Yes, Wait

Last verse of Psalm 27 Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage;

Yes, wait for the Lord.

Waiting is not my strong suit. Is it yours?  I don’t like waiting in long lines for food, I hated waiting in lines for rides at amusement parks when I was younger (especially in the Texas heat!), and I despise waiting in a long line of traffic!

But here we are told to wait for the Lord.  That implies that sometimes he may not answer us on cue, when we demand that he do so.

Waiting does a lot of things.  It makes us angry and causes our blood pressure to rise, or it requires us to breathe, rest and take note of the sun shining in the sky or listen to the birds singing their songs, and this results in peace…

Here we are told to be strong.  Take courage.  And wait.

Good things come to those who wait, so I’m told.

And I believe that it’s true, when those good things come from Him.

Despair

A favorite verse Psalm 27:13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.

Have you ever been in despair?  It’s a sinking feeling, as if you’re going to die, even though you know you’re breathing.  It’s hopelessness personified through incredible fear that tomorrow may never come, and that you might be alone – really alone – forever.

The writer of this psalm felt that way.

Unless…

He believed.

We lose sign of God’s goodness when we choose to believe lies about his character.  It happened to Eve in the garden and it happens to us in our lives, too.  Whispers that he doesn’t care, he isn’t present, and even that he isn’t real, nag at our brain in the middle of the fog in which we stand.

Despair isn’t part of God’s plan for us, but we have to SHIFT our thoughts to believe in his goodness.  We have to choose to turn from the lies and believe the truth – that our God is indeed good – and his plans for us are good.

Are you looking for his goodness in the “land of the living?” If not, you’re looking elsewhere.  The land of the living is where those who love God dwell in safety, assurance, peace, and joy.  Hang out with those kinds of people, and glean from their faith, and believe…once again…and watch despair turn into hope…

Lead Me

Psalm 27:11 Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a level path Because of my foes.

When I read this verse, I thought of a path through a forest with dips, holes, traps, quicksand, etc. and how I surely wouldn’t want to walk on that path at night!  Add to that scene the creatures that lurk around in the dark, and I doubly don’t want to go!

This writer is asking God for HIS ways on level paths, BECAUSE of those kinds of traps and holes that are in front of him.

When we ask for HIS ways, we have to be ready for a path that might lead right toward a “Red Sea” that seems impossible to pass through.  However, the cool thing about the Lord leading us is that he sees all obstacles and bumps in the road, and he carries us through.  Otherwise, left alone, we’d be stuck and vulnerable to all of the slips and falls and fears along the way.

God’s ways sometimes don’t look easy and we don’t understand them, but one thing is for sure.  They lead to life.

So let’s go on His level path away from the enemy…towards the light.

But...

Psalm 27:10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, But the Lord will take me up.

Here in this verse lies the root of many of our fears.  When others forsake us, especially family members, we automatically shift that sort of non-protection/abandonment to our heavenly father as well, thinking he might do the same.

When parents divorce or leave, little kids often wonder what they did wrong to “cause” their parents to leave.  And we all know the kids are never the issue.  So the little kids grows up thinking they aren’t worth staying and fighting for…until that hurt and wound transfers to fear that God might do the same.

God isn’t like our earthly parents.  He created us, he loves us, he sent his son to die for us, and he even made us in his image to bear his name!  He bought us with a price and he’s not letting go!

Any time we feel alone or that God is silent, he’s just waiting for us to crawl up in his lap and lay against his heart and breathe…in the silence…aware and secure in his arms.

My Help

Psalm 27:8

Yesterday, the writer was asking God to answer him.  Today he continues:

Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation!

Sometimes our prayers and pleas are full of fear and faith at the same time, with the faith always being the response to our fear!

David fears God’s silence and thinks perhaps  God is angry, BUT then he remembers God has always been his help.

He then worries that God might abandon or forsake him in his need, BUT then he remembers that God is his salvation.

Any thoughts or fears of God’s silence being a sign that he’s forsaken us or forgotten us are not true, so we are free to dismiss them.

Any thoughts of remembering God’s help and God’s salvation to you and yours are beneficial and serve to remind you of his great love that never leaves or forsakes.

Recall his faithfulness to you and yours, and let that settle your anxious heart.

Does He Hear?

