Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared. Psalm 119:38
The human soul can be so tossed about by trouble that a once confirmed promise from God is shaken loose from its foundation. God gave it, even confirmed it initially, but now the words feel hollow. The promise has little effect on a heart full of fear and uncertainty. There is no rest in the Word because there is little trust left. Pain has eroded it.
I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. Psalm 131:22
A big blowup in a relationship is not what usually kills it. People argue. Some fight passionately. But if both are committed to the each other and also committed to truth, there is understanding and restoration. What is deadly to any relationship, however, is a gradual deadening of the heart. A slow death is much more difficult to turn around.
You’ve heard the phrase, “I feel like I don’t know you anymore.” A ‘foreigner’ is a good description. It is saying, ‘You are acting so strangely that I don’t even recognize you. You may as well have come from a foreign land.’
Amazing that what can be intimate can grow so deeply estranged. In a spiritual sense, this is what happens, more than not, to the children of God toward their Heavenly Father. No wonder there are so many songs about returning to your first love, about stirring the cold embers of your heart. Erosion can happen so slowly that the gradual decline is inconspicuous.
To make sure that it doesn’t happen to me, I want to think about this more intently this morning. What would happen that might show I’ve turned my face away from God to tiptoe in the other direction?
I used to believe that some ‘thing’ would happen that would kill my faith. I guess I was wrong. Nothing can do that for me. Isaiah says that God’s children have turned themselves back into foreigners. Circumstances don’t make or break a relationship. It’s whether two people choose to walk together or not. It’s commitment. It’s nurturing the love that exists and never allowing any other priority to eclipse it.
Oh, that I might always say that we are intimate. Amen
Lord God, I pray for the fulfillment of Your promises. Many words of faith have been proclaimed. Many words of salvation have been uttered into the darkness. Many scriptures have been whispered in tearful prayers. They still beg for a harvest. The words left the mouth of this servant and went into a chaotic and confused heart. Accomplish what it was sent out to do.
You have called me to love. You have called me to plead for the unbelieving and that is a holy thing. You have risen up in me to send Your Word forth to what looked hopeless. I have done it by faith. I know the power of Your words. When watered by Your Spirit, heaven’s seeds bear fruit on foreign soil. Infuse this hope into my discouragement today.
Someone I love is still resistant to change. They shun any mention of You. The Word has fallen into their darkness and I see no trace of it. Do not let them run toward their own destruction. Cure their spiritual blindness. Cause the breath of Your Spirit to blow over the carnage of their lives so that they can hear, understand, and then rise up to stand on their feet. I smell spiritual death but I say, by faith, “Prepare to hear the Word of the Lord.”
With these scriptures, enforce the victory of Calvary over the mind and heart of my unbelieving loved one. God, when You shed light, no darkness can overcome it. When You speak, no other voice nullifies it. “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” 2 Cor. 4:6 As Elisha prayed, I also pray, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” 2 Kings 6:17
Today is the day of salvation. Seal the process of their spiritual decision making by the power of Your Spirit. May it be that “The eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.” Isaiah 35:5 In Jesus’ name, Amen
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Psalm 20:7
David compels the people of God to turn away from counterfeit powers. Horses and chariots were plentiful both inside the kingdom and outside. Kingdoms of the east were also very wealthy and gold and silver abounded. Satan often rewarded idolatry with temporary abundance but David was adamant that true power begins and ends with God.
Most people are drawn to the light. That’s the good news. But there are two kinds of light and one is fake. That’s the bad news. Satan masquerades himself as a god of light because he knows that if he shows us his true identity, we will be seized with fear. He must disguise himself into whatever he knows will appeal to his victims.
This is why I often encourage true believers to address this problem in prayer when praying for their families. They can restrict the enemy, with the spiritual authority they have in Christ, from putting on a demonic glitter that makes his way addicting. Oh, the stories associated with this kind of praying! Sons have, all of a sudden, seen a girlfriend for who she is and broken up with her. Middle school children have, all of a sudden, seen the true nature of their ‘bad’ friends, and walked away from danger. A husband has, all of a sudden, seen the kind of woman he’s having an affair with and ended it. Once the demonic glitter was removed, loved ones stepped back, gasped, and came to their senses. None of us need be under the spell of false light.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. Psalm 16:6
Have you ever been denied what is rightfully yours? Perhaps inheritance issues have divided your family and humanly speaking, you came out on the short end. The pain of broken promises can turn the nicest hearts into bitter ones. Twisted old men and women were once young dreamers. Hurt upon hurt chipped away at their trust and their optimism and the face of cynicism was slowly revealed with the years. With nothing and no one to count on, they threw up their hands and resigned themselves to get nothing. They tested everyone in their life; “they love me…”, “they love me not….” Those who had a relationship with them felt the pressures of the relationship and got weary of jumping through hoops to prove their love.
