Most of us eat every day, some of us too much, because yesterday's
food is not enough to supply energy for today's needs. Why then, do
some of us expect yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are going to change
all that. Let's experience God's words today and receive the power we need to
live healthy, vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
author speaker L. David Harris. Good morning, good morning, good morning.
It is Monday, October two, twenty twenty three. Hello, my
name is L. David Harris. I am your host, and this is
your Daily Portion where we give you God's Word every single day, and today
is no exception. We are continuing in our new Lesson study series, God's
Mission My Mission, God's mission, my mission, and our caption for today
is the God who longs to be with us. Did you know that God
longs to be with you? Yeah. We'll get into that in just a
moment, But first I'd like to just say welcome to everyone joining us,
especially those joining us for the very first time. Please go over to your
Daily Portion dot com. Join our online community, and also please click and
pick up your Daily portion book that will help us continue to build faith and
fellowship together. And please also let us know where you are in the world.
There's a little form right there that says where are you in the world,
and that will help to encourage me. I'm just going to tell you
straight like that is to encourage me because I love to see when God is
using his word through this program to spread into all the world to transform people's
lives. And you really keep me encouraged by simply filling up that little form.
Let's go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway. Father
in Heaven, thank you for giving us the privilege of opening your word again
today and for the privilege to come into this part of our work week.
Praise I praise you for being faithful to us. Please, Father, teach
us to long to be with you as much as you long to be with
us. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen and Amen again. Well,
let's go ahead and begin with the idea. Let me ask you a
question. It's a question. Have you ever been in a relationship where felt
like you were forcing the issue? Yeah, where you were compelling even like
or at least trying to compel the other person in the situation in the scenario
to be with you, and that person didn't seem to really want to be
Yeah, how did that make you feel? How beneficial to the relationship was
it that it felt like you were chasing your person, person who said that
they loved you, the person that you have given your love to. Right,
how did it feel when it seemed to be one sided? I don't
want to get just into the touchy feelings, but it is something to think
about, Like how must it make God feel when we allow him to pursue
us? But we just decide, You know, I guess if I have
a little extra time, I'll pursue him. Or if I find myself in
a problem or a challenge or trouble, or if I feel like I need
something, then I'll go to him. And I know, like some people
would say, come on, Dave, you're being extreme, you're being too
hard. Well not really. Like some of us are fair weather friends.
If everything is bright and sunny outside, then we are just so happy with
God. But the minute something is in our lives, we don't like He
allows the enemy to touch us. As in the story of job, where
we experience a death in the family, or we experience pain in our bodies,
like we experience some trial or tribulation, we feel that we are not
as strong as we ought to be, and we begin to be despondent.
We sometimes turn away from God when he's the one who always has longed to
be with us, He's the one who is always in pursuit of us.
How could we do that to God? I just need to start right there.
Let me go now into of course, calls to action, because really,
in faith communities like these, it is easy for us to identify problems.
It is easy for us to feel intelligent and study a scripture, study
some other book and then wax eloquently for ten, fifteen, twenty or thirty
minutes and then make people feel like we're intelligent. Right, But when it
comes to acting this stuff, to living it, it eludes many of us.
And so let's go into action. I want you to dive into the
promise of God. I'm talking about head first. I'm talking about go in
there and start to stroke and swim. In Genesis chapter seventeen, Genesis chapter
seventeen and verse seven, the Bible reads, and I will establish my covenant
between me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an
everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I
want you to jump right in and begin to experience the blessing of God making
a promise of establishing the covenant with our father Abraham. God made a promise,
and he has been keeping the promise ever since. How do you view
God's promises in your life? How do you view God's promises in your life?
Or do you invest any time at all in reading the promises of God
out of his word or being alone with God to the point that He can
speak to you directly like he did Father Abraham, and like he sent a
messenger to Hagar when she was desponding to say that God sees you. He
sees your situation. So the God, who who will stop at nothing to
be with us, is in pursuit of you, wants to keep his covenant
in you, that if you will love him, he will keep his commandments
through your life. And you're like, but God, how can I love
you? How can I love you? Like? I don't know how to
love? Well? The Bible says that we love him because he first loved
us like he is the cause of our love. He is the one who
empowers us to love him because his love gives us strength. And as we
receive this love. As we receive this love, then we can more readily
accept his promises. Dive head first into his promises. Also, I want
you to seek his assurance. And when I say seek his assurance, I'm
not saying for him to have to convince you that what he says is true.
We're not talking about that. Let's go to Genesis chapter twenty six,
in verse three, where the Bible reads, Sir, journ in this land,
and I will be with you and bless you. I want you to
go back to passages like these where God has made promises. Right, I
said, go head first into his promises. You want to be reassured.
Go back to those same promises and said, Lord, you said that I
will be with you and bless you. The Bible continues for to you and
your descendants, I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath
which I swore to Abraham, your father. And so God continues to tell
his children over the generations that he will keep the promise that he made through
and to Father Abraham that he will be with you. He will cause your
descendants to prosper. He will give you the lands that God had promises people.
In those days, we are looking forward to a land that is a
city whose builder and maker is God. In two twenty three, we are
still looking forward to the day that Jesus cracks the clouds and then calls his
children to live with him for one thousand years in heaven. And after the
thousand years are finished, according to Revelation chapters twenty and twenty one, he
will keep the promise he made in Matthew chapter five that the meek will inherit
the new Earth. God will give us a brand new earth where there is
no more sin, sickness, pain, and all of the former things are
passed away. So you need a blessed assurance. Go back and read those
same great and precious promises. And then finally I want you to think about,
well, not finally, but I want you to think about like,
where do you need God's assurance today? Not convincing but reassurance, Like Okay,
I remember your promise. God, Please let that settle into my mind,
mind and heart today. Yes, So I want you also probably most
importantly, to embrace his presence. This is a call to action, embrace
his presence. The Bible reads in twenty eight chapter of Genesis, verse fifteen,
Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go,
and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you
until I have done what I have spoken to you. Reflect on the situations
in which you feel God's presence the most, and guess what. The Bible
says that if you will praise him, he inhabited the praises of his people,
have a wonderful day. Peace. Thanks for joining us listening to friends.
Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that
comes from the mouth of God. This has been your daily portion with l
David Harris. Make it a great day.