Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

"Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. 'Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything and the multitudes of heaven worship you. You are the Lord God.'"¹

How easy it is to take God's blessings and provisions for granted. I've lived in Southern California for several years and have experienced earthquakes that shook more than the good old terra firma I was standing on. And frankly, the more "firma" the less "terra"! I've seen ravaging fires that destroyed scores of homes, riots that destroyed scores of properties, and floods and mudslides that also caused great losses.

Southern California is little more than converted desert, and what absolutely amazes me is where does all the water come from to meet the needs of 16+ million people? I've lived through several years of drought and still there was enough water. Most of the water comes from the most marvelous water storage system ever created and it's not from the many man-made dams and reservoirs, as wonderful and as necessary as these are. It's from the snow that stores water for many months of the year and releases it basically as it's needed. If it weren't for the magnificent mountains and the amazing supply of snow, Southern California would still be a desert.

It also amazes me how so many people complain about rainy days when we get good rains in such a dry and thirsty landâ€"rains that fill up the rivers, dams, and reservoirs and store billions upon billions of gallons of water in the form of snow over thousands of square miles of rugged mountainsâ€"rains that keep us alive!

All God has to do is turn off the sky's faucet or blot out the sun for long enough and every living thing would die.

As the Levite priests said, truly God gives life to everything.

Suggested prayer: "Thank you, God, for the incredible blessings you provide for all of us all of the time. May I ever be mindful of these manifold blessings that come from your hand. And above all that you have given me, please give me a thankful heart. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Nehemiah 9:5-7 (NIV).

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