Friday, August 25, 2017, 9:15 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “I Just Want to Be Where You Are.”
Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read Psalm 16 (ESV).
Apart from You
(vv. 1-4)
Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no
good apart from you.”
As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent
ones,
in whom is
all my delight.
The sorrows of those who run after another god shall
multiply;
their drink
offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take
their names on my lips.
When we believe in Jesus
Christ, and he becomes our Lord, we yield to his will for our lives, and we
rest in him to accomplish his purposes in our lives. We should no longer regard
our lives as our own, to do with them what we desire, but we should consider
that we now belong to Christ, for we were bought back for God with his blood
shed on a cross for our sins. We ought to be grateful for his grace to us, and
we should desire him above all else in this life. He should be the love of our
lives, and we ought to want to be with him always, doing what he says, and
following him wherever he leads us.
When we trust in Jesus
Christ, his Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us. As his followers, we now
become the body of Christ, God’s temple, for God now lives within us in the
person of his Holy Spirit. Collectively, we who believe in Jesus Christ are his
church. And, the church is comprised of the saints of God (believers in Jesus).
Thus, we should love them and want to enjoy sweet Christian fellowship with
them, and to worship God with them and to minister to one another. And, the
Holy Spirit will gift us with spiritual gifts which are to be used within the
body of Christ to encourage, strengthen, counsel, nurture, urge, heal, and help
one another to grow in our faith.
When we have faith in Jesus
Christ, we should love what he loves and hate what he hates. We must leave our
old lives of living for sin and self behind us, and we must follow Jesus Christ
in obedience to his will for our lives. We should no longer run after the
cravings of this sinful world, but now our desire should be for our Lord, to
please him in every way.
My Chosen Portion (vv. 5-8)
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my
lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I
have a beautiful inheritance.
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night
also my heart instructs me.
I have set the Lord always before me;
because he
is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Faith in Jesus Christ is not
just about escaping hell and having the promise of heaven when we die. It isn’t
just about being forgiven our sins so that we are no longer under condemnation,
either. Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He saved
us, not just to secure a place for us with him in eternity, but he saved us to
deliver us from bondage to sin while we still live on this earth. He died, not
just to forgive us, but to transform us. He has given us spiritual birth in himself,
for when we believe in him, we die with him to our old lives, and we are
resurrected with him to new lives in Christ Jesus, created to be like God in
true righteousness and holiness.
Faith in Jesus Christ is also
not just a religion, but it is a relationship with our living God. Because of
what Jesus did for us in dying for our sins, we love him, and we want to be in
fellowship with him, and we want to serve him with our lives. So, we spend time
with him each day in prayer and in his word because we want to hear from him,
and to talk with him, and to have communion with him. And, he counsels us and
instructs us in the way he would have us go. Sometimes he corrects or rebukes
us, and other times he encourages and comforts us. He is always with us, and we
can talk with him any time. Yet, the beauty of the relationship is not just in
the talking and listening, but it is in the doing. We must do what he tells us,
too.
The Path of Life (vv. 9-11)
Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being
rejoices;
my flesh
also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your
holy one see corruption.
You make known to me the path of life;
in your
presence there is fullness of joy;
at your
right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Spending time with our Lord
in prayer, in his word, in listening to him speak his words to our hearts, and
then in doing what he instructs us to do should not be just ritual or
obligation or brief. We should consider the fact that God now lives within us,
so he is always with us, no matter where we are or what we are doing, so he can
talk with us and us with him 24/7. We ought to always be in an attitude of
prayer and have receptive ears to hear him speaking to us anytime and anyplace,
and then to quickly respond to what he says. It should be a lot like a young
married (or engaged) couple who want to be with each other all the time and who
can’t wait to see each other and to tell each other about their day or to share
experiences together.
We should love our times
together with our Lord, and to desire to know and to do his will, no matter
where that sends us or what it requires that we do. And, he will make known to
us the path of life chosen for us that we must follow. And, then he will go
before us and prepare the way, and he will lead us in the way we should go, and
he will direct our steps. We may not know exactly what lies ahead, or God’s
exact timing for everything, but we step out in faith one day and one step at a
time as he reveals his will to us each step of the way, and in his perfect
timing. Sometimes we wait on him, and then when he opens the way for us to go,
we then walk in it, but not in our own strength, but in the strength and power
of God’s Spirit within us.
I Just Want to Be Where You Are
Don Moen
I want to be where you are
Dwelling in your presence
Feasting at your table
Surrounded by your glory
In your presence
That's where I always want to
be
I just want to be,
I just want to be with you…
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