Psalm 27:7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”

Do you ever feel like God is not listening, that perhaps he’s giving you the “silent treatment?” Sometimes, when we cry out for answers we hear nothing.  But that’s never a bad thing with HIM.

Look at the rest of the verse.  Some other time God had told David to seek his face and he had obeyed.  David reminds God of this and asks him to be gracious to him to answer again.

When God seems to be silent, the obvious answer is always to keep seeking…but not so much for the answer…but rather for Him.

When we seek to know him and his righteousness and his ways, all these other things we are hoping for answers to, just work themselves out.

It’s his way.

Seek him first…and all these things follow.

Even when he’s silent.

Yes, I Will

Psalm 27:6 And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

Can you picture it?  You’re surrounded by a throng of “enemies” trying to tear at your flesh and eat you up, and then…you’re lifted up high above them all…where they can’t get at you and all you can do is just see them below you?

That’s what God does for us – he lifts our head up when it’s hanging down in fear.

And the response from us is then joyful shouts and songs – yes! – songs of praise to Him.

We can sing songs on our bed at night when darkness surrounds us.

We can sing songs in the early morning when the sun is just peeking over the horizon.

We can shout for joy when the strong breezes blow.

We can sing AND shout because He is the lifter of our head – over everything that 

surrounds us – so that those things are then surrounded by praise.

One Thing

Psalm 27 cont’d:

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord And to meditate in His temple.

On most any given day, I’m asking and seeking and desiring other things like money, healing, direction, etc. and I’m not really seeking to behold his beauty.

His beauty came in his suffering for our sins, his taking the blame for our wrongs, and his being beaten for our healing.  And when we think on the beauty of the work Jesus did on the cross for us, because he was willing and obedient to his Father’s directive to love the world so that they won’t perish – we can’t help but wonder and marvel and realize that he is indeed good, perfect, and trustworthy.

And when we ask for that one thing – to see his beauty – to dwell in his presence – when it is granted – is transcends all of the other wishes and wants that dominated our vision for so long.

Try it.

Behold his beauty.

Meditate in his presence.

In Spite of This

Psalm 27 cont’d: When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear;

Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident.

Okay, so evildoers exist in this life.  We see it on the news and we’ve seen them on the streets.  And yes, we have adversaries, those who are against us and what we stand for.  In fact, sometimes we feel like a “host” is ready to declare war on our emotions, our hearts, and our resolve to keep the faith.

This verse says that instead of us stumbling and falling, THEY did.

This verse that that even against all odds, I SHALL BE confident.

It doesn’t makes sense to feel confident and strong in the middle of a raging war, but that’s the beauty of who God is – he’s the God who makes no sense to our senses – but he devours our enemies and sets our feet on solid ground – never to fall.

Nothing can separate us from his great love, and nothing can destroy our lives in Him.

Not even evildoers that devour...

Questions

Psalm 27 is titled a “psalm of fearless trust in God” so I want to read it and pick it apart over the next few days…

Verse 1 says The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?

What makes you fearful?  What do you dread?  I think many of us would answer that the uncertainty of life makes us fearful, and we dread things like sickness, failure, loss, etc.  I mean, who isn’t afraid and who doesn’t dread those things?

But David (the writer of Psalm) starts out by stating the truth that the Lord is his light AND salvation.  That’s how we win the battle of fear every time, by stating the truth.

Light dispels darkness.

Salvation rescues the falling.

Therefore, all of the things that lurk in the dark to bring us fear and those things we dread that “might” come upon us really have no ability to come near us because of Him – our Defense.

When playing a game of football, the Defense is responsible for keeping the other team from scoring a goal.  But sometimes the other team breaks through and crosses the line for a score.  However, God is our constant defender and promises that though we’re in a battle for the win, He’s already won, and all we have to do is run well.

Let’s start out this day with the truth about who God is and see how our fear factor wanes...

Seasoned Grace

What a verse!  

Colossians 4:6 says Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.  Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

I love this.

Since we have received grace, that which we did not deserve, that free gift of forgiveness and love, then…

We are to offer that same grace toward “outsiders” – those who don’t yet know his grace.  We are not to condemn, criticize or send away those who are unlike we are.  Instead, our speech and our actions are to be conducted “with wisdom” “as though seasoned with salt!”

