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 of 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, Elle David Harris. Good morning, good morning, Good
morning. It is Friday, February nine, twenty twenty four. Hello,
my name is El 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 Lesson study series through the Book of
Psalms, and our caption for today is we want justice? We want justice?
Or do we It's really a question is it a statement? Is it
a question? We'll get into that in just a moment, but first i'd
like to say welcome to you and ask you to please go ahead over to
your Daily Portion dot com. Click that that place where it says where are
you in the world. Let me know where you are in the world.
Also, pick up the Your Daily Portion book and join our online community.
That is one of the ways that we continue to build faith and fellowship.
Let's go ahead and pray, and then we will get underway. Father and
Heaven, thank you for giving us this new day and for the privilege that
we have to open up your word again, and thank you for this time
of preparation. Please give us your mindset while we prepare for connection with you.
In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen and a man again. We
want justice now. The fact is that justice and righteousness are synonymous in the
Bible. And I say that again, Justice and righteousness are the same in
the Bible. And that means that if we're seeking justice, we're actually seeking
holiness. Holiness in our behaviors, our holiness in our mindset, holiness in
our activities on a daily basis, holiness in the systems that we have set
up in our civic society. Well, maybe maybe we might get a little
bit in trouble here if we look at it in that way. But really,
really equity is equity. If somebody is in a court system or proceeding
then It needs to be fair. Right. If someone is in a situation
where someone needs to pay for a service or a product, then it needs
to be fair how they are charged, how those products of services are delivered.
If we want justice, then really and truly we want equity. We
want holiness, You want education for a certain set of people, it needs
to be equal across the board. If you have access us, I have
access. If I have access, you have access the things that we need
on a daily basis, food, water, clothing, shelter. It needs
to be to where it is not unfairly slanted one way or the other.
We want justice, but the fact is, where our spirituality is concerned,
we want justice and mercy because yeah, we have sinned and come short of
the glory of God. And what we need is for God to make us
holy and to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all on righteousness,
so that when we are in judgment we are covered in the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. And then justice and mercy can come together and do something special
and miraculous for people who yield our will to him. I think I said
enough right there, Let's go ahead and jump into the lesson for today.
And this is one that often people forget if you're a person who follows Sabbath,
school and churches and so forth, people just kind of skip over and
gloss over the Friday. And I'm thinking, why there's so much truth here,
And so let me go ahead and begin with the Book of Psalms.
That's the Book of Psalms, chapter fifty eight, and I will read beginning
at verse ten, or actually I'll just read verse ten this time. And
the Bible reads the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He shall
wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. And that sounds harsh.
That sounds harsh. But wait a minute, no, wait a minute,
no, nothing's wrong with that. What we need is to cultivate a heart
for justice and fairness. There are people out here oppressing people. We don't
need to lay down for that and make it seem as if that's not a
big deal. Like we need to stand up and fight for justice, whatever
it takes, as long as we do not defile our characters, we stand
up for justice and righteousness. We actively seek to understand and address the issues
of injustice in our actual communities. This is not theoretical brothers and sisters,
and people say, oh, oh, but we're living on planet Earth and
Jesus is coming soon, and you don't want to get caught up into Okay,
right, What if with Martin Luther King Junior in the United States of
America did not get into that because he was a man of the cloth,
if you want to say, like a preacher, what if he didn't get
himself involved? You see? And so there is a way to do it
when we seek God's face and then he will give us direction. Let me
not get too caught up into that one. Let's move to the next one.
From the Book of Matthew, chapter five and verse eleven, Blessed are
ye when men or people shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say
all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. And of course the
thought continues in verse twelve. We'll pause right there. What we need to
develop when we are dealing with this society where justice seems difficult to find at
times, is to develop a resilience in the face of persecution. Inside of
the quote faith, outside of the faith. In fact, Jesus is referencing
people who were supposed to be holy that are reviling you and saying all manner
of evil against you falsely for his sake. Yeah, rejoice, he said,
and be exceeding glad for greatest your reward in heaven. For so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you. You Like, how, Dave,
how did you have what would make you think that these are people who are
supposed to be people of God? Because the people who persecuted prophets were like
supposed to be people of God. Yeah, okay, let's continue. Hah.
So the practical step in this regard is when facing ridicule or opposition for
what you believe and hold true, focus on staying strong to your faith in
God. Use these experiences as opportunities to deepen your trust in God. Trouble
won't last always, brothers and sisters. So let's go to the book of
Psalms. And I know we're running, but you can always rewind this.
If you're under radio, then go to your Daily Portion dot com and then
you can click the button to whatever platform you like the most and come back
to today, rewind it, and you're good to go. Okay. So
in Psalms, chapter one hundred and forty six and verse three, the Bible
reads, put not your trust in princes nor in the son of Man,
in whom there is no help. Yeah, so what we need is spiritual
wisdom because human wisdom just won't make it. It just won't make it.
The best philosophers fail. May I say that again. And it's not that
there's nothing that you can glean. But what I'm saying is if you're trying
to if you're trying to solve the problem with poverty, you're trying to resolve
the problem with different diseases like HIV AIDS, Like if you're trying to resolve
the problem with obesity, you're trying to resolve the problem with education gaps in
certain cities and states and countries. Yeah, you need wisdom that is beyond
human wisdom. And so what we need is before taking action on issues,
we need to pray for guidance and discernment there are things that we cannot see
with our natural eyes, and then seek God's wisdom first rather than relying solely
on human ideas and strategies. So you see the cooperation there. We seek
God first, and then we expect that He will teach us how to deal
with the thing that is right in front of us on planet Earth. Okay,
let's go to Psalms, chapter twenty seven and verse fourteen. Wait on
the Lord, the Bible says, be of good courage, and he shall
strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say on the Lord. Yeah. Practice
patience and trust God's timing in times of waiting our uncertainty. Practice patience and
remind yourself. Tell yourself self. God is still working. He is faithful,
He has been faithful in the past, and he will continue to be
faithful until Jesus comes. We want justice. Well you be the judge.
Wonderful day, Peace. Thanks for joining us listening. 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 El David Harris.
Make it a great day. Yeah,