddos and training the children to know & love You. I think I’ll definitely need your strength to accomplish that!! When I’m physically done and when I’m emotionally spent… no, long before that… help me to turn to You and rely on You to be my strength!!”

I learn best & am most encouraged when I have an example, so I hope that’s helpful to you. Why don’t you take the next passage of Psalm I typed above and pray it? It’s such a wonderful way to prompt both prayer and praise. Our God… He’s so amazing. He even teaches us how to pray. He thought of everything, didn’t He?! ~ Allie Olsen