Wednesday, January 7,
2015, 5:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “I Pray For Them.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Psalm 118 (selected verses ESV).
He Set Me Free!
Oh
give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever! ~
v. 1
Out
of my distress I called on the Lord;
the Lord answered me and set me free. ~ v.
5
“God
so loved the world that he gave his One and Only Begotten Son that whosoever
believes in him should not perish but have life everlasting” (Jn. 3:16).
This morning, as I was reading through the words to this
psalm and the words to the song from this morning, which is based off John 17, I
found myself thinking about how God always was, and how he is our triune God –
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and how, even before he created us he had a plan
and a purpose for our lives, and how the plan all along was for the Son, Jesus
Christ, to come to the earth to be born in human form, and to live on the face
of this earth as fully man but also as fully God.
I don’t know about you, but when I think on these things it
just blows me away! I cannot fathom the vastness of all of that or even begin
to comprehend a triune God who always existed and whose plan it was to send the
Son to die for our sins and then to send the Holy Spirit to indwell us who
believe in the Son, Jesus Christ. My mind thinks in terms of beginning and end,
yet I believe in Him, and I believe his Word, even though I don’t understand it
all. I know my Redeemer lives, because he lives in me!
I believed in Jesus Christ when I was yet a young girl, so I
didn’t have time to have a long sinful past, yet I did call out in my distress.
My father was an abuser of the worst kind. And, I felt the pain and suffering
of all that he did to me. I felt the weight of that sin upon me. I cried out to
the Lord during an altar call at summer camp, repenting of my sin, and asking
the Lord Jesus to save me of my sins. And, he answered me, and he set me free!
Amen!
He is My Helper
The
Lord is on my side; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
The
Lord is on my side as my helper;
I shall look in triumph on those who hate
me.
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.
All
nations surrounded me;
in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
…I
was pushed hard, so that I was falling,
but the Lord helped me. ~ vv. 6-13
My circumstances did not change, though. My father still
abused me. Yet, the Lord was gracious to me in having me brought up in an
evangelical church with a strong emphasis on missions and on holy living (the same
denomination as A. W. Tozer). So, I learned a lot there about God’s grace, his
mercy, his love, and his compassion towards me, and I grew in my faith and in
my spiritual walk with Christ. And, he became my very best friend.
I believed very much so that my Lord was on my side, that he
loved me, and that he was genuinely concerned for my welfare. I didn’t
understand his sovereignty over my life, though, until much later in life.
Although in my mind I believed he was all powerful, yet in my emotions I think
I saw him more as just a comforter, healer, guide, and counselor, who had no real
power to change my circumstances, and who had no control over my situations, but
who was more just like a faithful friend to help me through the difficult
times, and as someone to teach me how to live for God and to obey his word and
to walk in his ways.
This mindset caused problems for me throughout my life,
because I also did not fully comprehend Jesus’ power over Satan in my life, and
the reality of what truly happened when he died and when he rose from the grave
triumphant over sin. I did not fully understand his control and sovereignty
over all things and all people in my life, so I often responded in fear and
retreat, and sometimes in sin, although I certainly knew I was doing wrong when
I sinned. I guess for me to believe that God was absolutely in control would
have been to accept that he could have rescued me from my suffering, but he
didn’t, and perhaps that was more than my human mind was willing to accept at
that time.
But, thanks be to God, he didn’t leave me there. He brought
me through some very difficult times in my life to the realization of his
absolute sovereignty and control over every aspect of my life. He told me I
needed to forgive Jesus, although Jesus had done no wrong, but because my actions
showed that I was angry with Jesus for not rescuing me, and/or that I lacked
faith to trust him with every aspect of my life. And, so, I submitted to God’s
absolute sovereignty over my life, and I decided from that point on that I
would trust him with my circumstances and with the people in my life, believing
that he has my good always in mind, and that he allows what he allows in my
life for his purposes and for his glory – to make me the person he wants me to
be, so he can use me the way he intended all along.
I Will Recount
The
Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
Glad
songs of salvation
are in the tents of the righteous…
I
shall not die, but I shall live,
and recount the deeds of the Lord.
The
Lord has disciplined me severely,
but he has not given me over to death. ~
vv. 14-18
Even though I had failed God greatly, and I had times in my
life when I sinned against him seriously, he did not reject me as his servant.
Even before I was formed by God in the womb of my mother, God had a plan and a
purpose for my life (See Jeremiah 1 and Psalm 139). Certainly he did not lead
me into sin, or cause me to sin, and he did not cause my dad or others to sin
against me, and there were others. Yet, he allowed all those situations in my
life to teach me, mature me, to mold me and to make me into the person he had
created me to be for his purposes and for his glory, and for such a time as
this.
And, then he called me to write down what he teaches me each
day through his word, through song, and through the witness of his Spirit
within me, and to place these writings on the internet for the encouragement of
the body of Christ, to share his gospel of salvation, to address idolatry and
spiritual adultery within the church, to point out false teaching and
deception, to warn of judgment, and to call the church to repentance. And, his
grace, his help, his strength and his Spirit within me have sustained me, and have
kept me from falling, and have given me endurance, passion, compassion, understanding,
wisdom and discernment to know the troubled times in which we live; and to
persevere even in the face of rejection and persecution; and to keep on recounting
the deeds of the Lord.
He is My Savior
Open
to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
This
is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
I
thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The
stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This
is the Lord's doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This
is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it. ~ vv.
19-24
I am so thankful for my salvation, and that Jesus Christ set
me free! I am also so grateful that he is on my side, that he had a plan and a
purpose for my life from the beginning, and that he saw me through those
difficult years to bring me to the place where he wanted me to be, so he could
use me in the way he intended all along. I am so appreciative that he did not
give up on me, even when I wandered away from him and his will for my life, but
that he was patient with me, and that he lifted me out of the pit and placed my
feet on a solid rock, and that he gave me a firm place to stand so that I may
sing of him and not be silent!
I am also so glad that my Lord and my Savior willingly left
his throne in heaven to come to earth, and to take on human form, and to suffer
and to be tempted in like manner as we are tempted and we suffer, yet without
sin, so that he could become our compassionate and merciful high priest, and also
so he could be our sacrificial Lamb in dying for our sins. I am not glad that he
had to suffer, but I am thankful that I have a Lord who understands and who
feels my pain, and who has gone before me and has prepared the way so that when
I go through rejection and persecution and abandonment that he is there to give
me all that I need to endure, to persevere, and to keep on loving others with
his love, even those who do evil against me. He is my foundation, in whom I
place all my trust!
I Pray for Them /
An Original Work / June 4, 2013
Based off John 17
“Glorify Your Son,
that Your Son
May glorify our God in
heav’n.
Father, You granted
Him all power
And all authority over
men,
That He might give eternal
life
To all those whom now
You have given Him.”
“This now then is
eternal life:
That they may know
You,
Father, and Your Son;
That they may know the
only true God,
And Jesus Christ whom
the Father sent.
I have brought You the
glory by
Finishing the work
that You’ve given Me.”
“I have shown You to
those whom
You gave to Me out of
the world;
They were Yours. You
gave them to Me
And they have obeyed
Your words
And they accepted
them. They knew
That I came from You,
and they believed
With certainty, I was
sent.”
“Holy Father, I pray
for them by the
Power of Your name:
Protect them,
So that they may be
one as we are,
For they are still
living in this world.
I have given them Your
word;
Because of Your word,
the world
Has hated them.”
“I pray they may have
the full measure of
My joy now living
within them.
Father, I pray You
sanctify them
By Your word; truly
Your word is truth.
As You sent Me into
the world,
I send them to tell
the world to repent.”
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