Let your steadfast come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise; then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your Word. Psalm 119:41-42
If the promises of God are coming true in my life in the form of answered prayers, then I do have a plan when others taunt me. Constant harassment will be crippling unless the arrows that come flying in my direction bounce off the confidence I enjoy from answered prayer. When the heavens are open and God is blessing me, I can sustain the attacks and stand tall. Oh, but when the heavens are silent and fellowship with God is broken, I lose all gut strength.
Hear me, LORD, my plea is just; listen to my cry. Hear my prayer– it does not rise from deceitful lips. Psalm 17:1
Prayer can be confusing. I know that I’m asking for good things. Even noble things. I assume that these will be the kind God loves to answer quickly and with a ‘yes’. Then, there’s nothing. The heavens appear to be shut. These are the mysteries of prayer that are the hardest for God’s children to understand. If my prayers are God-honoring, why wouldn’t God love to say ‘yes’?
Continue reading “When Prayer Doesn’t Bring Me The Relief I Seek”
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? Psalm 56:3
How long can you keep going under pressure before giving up? How many losses would you sustain before you find that a particular one seems too much to bear? The threshold of abdication is different for each of us. So, also, is the particular issue that defeats us. I’ve known parents who lost one child to cancer and they never recovered. They live in a perpetual suspension of emotions and they are internally numb.
But, I also know a woman who lost one child in childbirth; another in a custody battle. She lived childless. Both of her parents died when she was young and she was raised by surrogate parents who severely mistreated her. Though she visited the valley of hopelessness many times and flirted with total despair, she leaned on God for the grace and grit to get up. Now in her later years, she is a wise old soul who gives the gifts of compassion, advocacy, and wisdom to those who have no one to understand their pain. Her eyes search for those lost in themselves. She’s able to look deeply into their eyes, see their soul and call them out.
I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. Psalm 119:15
The way of the disciple is to listen, meditate on what he’s heard, then travel the ways of His teacher. David doesn’t just meditate to enjoy kingdom musings. He narrows his eyes to consider God’s ways and to make sure he follows them.
My ears perk up whenever I hear someone describe a principle from the Word as “interesting”. If it’s only said now and then, it’s not alarming. But, if ‘interesting’ is habitually the way God’s Word is described, then it’s as if the kingdom is nothing more than an indulgence of the intellect. They are fattened by the entertainment factor and are self-satisfied because they understand certain concepts. However, they seem to ignore their weaknesses and believe God for personal transformation. Their Christianity stays in their head while their heart remains broken and full of self.
What’s critical for me to realize is this ~ If I boast of understanding something void of application, I don’t know the thing at all. I can know and preach quite passionately that Jesus died for my sins, even watch others come to the altar, but still wallow in past personal failures. Tragically, I have not personally experienced the freedom of having my sins forgiven.
For every word of Jesus that captures my heart, the invitation to allow my heart to be changed by that very word ~ follows.
I love to study and am tempted to be self-impressed because I did. You’re not impressed, Lord. What pleases You is whether or not Your Word travels to my heart and changes me. Don’t let me miss the most important part. In Jesus’ name, Amen
I have inclined my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end. Psalm 119:112
Tell a child, “Don’t do that!” and they’ll set out to do it. Tell a child “Do this!” and they’ll want to do anything but that. Being told what to do is distasteful. Rebellion is bound up in the heart of every newborn. If not conquered, rebellion will remain a spiritual disease for the breadth of their lifetime. Though they are God’s child, they will strain under His commandments. They will obey from time to time, but down deep, they will resent being told what to do.
David is tough on himself. He knows that without some hard work in prayer, his heart will not be engaged to obey with gladness. David announces to God that he has dealt with his heart’s desire to be autonomous. He has done whatever it takes to bend his heart toward loving God’s ways.
Are there any ways in me that are still childish? Do I obey God only when I feel like it? Do I obey only the things which don’t require sacrifice? If so, I am no better than a pouting three year old. To grow up, I enter into the conflict of my flesh and my spirit. I recognize and own that my flesh wants one thing; my spirit quite another. I take my own flesh to God in prayer and admit that it’s bent in the wrong direction. I cry out for mercy, for a heart change. I don’t want to grind out a life of obedience that is rooted in behavior modification; all the while my heart privately dreams of doing my own thing. I will resent God and truly believe He is the one keeping me from joy.
When I teach, I often face a church full of sullen faces. They are ‘technically’ in the kingdom but their hearts have not discovered that Jesus is their treasure and that His burden is light. Heart reformation has never been taught. Doing the Christian thing has been the focus of their environment. Satan keeps them in chains, a bondage built on the lie that they know best and God is One who steals their joy by asking them to live in a prison of rules. They have no idea that the way of the disciple is freedom and exhilaration. They do not know that the presumed ‘prison of rules’ is the tomb and obedience is walking out into the spacious place of the resurrection.
If my heart is not inclined toward you and what you ask of me, change me. Amen
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