Salt makes everything better IF it’s sprinkled on for taste and not to destroy flavor.

There’s nothing better than well-seasoned food, and nothing more repulsive than food that is too salty.

Others we meet and know need to experience the grace of God just like we did – as a gift – freely given – and then it’s up to them whether or not they want to receive it.

What a great lesson to learn, once we’ve received grace.  Sprinkle it around like good seasoning so others will be drawn in to want more…

The Gift

Ephesians 2:8 reminds us of something else:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

For some reason, as we walk along in life we get trapped into thinking that we can do something to earn his grace by giving excessively of our money, working hard to volunteer every time we’re asked, or singing the loudest or being the boldest when it comes to telling others about Him.

Works of kindness and love are great.  But they are no substitute for grace.  And they aren’t the reason for his grace toward us.

It’s hard to receive gifts from others when we don’t feel deserving, we barely know them, or we know we haven’t even been kind to them.  And sometimes that causes to feel like we then have to give back out of duty, because what will they think if we don’t?

God give us grace, it’s a gift.  And any giving we do back to him should be out of thanksgiving and love, not so that we can prove that we deserve it.

We don’t deserve it.

But he gave anyway.

And it’s a gift we can receive gladly and graciously by giving thanks.

Three Words

Ephesians 1:7 says In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.

Here are some pretty churchy terms that we use, and maybe we sometimes forget what they mean.

Redemption – he bought us with a price – we were enslaved to sin and he redeemed us – bought us back – so that we could be set free from sin (all of those actions and attitudes that are not like Him).

Trespasses – that’s another word for sin.  When we trespass against another, we sin against him/her by doing or saying or thinking wrong about them.

Grace – there it is again.  That thing that sent Jesus to the cross to die for us.  He redeemed us, forgave us of our sins, all because of grace that he freely gives.

We need to remind ourselves of this often – the grace of God that forgives us and sets us free to live.

Boast about It

2 Corinthians 12:9 says And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Here again we are told of his sufficient grace, and even more…his power is made perfect…but oh wait…in our weakness!

In other words when we are weak and unable to stand against temptation, or when we are lacking power to accomplish impossible tasks during the week, or when we just feel wobbly and weary…there comes grace again…in POWER.

Instead of being discouraged when we feel weak we can rejoice and be glad, because the power of Christ dwells in us and his grace is all-encompassing; in fact, it’s sweet perfection for all that we need.

Feeling week today?  His grace is enough.

Feeling powerless?  Let him perfect that weakness in his grace.

All Grace

2 Corinthians 9:8 says And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;

Here we see God’s grace go further than forgiveness of our sins.  He now extends grace toward us to have enough of all that we need…but for what?  So that we can abound in good deeds.

God does promise to supply our needs but it’s not so that we can hoard them – rather it’s so we can then do good to others in need.

It’s the cyclical nature of grace.  We are given much; therefore, we are to give much.  And in giving much, we will receive all that we need.  And so on it goes.

Isn’t the grace of God amazing?

What do you need today?

Look at that word “abound” and receive all that you need so that you can abundantly give by doing good deeds.

How’s that for a rhyme?

So That You

2 Corinthians 8:9 says For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

Grace enabled or caused our Lord to humble himself to leave the riches of heaven, seated by his Father, to come to earth fashioned as a man and live poorly without material blessings so that through that poverty we could become rich.

Why did Jesus have to do all of that?  Why couldn’t God just extend grace to man without sending his son? 

God is holy.  He is without sin, and he cannot look upon sin.  It’s his nature.  For example (a very loose example, for sure) we are human and we cannot look past a certain view with our eyes, it’s not in us to do so – we can’t.  So God could not look past our sin because he’s holy.

Sending his son Jesus to be the spotless lamb, a man without sin, was the only way to extend grace to a fallen world and restore mankind into the riches of his love.

And because Jesus obeyed his father all the way to the cross, he conquered death for us, so that we now can come to God without fear or shame and receive all of the same inheritance that is now ours…forever.

That’s grace.

And it’s ours.

Under Grace

I like Romans 6:14, 25 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

At different times in my life I’ve heard others talk about grace as though it was a license to do whatever we please because we’re under “grace” - that loving kindness of our Father.

