How are you feeling today? Is your life marked by an eternal perspective or has your perspective wavered as you fight, strive, and toil against your sinful nature? We claim to fully acknowledge our helplessness before God but our thoughts and actions often tell a different story. We consider ourselves to be good but are we living and embracing the grace of God? The grace of God is to be consistently abided in, clung to, and treasured above everything else in our lives. We must give up our pretense, full of our striving to be good enough, and cling to God in our weakness. We cannot make a way through our but God is more than able to help us. “Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; for I trust in You; teach me the way in which I should walk; for to You I lift up my soul. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; I take refuge in You.” Psalm 143:8,9 David knew that in the despairing moments of life it was only God who could move to bring lasting deliverance. His enemies were surrounding him but despite the imminent danger David clung to God. When all you see is despair will you cling to God? Will you give up you attempts to save yourself and let God save you?
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Give up the pretense of striving to be good and cling to God: Psalm 143
The weight of hopelessness removed at the cross of Calvary: Psalm 139
What is the source of the inner hurt and pain that consumes your life? Do you ever think that no one cares about you or that no one has truly endured a life like your own? Deep down every person wants to know that there is someone who knows their hopes, dreams, fears, worries, pains, and desires. We search out someone who will fulfill that desire in our life and when we fail to find the perfect soul mate we turn to our idols to meet our needs. Do you feel a weight of hopelessness because no one is there to help you? Has everyone let you down and you dwell in a state of continual despair? Where can your hope be found? I can tell you today that there is someone who knows you better than you know yourself. God almighty the Lord of heaven and earth is the one that your are craving to know because He fully knows you. “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.” Psalm 139:1-4 Continue Reading…
The greatest act of unity occurred upon the cross of Calvary: Psalm 133
Do you dwell in a continuous state of strife with the world around you? When you are at home with your family do you add to the contention and strife? While toiling at work are you scheming to climb the corporate ladder using whatever means necessary? Do you have genuine friendships with people or have you only collected relationships that solely benefit your life? If you have found your life consumed with strife, scheming, or shallowness I encourage you to look at Psalm 133 for a renewed life purpose. David is describing how great it is to live in unity with the fellow believers. It is good and pleasant when believers can put aside strife, scheming, and shallowness to live in unity. ”It is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing – life forever.” Psalm 133:3 Continue Reading…
Taste the pure faithfulness of God: Psalm 132
What is faithfulness? We too easily perceive with a feigned understanding the truly unknowable faithfulness that is sourced in God alone. We cannot know God or comprehend the depth of His faithfulness to us. In Psalm 132 the return of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem is recalled and celebrated as the great faithfulness of God is praised. The psalmist cries out for God to remain faithful to His promises to the line of David. He knows that God is the true source of hope because He remains faithful to His lovingkindness. We look upon our friends, family, or pets as examples of faithfulness but this faithfulness is built upon flawed humanity and our emotional expectations cannot be truly faithful. Have you tasted the pure faithfulness that is found in God alone? Can you rely on God’s lovingkindness? In your helplessness will you trust in God’s faithfulness? Continue Reading…
Can our trust be secured in God alone: Psalm 125
What is trust? What do we place out trust in? We instinctively, even subconsciously, trust that the chair we are about to sit down in will support us. When we are walking on the sidewalk on a snowy day we trust that we will continue to have secure footing and not fall. We trust the laws of nature to continue unabated allowing us to go about our lives. What do you trust in? Does the trust you place in an item have an effect upon you? “Do good, O Lord, to those who are good and to those who are upright in their hearts. But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, the Lord will lead them away with the doers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel.” Psalm 125:5,6 Continue Reading…
Truly seeking the wellspring of peace: Psalm 122
What is your progenitor of peace? Can money buy peace, can a lack of warfare bring about peace or can tolerance produce peace? We are naturally inclined to a state of distress and calamity because sin’s curse that is inherent to all of creation. Is there hope for lasting peace? “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you . May peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces.’ For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say ‘May peace be within you.’ For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.” Psalm 122:6-9 When we turn to God and find our hope in Him we can finally experience true peace. Continue Reading…
Within the sufficiency of God is our hope, help and salvation: Psalm 120
Where does your soul yearn to reside? Are you at rest in this world filled with complete contentment? Do you long for the wild pleasures of this wicked world? The curse of sin is raging throughout all of creation, setting man bitterly against the reign, authority and love of God. When you face trouble do you rage against God shaking your fist proclaiming that you are empowered to overcome or do you fall down before Him crying out for help? “In my trouble I cried to the Lord, and He answered me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.” Psalm 120:1-2 Will you call out to the faithful and true God who delivers our souls out of the muck and mire of this world? Continue Reading…
Will you find absolute satisfaction in the Word of God: Psalm 119
How are we endure and live lives that have meaning and purpose? What should be of utmost value to us? A simple and prefect guide is presented in Psalm 119 that will fulfill every one of our needs. Our fulfillment in this life is found in: the law of the Lord, God’s testimonies, God’s ways, God’s precepts, God’s statutes, God’s commandments, God’s righteous judgements, God’s word, the ordinances of God’s mouth, God’s testimonies, God’s ways, God’s law, God’s ordinances, God’s wonders, God’s righteous ordinances, the law of God’s mouth, God’s judgements, the testimony of God’s mouth, the commandments of my God and God’s righteous word. To simplify everything stated in Psalm 119 we will find deliverance and absolute satisfaction in the Bible that God has bestowed upon humanity. Do you live out an impassioned love for God’s Word? Continue Reading…
God’s lovingkindness is everlasting: Psalm 118
“It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” Psalm 118:8,9 Do you believe that the lovingkindness of the Lord is everlasting? Do you believe that God will fulfill the promises He has made or are you diligently striving to make a way of your own? We are inherently deficient yet we too often view ourselves as complete beings that are complete and powerful. There is nothing that we can do to help ourselves to overcome our inability. Why do we continually strive to make our own way through this world? Do we think that at some point we will finally figure out the key to success that will help us make ourselves complete? We can never make ourselves complete because we lack the knowledge of what makes us complete. Continue Reading…
What is worthy of your praise and adoration: Psalm 113
“He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of His people. He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord!” Psalm 113:7-9 Has the weight of this world caused you to lose hope? Do you feel worthless? Are you a child of God? Everyone that has placed their hope and trust in Jesus Christ is living in a state of continual blessing. God looks upon us and lifts us out of the muck and mire of the world and places us in His wonderful family. We are fruitful because God enables us to grow and flourish. Praise Him with great praise! Continue Reading…
