Habakkuk 2

Then the Lord replied: "Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay."

Sunday, July 25, 2021

I Entreat the Lord's Favor

The Lord is My Portion

Psalms 119:57-60 ESV

 

“The Lord is my portion;

    I promise to keep your words.

I entreat your favor with all my heart;

    be gracious to me according to your promise.

When I think on my ways,

    I turn my feet to your testimonies;

I hasten and do not delay

    to keep your commandments.”

 

The Lord is my everything. He is my inheritance, he is my treasure, he is my joy, my song, my purpose, my Lord (master), my helper, my strength, my Savior, my deliverer, my salvation, my life, my friend, my comforter, my healer, my husband, my counselor, and my sustainer. He gives me life and love and purpose and direction for life. I thank him and I praise him!

 

My desire is to obey him, to do what he has called me to do, according to his will and purpose for my life. I know that I am who I am, living the life I am, living for the glory and praise of God, all because of who He is. It doesn’t mean I am perfect, but that I am not living in deliberate and habitual sin against him. I am living in obedience to what he has called me to do.

 

I can’t do what I do each day in my own strength or wisdom. I am absolutely totally dependent on the Lord for every breath that I breathe and for every word of wisdom of God which comes out of my mouth. He is the one who determines my life course, and who leads me in his ways and in his righteousness day after day after day.

 

I am so grateful for his love and for his grace. I would not be where I am today, doing what I am doing, if it were not for the grace of God. For, there was a time in my life when I didn’t follow in his ways, and I did what I should not have done, and I didn’t listen to his counsel, but I followed my own emotions, instead. But then his grace delivered me.

 

The Lord turned my life around and he gave me a new purpose for living, and a new assignment from him unlike what I had ever had before, and one I would not have ever anticipated, either. He called me to write out what he teaches me each day from his word, and from my time spent with him in worship of him, and to place that on the internet so that the internet could run with it and so that the Lord would take that where he wanted it to go.

 

Though the Wicked Ensnare

Psalms 119:61-64 ESV

 

“Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me,

    I do not forget your law.

At midnight I rise to praise you,

    because of your righteous rules.

I am a companion of all who fear you,

    of those who keep your precepts.

The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love;

    teach me your statutes!”

 

When you are walking according to the ways of the Lord, doing what he has called you to do, going wherever he sends you, and saying whatever it is he commands you to say, you will have enemies, and those enemies may exist within your own family, among your own relatives, and among your own friends or fellow Christians (or professers of Christianity).

 

Some of them may just ignore you and want nothing to do with you while others may befriend you only to betray you and to turn against you. They may lay traps for you, too, in order to try to trip you up with your words, just like the Pharisees did to Jesus. And they will do this because they are jealous of you or they hate and resent you, and they wish you harm.

 

They may falsely accuse you of what you did not do, or they may twist your words to make it sound like you said what you didn’t say, or they may trick you into saying something that sounds worse than what it really is, and this is because they hate you, and they want to ruin you, and so they will plot evil against you in hopes that they can destroy you.

 

But even if this happens to any of us, which it may, or it may not, we are to remain steadfast in our faith and keep obeying the Lord in doing what he has called us to do, and in saying what he commands us to say. For, the truth still needs to go forth. The lies still need to be exposed. And the full gospel message still needs to be heard. So, we trust Him with our lives.

 

Whenever I read this verse where it says, “At midnight I rise to praise you,” I identify. Because what the Lord gives me to write goes to people across the globe, and they aren’t all on the same time zone as me, the Lord often has me get up at around midnight to hear what he wants to say to me and to write what he gives me to write.

 

And I am encouraged in my walk with the Lord by other brothers and sisters in Christ of like mind who fear the Lord and who walk in his ways. We encourage one another, and that is such a blessing. I don’t have much of this kind of fellowship live and in person with people, but I do on the internet on the various sites where the Lord has me post what he gives me to write.

 

I am eternally grateful for the love of Christ, for his grace and mercy to me, for delivering me from my sins, and for giving me purpose and direction in life, and for strengthening, helping, and sustaining me, and for calling me to his will and purpose for my life and for using me in the way that he does to encourage other believers in their walks of faith.

 

But not everyone has faith, and if we walk in that faith, again we will have enemies who will want to take us out and to destroy us. But the Lord is our protector, and the enemy of our souls will not be able to touch us but what God allows it, and he allows it for his purpose, and that he will work it all out for the good of us who love him and who have been called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28).

 

For Our Nation  

 

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

 

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Trust Him with your life today.

Make Him your Lord and your Savior.

Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.

He will forgive you of your sin;

Cleanse your heart, made new within.

 

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.

On our knees to God we’re praying,

Seeking God to give us answers

That are only found in Him.

God is sovereign over all things.

Nothing from His mind escaping.

He has all things under His command,

And will work all for good.

 

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

 

Men deceiving: we’re believing

In our Lord, and interceding

For our nation and its people

To obey their God today.

He is our hope for our future.

For our wounds He offers suture.

He is all we need for this life.

Trust Him with your life today.

 

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