If you are like most Christians you have a few encouraging verses on the walls of your home, or the desk of your office or maybe even in your car. These verses have spoken to you at some point and you wanted to be reminded daily of their significance. Yet, we so often fail in going from being moved to being changed. The Word of God was never meant to make us feel good but has been given to be part of our transformation. Those verses must go from our walls to become part of who we are.
A few days ago I was writing about Psalm 73, pointing out that the awareness of the presence of the Lord changes everything. Today I want to pick it up again a little later in the psalm. Remember that this psalmist was struggling with why evil is permitted to exist in Yahweh's creation but standing in the presence of the Lord changed his perspective. The psalmist was repenting of his selfish perspective and then penned this:
Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
You will guide me with Your counsel,
And afterward receive me to glory. (Psalm 73:23-24)
To realize that no matter our attitude, the Lord is always with us, is a great place to be in our revelation of Yahweh. We have even the greater revelation that while we were still sinners Jesus died for us. The presence of the Lord has been promised to us in the same way of our salvation. Our foolishness, pride, vain ambitions do not frighten him away. He is at hand so that when we turn to seek his face he is right there. All he desires is to forgive so he can have intimacy with us. He holds our hand. He guides us and he waits to receive us into his glory.
It's as we walk in the reality of his presence, of his desire for intimacy, we too can begin to measure the worth of this relationship:
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (v. 25-26)
It is a great sentiment but if that is all it is to us, something to hang on the wall to inspire us, we are missing the reality of the Lord's presence. Jesus has promised to never leave us, to be with us until the end of the age; not a sentiment but the reality we live every day. When we are open to him, seeking him, desiring him, turning to him, leaning on him, dependent on him, trusting him, we experience the reality of him holding our hand, the truth of him guiding us with his counsel, and we gain the assurance of him receiving us into his glory.
The presence of the Lord is our daily reality. When you live it the Word will come alive to you and your clouded reality in this place will be transformed into the living reality of our loving and awesome Father. More than a sentiment.
Showing posts with label Psalm 73. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Psalm 73. Show all posts
Monday, September 15, 2014
Thursday, September 11, 2014
The Presence Of The Lord Changes Everything
We all have our share of problems and each person thinks theirs is greater than any others. One thing you can be sure of - today you will face difficulties. Jesus even warned us that life would not be fair to us. The thing is, make sure you are not the source of your troubles. We have enough to face without causing unnecessary pain to ourselves.
Now I am not trying to be a downer today because along with the facts of life is the reality of our part in it. When we are facing difficulties we have a few choices in the direction we will head. We can choose to fight it, complaining all the way. We can choose to deny it until it destroys us. Or we can deal with it using the tools Jesus has given us.
One of the greatest gifts we have been given is the constant abiding presence of the Lord. We may not always remember and we may not always practice his presence, but when we do, he becomes our greatest source of strength, encouragement, and wisdom. There is a line in psalm 73 that always reminds me of this fact. The psalmist was struggling over the apparent prosperity of the wicked and he could not understand until he humbled himself and entered the presence of the Lord:
When I thought how to understand this,
It was too painful for me—
Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
Then I understood their end. (Psalm 73:16-17)
Too often we make our struggles harder than they need to be. Father never intended for us to face anything on our own. But all too often we try to take short cuts in the relationship. We will fire off a few quick prayers and expect the situation to be removed, but Father wants intimacy. He will resist us so that we are forced to take the time to consider the situation. He will delay the response until we realize what we have done and come into the awareness of his presence. He is always present but we are often too busy with life to notice.
Taking the time to be aware and to sit in Father's presence is the greatest step we can take to overcoming the difficulties of our day. Whether Father removes them or gives us the strength to overcome them, it starts with our relationship with him. The presence of the Lord changes everything, and the joy we experience from knowing he is with us is the perfect way to face every new day.
Now I am not trying to be a downer today because along with the facts of life is the reality of our part in it. When we are facing difficulties we have a few choices in the direction we will head. We can choose to fight it, complaining all the way. We can choose to deny it until it destroys us. Or we can deal with it using the tools Jesus has given us.
One of the greatest gifts we have been given is the constant abiding presence of the Lord. We may not always remember and we may not always practice his presence, but when we do, he becomes our greatest source of strength, encouragement, and wisdom. There is a line in psalm 73 that always reminds me of this fact. The psalmist was struggling over the apparent prosperity of the wicked and he could not understand until he humbled himself and entered the presence of the Lord:
When I thought how to understand this,
It was too painful for me—
Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
Then I understood their end. (Psalm 73:16-17)
Too often we make our struggles harder than they need to be. Father never intended for us to face anything on our own. But all too often we try to take short cuts in the relationship. We will fire off a few quick prayers and expect the situation to be removed, but Father wants intimacy. He will resist us so that we are forced to take the time to consider the situation. He will delay the response until we realize what we have done and come into the awareness of his presence. He is always present but we are often too busy with life to notice.
Taking the time to be aware and to sit in Father's presence is the greatest step we can take to overcoming the difficulties of our day. Whether Father removes them or gives us the strength to overcome them, it starts with our relationship with him. The presence of the Lord changes everything, and the joy we experience from knowing he is with us is the perfect way to face every new day.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Satan Knows How To Destroy You
The enemy of your soul wishes to destroy you today. He won't be in your face about it but instead will use the natural weakness of your flesh against you. He will initiate something that you will continue with and he is good enough at it to make you think it is God's will. Consider Eve.
