Day 362: Looking Back with Praise

Today’s Scripture: Psalm 1

Central Thought: We need to look back over our year and praise God for His blessings.

What a year it has been! Granted this exclamation can mean more than one thing, but hopefully each of us can look back and see God’s hand at work in our lives. Even if difficult things have happened, we can see how God worked through those events to bring about His blessings.

Today’s Psalm is a general call to people to praise the Lord. One of the reasons given for praising the Lord is that He ‘takes delight in His people” (verse 4, NIV). This phrase should show us that God really loves us and wants to pour His blessings into our lives. Even when difficult and stressful things happen, God’s love is still present. Knowing that God loves us should inspire us continually to want to praise Him.

This would be a good time to make a list of all the blessings we can remember from this year. Such an exercise should encourage us to trust God for an answer to those problems we still struggle to overcome. It becomes much easier to overcome discouragement when we remember how God has already helped us. We can be reminded that He will continue to help us.

Devotional Prayer: Thank You for the ways You have helped me this past year.

Today’s Bible Reading: Malachi 1:1-2:17; Revelation 21:1-27; Psalm 1:1-9; Proverbs 31:10-24