But that sort of attitude misses the mark altogether.  

It’s grace that rescues us from being a slave to sin, unable to control ourselves from doing those things that are harmful to us and others around us.  Grace is not a license to sin, but rather it’s a ticket off the boat where we’re chained up, into his arms where we’re free to be loved…and to love.

I’m thankful we are not under “law” with someone forcing us to do this and that, but I’m ever grateful for the grace that brings me to his love where I want to do what he tells me, because his love is so pure and strong, and I realize that his grace covers a multitude of sins in me.

Under grace.

What a great place to be.

The Gift

Romans 3 says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. 

This is a verse many use as they talk to others and bring them into relationship with Christ.  We all have sinned – done wrong – and there’s nothing we can do to right those wrongs.

The gift of grace is freely given to us by Jesus to redeem us – forgive us – set us free from the power that sin holds over our lives.

God did this for us through his son Jesus who shed his blood for our sins – the was the perfect sacrifice.

And when we exercise faith – believing in him – we are justified – made clean from every wrongdoing or sin we’ve committed.

And we are made clean in his sight – totally forgiven – by the grace of Jesus.

Isn’t that cool?  Grace is free.  Salvation is free. 

The Word of Grace

Acts 14 says Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. 

Here we see grace paired with power, signs and wonders once again.  It also follows reliance on the Lord.

Jesus came to earth to die for our sins.  But when he was left alone by his closest followers when he needed their support the most, he cried to his Father and asked that the cup he was about to drink be removed – if it was the Father’s will – but then he was willing to drink that cup because that was his purpose for coming.

There will be days when think we cannot take another step or breathe another breath.  And we may cry out for God to remove our circumstances, our disappointments, our pain…and yet he offers us his grace instead.

Sound like an unfair trade?

When we totally rely on him, because everything else around us is unreliable, he grants us grace…and signs and wonders and power follow.

Grace is not understood with our minds, it’s just granted and received with our hearts, and there we stand…and we don’t know how…but we do.

Continuing On

Acts 13:43 says Now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God.

Here again we see the grace of God in action.

We need to urge others to continue in His grace.  We need to be encouraged ourselves to continue in his grace.

But how do we do that?

We keep a humble heart.

We realize our need for Him.

We believe that when we ask for grace he grants it.

We walk in the grace he gives today.

We see his power displayed in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

We are encouraged.

And we encourage others

The grace of God never runs out, never loses its power, and never ceases to amaze.

Full of It

Acts 6:8 says this And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

Stephen was a man who caused a stir, and people even stoned him…to death.  He was a martyr.

I’ve just finished reading a book about 8 women who were persecuted for their faith.  and they too must have been full of grace and power – somehow they both go together.

God grants us grace to go through difficult circumstances, and somehow that graces evolves into power to come through unscathed, unafraid and victorious – no matter what comes against us.

God’s grace is really quite amazing.  I know a young mom with a little boy who’s in and out of the hospital every few months or even sometimes weeks.  Her faith is quite amazing, and her words are always encouraging, even though she admits feeling discouraged and weary at times.  God somehow gives her grace to make it day by day, and the strength she exhibits is really something to watch and be amazed it.  

How does she do it?

It’s by the grace of God.

How do people give their lives in the most dire of circumstances? By his grace and power.

I think grace and power go hand in hand, sort of like peanut butter and jelly.  When God starts spreading his grace into our lives, it goes without saying that his power will be placed in our lives next, and we’ll become a classic taste to those around us.

A Graceful Wreath

In Proverbs 1 we read great imagery about grace.

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;

 Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck.

My daughter’s little girl loves to stand in my closet and stare at my necklaces. She looks them over and points out ones she’d like to drape around her own neck.  The look on her eyes as she wonders and chooses makes me melt, and I pick out one and let her wear it.  It warms my heart that she enjoys wearing something of mine.

Good instruction that we receive from our fathers and mothers is like a pretty necklace for our necks or a crown for our heads.  In fact, they are “graceful.”

It looks good on us when we wear in obedience our Father’s instructions as well.  It’s an adornment that others see and stop to adore, wonder, and want to wear…as well.

Is your “closet” full of grace for your children?  Are you constantly peering into your Father’s closet to see what of his that you can wear?

It might be something to think about and do!