Eve's big mistake was answering the serpent but she did handle herself well. When you read this passage realize that Eve responded to the serpent's twisted truth in the same manner as Jesus did, with the exact words of God. But little did Eve know that by continuing to entertain the serpent she had already started down the slippery slope. I am sure the serpent had studied Eve and knew that her weakness was her curiosity which he worked on to overcome her obedience to God. All Satan had to do was nudge Eve's curiosity enough to get her to look at the fruit, then Eve did the rest. This is what Satan did to King David.
Often we consider David's biggest sin was his sexual sin with Bathsheba which led to the murder of her husband but there was another sin that resulted in the death of thousands of innocent people. It started off with Satan:
Satan decided to cause trouble for Israel by making David think it was a good idea to find out how many people there were in Israel and Judah. (1 Chronicles 21:1)
It is only natural that a king would want to know the strength of his army. All it took was a little nudge from Satan to push David in that direction. But God had ordered from long ago that Israel was never to take a census of its strength. The reason is a simple one: the strength of the army was never what the king of Israel was to rely upon. His true strength was found in his relationship with God, who is the defender of Israel. David did wrong and thousands of people paid the price.
Satan hasn't changed. He still uses his little bag of dirty tricks because they still work. He is very good at separating us from dependence on God. He is very good at working on our weaknesses. He is very good at nudging us in the direction of relying on our "armies" instead of God, and it keeps us weak. He does it in such a way that we think it is normal, natural. After all, it is only natural that we would keep a census of our wealth. It would be crazy not to. How else would we know what we need to pay our bills?
Yet Jesus told us to have nothing to do with fear or worry. He said not to chase after the values of this world as the people of this world do. In other words, we do not conduct business with the same set of values as the world; we have Kingdom values. We do not use the same wisdom or approach; we have God's wisdom. Whatever we have that comes from this world we give it away so we can receive Kingdom riches. We rejoice when we look weak in our finances and health because God is about to glorify himself in our weakness. We are a crazy bunch according to the principles and practices of this world, and that is what Satan wants to prevent. He does not want us discovering the Kingdom principles. He does not want Jesus to be our strength.
It comes down to this one basic truth: Your strength is found in your relationship with God. Anything else is a lie and will end up being your death. You will die on the riches of this world. Your bank account will be a dry twig and when you lean on it, it will snap. Your health is like the mist, a strong breeze will blow it away. Your family will be scattered with one simple crisis. The only true strength you have is Jesus Christ and that strength preserves finances, health and family. Without him you have nothing and you are nothing.
If the enemy of your soul comes whispering today rebuke him with the Word of God and press in to Jesus.
My body and mind may fail,
but you are my strength
and my choice forever. (Psalm 73:26)
Eve's big mistake was answering the serpent but she did handle herself well. When you read this passage realize that Eve responded to the serpent's twisted truth in the same manner as Jesus did, with the exact words of God. But little did Eve know that by continuing to entertain the serpent she had already started down the slippery slope. I am sure the serpent had studied Eve and knew that her weakness was her curiosity which he worked on to overcome her obedience to God. All Satan had to do was nudge Eve's curiosity enough to get her to look at the fruit, then Eve did the rest. This is what Satan did to King David.
Often we consider David's biggest sin was his sexual sin with Bathsheba which led to the murder of her husband but there was another sin that resulted in the death of thousands of innocent people. It started off with Satan:
Satan decided to cause trouble for Israel by making David think it was a good idea to find out how many people there were in Israel and Judah. (1 Chronicles 21:1)
It is only natural that a king would want to know the strength of his army. All it took was a little nudge from Satan to push David in that direction. But God had ordered from long ago that Israel was never to take a census of its strength. The reason is a simple one: the strength of the army was never what the king of Israel was to rely upon. His true strength was found in his relationship with God, who is the defender of Israel. David did wrong and thousands of people paid the price.
Satan hasn't changed. He still uses his little bag of dirty tricks because they still work. He is very good at separating us from dependence on God. He is very good at working on our weaknesses. He is very good at nudging us in the direction of relying on our "armies" instead of God, and it keeps us weak. He does it in such a way that we think it is normal, natural. After all, it is only natural that we would keep a census of our wealth. It would be crazy not to. How else would we know what we need to pay our bills?
Yet Jesus told us to have nothing to do with fear or worry. He said not to chase after the values of this world as the people of this world do. In other words, we do not conduct business with the same set of values as the world; we have Kingdom values. We do not use the same wisdom or approach; we have God's wisdom. Whatever we have that comes from this world we give it away so we can receive Kingdom riches. We rejoice when we look weak in our finances and health because God is about to glorify himself in our weakness. We are a crazy bunch according to the principles and practices of this world, and that is what Satan wants to prevent. He does not want us discovering the Kingdom principles. He does not want Jesus to be our strength.
It comes down to this one basic truth: Your strength is found in your relationship with God. Anything else is a lie and will end up being your death. You will die on the riches of this world. Your bank account will be a dry twig and when you lean on it, it will snap. Your health is like the mist, a strong breeze will blow it away. Your family will be scattered with one simple crisis. The only true strength you have is Jesus Christ and that strength preserves finances, health and family. Without him you have nothing and you are nothing.
If the enemy of your soul comes whispering today rebuke him with the Word of God and press in to Jesus.
My body and mind may fail,
but you are my strength
and my choice forever. (Psalm 73:26)
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