We Rise and Stand Upright

Psalms 20:1-3 ESV

 

“May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!

    May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!

May he send you help from the sanctuary

    and give you support from Zion!

May he remember all your offerings

    and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah”

 

Because we are human beings and we live in flesh bodies, and we live on this earth, we are going to go through stuff. We will have troubles and difficulties and heartaches. Some of them may be relatively minor, while others may be “earth shattering.”

 

But as followers of Jesus Christ, we are not alone. We are not abandoned. We are not without help or resources. We have the Spirit of God living within us strengthening, helping, guiding, comforting, encouraging, counseling, and equipping us to endure suffering with grace.

 

If we are following him in his ways and in his truth, and if we are in daily fellowship with him, then we are talking with him daily, and he is with us, and he is listening to what is on our hearts. And he cares about what concerns us because what concerns us should come from his heart, too.

 

And he will give us what we need. He may not answer us the way we hope, or he may be silent, but he is not absent. He will give us the help that we need, either to endure, or to know what to do or what to say or how to pray. Or he may just say “wait,” “be still,” and then we just have to trust him.

 

Psalms 20:4-5 ESV

 

“May he grant you your heart's desire

    and fulfill all your plans!

May we shout for joy over your salvation,

    and in the name of our God set up our banners!

May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!”

 

When we are in fellowship with our Lord Jesus, and he is the Lord of our lives, in truth, and if we are growing in him, and if we are following him in his ways and in his truth, his desires will become our desires, and his plans will become our plans.

 

Thus, he will grant us our heart’s desire, and he will fulfill all our plans, for they are his plans and his desires which he has put in our hearts. And his desire for us is that we might be saved from slavery to sin, that we might have eternal life with God, and that we might walk in obedience to him.

 

For, Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us. He shed his blood on that cross to buy us back for God that we might honor God with our lives.

 

This is the salvation from sin that we should rejoice over, that Jesus set us free from our slavery to sin so that we would now be slaves of God and of his righteousness. His grace trains us, in fact, to say “No!” to ungodliness and fleshly lusts and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Rom 6:1-23; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 2 Co 5:15; 1 Co 6:19-20; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; Rom 8:1-17]

 

Psalms 20:6-8 ESV

 

“Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;

    he will answer him from his holy heaven

    with the saving might of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

    but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

They collapse and fall,

    but we rise and stand upright.”

 

We who are genuine followers of Jesus Christ are anointed of God with/by God’s Spirit. We are born of the Spirit of God by God’s grace, through God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ to new lives in Christ, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

 

We have the life of God (of Christ) now living within us and out from us, by his Spirit, when we walk according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh. And the Lord is sovereign over our lives, directing us each step of the way where he wants us to go and to do what he wants us to do.

 

So, when we are going through troubles and heartaches, he is there to help us and to guide us through it all, every step of the way. We can fully depend on him. He will give us the support we need. And he will accomplish his purposes for our lives through it all, for our good.

 

But it isn’t as though he is not going to allow us to suffer. He will. Look at the lives of Job, Jesus, and the New Testament apostles. They suffered much for their walks of faith and for their stand on the word of God and for their sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

 

But God allows suffering in our lives for our good, to make us holy, to mature us, to prune us, and to teach us endurance, patience, and reliance on God and not on ourselves, and not on other human beings who are bound to fail and disappoint us, and who may even betray us.

 

Our faith should never rest in other humans, for they are flesh. Our trust should not be in flesh and blood to save us from what ails us, or to bring us hope and healing, or to fulfill our desires. For sin is what ails the people of this world and only Jesus Christ can save us from our sins and give us hope.

 

So, instead of looking to other humans for our help and support when we are going through trials and tribulations, or at any time, really, we should fix our eyes on Jesus, and we should look to God and to God alone to meet us in our time of need and to help us to do what is right.

 

Be with Me, Lord

 

By Thomas O Chisholm

 

Be with me, Lord – I cannot live without THEE,

I dare not try to take one step alone.

I cannot bear the loads of life, unaided,

I need THY strength to lean myself upon.

 

Be with me Lord, and then if dangers threaten,

If storms of trial burst above my head,

If lashing seas leap ev’rywhere about me,

They cannot harm, or make my heart afraid.

 

Be with me Lord! No other gift or blessing

THOU COULDST bestow could with this one compare –

A constant sense of THY abiding presence,

Where’er I am, to feel that THOU ART near.

 

Be with me, Lord, when loneliness o’ertakes me,

When I must weep amid the fires of pain,

And when shall come the hour of “my departure”

For “worlds unknown,” O Lord, be with me then.

 

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