by Emilie Horton

Idea Alert! I love a good challenge, and one of the ways that I learned to love writing occurred when I accepted a couple writing challenges while I was in high school. I was challenged to write a speech for a contest, and I was challenged to write a poem to express my feelings. Although both seem corny or trivial to us now, those challenges and the mentors who came alongside me to help me, sparked within me a desire to use writing as a service to God. Because of how those challenges affected my life, I have begun challenging some of the teens in our youth group to write devotionals for their peers. We publish then every couple of months in our youth group bulletin. Here is one of the devotionals submitted and printed for our youth group.

Psalm 40

DAY ONE READING

Read Psalm 40 one time. How many times do you see God doing an action? I found 13; if you found more, great! List them out in your notebook just for the fun of it. Isn’t our God incredible? Every time an action of God is mentioned here, our Lord is doing it with us in mind—with you in His mind. How many times have I done something with God in my mind? I mean doing something on purpose because of the love that I have for Him? Spend some time putting “God in mind” before you begin your day.

DAY TWO READING

Now when you read Psalm 40, look for the prayers of David (when David speaks directly to God). How important was prayer to David? How important is prayer to me? Prayer is the tool that God has given us to get grace, mercy, and help from Him, to love and know Him more, and to help and encourage others. Prayer is a command, but it is also a privilege. How often do I use this tool? God deserves more than five minutes (or even less) of my hurried morning. Let’s commit to taking actual quality time out of our day to devote to Him in prayer—like David did! Spend some time writing down a prayer to God.

DAY THREE READING

All throughout Psalm 40, as you read it again, are sprinkled attributes of God. Find as many as you can. Also look for the contrasts between God and man in verses 12, 13, 16, and 17. Describe what you discovered in your notebook and pray about it. Now pick a friend to share your favorite attribute of God with and ask them what theirs is! Now there’s a valuable conversation!

DAY FOUR READING

Now take some time to examine your heart and ask yourself some questions. “Am I asking God to help me to be like Him every day?” “Do I depend on God’s strength, or my own?” Read Psalm 40 again. Take a look at verse 6. Does this make any sense to you at all? It didn’t to me at first either, but read it again. The phrase “mine ears hast thou opened” refers to Exodus 21:6. Look it up and read it. According to what you just read, and taking into context verse 6 of Psalm 40, what is better than sacrifice and burnt offerings? (Hint: I Samuel 15:22)

Here are a couple of last questions about Psalm 40. Read verses 7 and 8. Can God describe me as this kind of servant? Willing, happy, and faithful? Look at verses 9 and 10. What kind of witness am I?

There is so much of our Father in this Psalm! Study it some more and wait to see what God will show you!