Are you weary? Are you
troubled over any circumstances in your life? Is your heart heavy over any of
life’s situations? Are you being ill-treated? Abused? Rejected? Hated?
Persecuted for righteousness’ sake? Do the troubles in your life seem to
outnumber the hairs on your head? If so, there is hope!
Rest in God
Psalm 62:1-2 NIV
Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation
comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my
fortress, I will never be shaken.
We can do nothing, in many
cases, about the difficulties of our lives, if they come to us from sources
other than from ourselves. We have absolutely no control over other people and
what they do or don’t do, unless they are under our authority, and even then,
our hands may be tied, at times. And, worrying and fretting over these situations
never changes anything, either.
So, if we are followers of
Jesus Christ, we learn to take our burdens to the Lord and to lay them at his
feet. And, we learn to rest in him and to not fret. Even if we feel fear, which
we sometimes will, we give it over to the Lord, and we let him fill our hearts
with his peace.
We must know, though, that
fear is one of Satan’s greatest tactics against us, and he doesn’t give up
easily, so we have to make this our regular practice to recognize when we are
feeling fear, and then to immediately take our fears to the Lord in prayer and
to hand them over to him, and to keep handing them over to him, and then to
keep turning our hearts to him in prayer and in resting in him. And, it is
there that we will find peace.
They Delight in Lies
Psalm 62:3-4 NIV
How long will you assault me?
Would all of
you throw me down—
this leaning
wall, this tottering fence?
Surely they intend to topple me
from my
lofty place;
they take
delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
but in their
hearts they curse.
We, as human beings, will
always have enemies. We will always have people who won’t like us, for whatever
reason, and who will hate and persecute us. Yet, as followers of Jesus Christ,
Satan is our real enemy, because he is God’s enemy, so he will come against us
to try to defeat us, and he will use other human beings to try to bring us
down, too.
One of Satan’s biggest
weapons against us is lies. He whispers lies into our ears or into our minds on
a regular basis, so we need to get to know his lies, and his evil tactics he
uses against us, so that we can combat them with the armor of God with which
God has supplied us to fight off our enemy.
We have to remember here that
Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and his servants masquerade
themselves as servants of righteousness. So, their lies may be very subtle and
may be mixed in with the truth. So, what they say may sound like truth. It may
sound good to our ears. So, we need to pray for much discernment so that we don’t
get trapped by their lies.
He is My Rock
Psalm 62:5-8 NIV
Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope
comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my
fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
he is my
mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out
your hearts to him,
for God is
our refuge.
If we want to have victory
over fear or worry, or if we want wisdom from God regarding our circumstances,
or if we want to have discernment so that we do not fall into a web of deceit,
and get tricked into believing lies, then we need to be grounded in the Word of
God. But, this is not about head knowledge. This is about heart knowledge. We
must not only know what the Word teaches us, but we must be ones who put the
Word into practice.
Yet, if we want to be those
who know the truth, and who practice the truth, then we need to, by the Spirit
of God, be putting to death the deeds of the flesh in our lives, as our regular
practice. We can’t live in two worlds at the same time, in other words. We can’t
be giving the devil a foothold in our lives because we are dabbling in things
we know are wrong for us, and then wonder why we don’t have victory. We have to
put off the old in order to put on the new. The old has to die for the new, in
Christ, to be able to thrive.
In other words, Jesus has to
be the Lord of our lives. If we are still walking in the flesh, regularly
giving in to the evil desires of the flesh, playing with sin, toying with
temptation, and if we are not willing to yield to the Lordship of Christ in our
lives, then we will go through life just spinning our wheels and going nowhere.
Jesus has to be our Rock, our solid foundation. And, our trust has to be wholly
in him, and our hearts yielded to him, if we are going to walk in victory over
darkness and live in the light of truth.
His Unfailing Love
Psalm 62:11-12 NIV
One thing God has spoken,
two things I
have heard:
“Power belongs to you, God,
and with
you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
according to
what they have done.”
Oh, how I love my Lord! I am
so thankful for his love, his grace, and his mercy towards me. I am so
thankful, too, for his salvation from slavery to sin so that I can walk in
freedom, and so that sin no longer has mastery over my life. I am grateful, as
well, that I do not have to walk this life alone, but that he is there with me,
and within me, helping, guiding, counseling, loving, encouraging and
strengthening me all the way. I could not do this without him! My dependency is
wholly in him to make it through each day.
Knowing that God is
completely sovereign over every aspect of my life gives me peace. Knowing that
he is totally in control, and that nothing can come against me unless God
allows it, and he allows it for a purpose, gives me calm assurance that the
difficulties I face are not without reason, and that God is going to work his
will in my heart through it all. If I did not know this, I could not endure
what all I have gone through. I know that fully well.
What I know is that God is
love, but that love also means that he works things together for good in my
life. It also means that he allows me to go through trials and tribulations,
for through them he works good in my heart and in my life. Through life’s
difficulties, when I rest in the Lord, and I trust in his sovereignty, and I
yield to his Lordship, he grows me in my faith, he teaches me perseverance, and
he conforms me to his likeness. He fills my heart with compassion for others
who are hurting. And, He makes me into the person he wants me to be to be used
of him for his kingdom work.
Jesus, Lead Me
An Original Work / July 22, 2011
Jesus, lead me all the way.
Be my hope and be my stay.
Gently lead me where I should go,
So Your Spirit, I want to know.
Open up my heart to You.
Fill me with Your love and truth.
Make my heart want to obey.
Be my Lord today. Gently lead always.
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Cleanse my heart, and make me whole;
Be transformed in my heart today,
As I turn from my sin and pray.
Make Your will known to my heart.
May I not from You depart.
How I long to hear You now,
As I humbly bow. Jesus, hear me now.
Tuesday, March 27, 2018, 7:00
a.m. – Thank you, Jesus, for these encouraging words of hope and healing today.
I love you, my Lord!
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