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”
Since we all live in flesh bodies, and we live on this earth,
we are going to have pain, sorrow, heartaches, suffering, rejections,
persecutions, mistreatments, abuses, misunderstandings, and physical ailments,
etc. Some people will have more, while others will have less, but all this is
just part of being human. And then when you add on to that that some of us are
followers of Jesus Christ, we will have additional suffering piled on us if we
are walking in the ways of the Lord and if we are sharing his gospel.
The ”day of trouble” will be one thing for one person, while
it might be something entirely different for another. We each have our crosses
to bear, and God did not make us all the same, and he didn’t give us all the
same experiences, either. For example, I have been watching some videos of
people without arms and without legs, or without arms and legs, and about how
they have overcome these obstacles to live somewhat normal lives and to even be
able to do marvelous things like paint and do crafts and such.
Watching these videos makes me ever the more thankful for
what I have, but they also inspire me that we can move beyond our obstacles and
we can become overcomers. And despite what we are going through, God can use it
in our lives for his glory, and to minister his love and grace to us and to
other people. And watching these videos makes me realize, too, that God made us
all different and so we each have our own challenges. And it is what we make of
life that matters, not what we are going through.
Now, I realize that I live in America where there is help
for people with physical handicaps and that not everyone has those same
options. But I also realize that God is absolutely sovereign over all that he
has made, and he is in control over all things, and if you are somewhere where you
have no help, all I can say is to cry it out to God. Surrender your life to
Jesus Christ and give it all over to him. And then put your future in his
hands. I cannot promise that you will not suffer more, for suffering is part of
life. But if your life is in the hands of God, that is the best place you can
ever be.
[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu
21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1
Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13]
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!”
Now, if we are genuine in our walks of faith in Jesus
Christ, and if we are following in his ways and in his truth, and if we are
obeying his commands (New Covenant), and if we are not giving way to sinful
practices, then our heart’s desire should be in agreement with God’s heart’s
desire. And his plans should be our plans and not the other way around. And
then we can pray that our heart’s desire and our plans be fulfilled. For our
heart’s desire and our plans should be to follow the Lord Jesus in his ways.
And regarding our salvation, it is not what the majority
here in America are teaching that it is. In America the predominant gospel
being taught is that we can pray a prayer to receive Christ and now we are
saved and we are on our way to heaven, and that can never be taken away from us
regardless of what kind of lives that we live on this earth. But that is not
what Jesus taught. It is not what Paul and John and the other apostles taught,
either. They didn’t teach once saved always saved.
Jesus said that if anyone would come after him he must deny
self, take up his cross daily (daily die to sin and to self) and follow (obey)
him. For, if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self we will
lose them for eternity. But if we die with Christ to sin so that we can live to
him and to his righteousness, then we have the promise of eternal life with
God. But notice how this is all about how we live and what we practice (Luke
9:23-26).
For if we live according to the flesh, we’ll die in our
sins, but if we live according to the Spirit, then we have eternal life. If we
walk in sin we will die, not live, but if we walk in obedience to our Lord in
holiness and in righteousness, by God’s grace, in his strength and power, then
we have eternal life. And we must continue in these walks of faith and
obedience to the very end for heaven to be our final resting place. And these
aren’t my words. This is what the Scriptures teach.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom
6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal
5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col
3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb
3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
Psalms 20:6-9 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.
O Lord, save the king!
May he answer us when we call.”
What we need to understand about God and about his plan for
our lives, and about his salvation, either regarding our eternal salvation from
sin or how he rescues us from our difficult circumstances, is that all of this
is going to line up with God’s divine and moral character and his will for humankind.
And since God is holy and righteous, and he is truth, and he is faithful, and
he is pure, he is not going to call us to lives of impurity and sinful
lifestyles and then call that “salvation.” And he is going to use hardships and
trials in our lives to purify us and to make us holy if we are willing and
submissive.
And what we also need to understand about God is that he is
a jealous God and he wants us only to himself and not to any other “gods” of
this world. And so when he calls us to himself, he calls us to lives of
surrender to him, and of dying with him to sin and living to his righteousness.
He calls us to leave our lives of sin behind us in order to follow him in
obedience. And he calls us to a life of suffering, too, first in death to sin
and then in daily dying to sin and to self in order to submit to him in
obedience to his ways.
So, our dependency in this life is not to be on other humans.
Yes, we are certainly dependent to some extent on other humans, especially if
we are handicapped and/or if we are not able to financially support ourselves,
especially with today’s prices here in America which are skyrocketing. But we
must never feel as though we can’t make it without other humans, and so we must
not believe that we have to have certain people in our lives in order to
survive. Our dependency needs to be in the Lord to meet all our needs and we
need to trust him with our needs, too.
For other humans are bound to fail us, whether willfully or
not. We can’t rely on other humans to make it through this life, and we should
never put our absolute faith and trust in any human being. For not everyone is
trustworthy, and many are liars and deceivers. No matter who that human is or
what kind of reputation he/she has, still put your trust in the Lord and test
everything you hear and read to make certain it is of God. And bottom line? No
human can save us from our sins. Only God can. So make sure your trust is in the
Lord and not in humans to save you of anything.
[Matt 7:15-23; Matt 24:11-14; John 10:1-15; 2 Peter 2:1-22;
1 Tim 1:3-7; 1 Tim 6:3-10; 1 John 4:1-6; Jude 1:3-23]
‘Til The Storm Passes By
By Thomas Mosie Lister
In the dark of the midnight have I oft hid my face
While the storm howls above me, and there's no hiding place
'Mid the crash of the thunder, Precious Lord, hear my cry
Keep me safe till the storm passes by
Many times Satan whispered
There is no use to try
For there's no end of sorrow, there's no hope by and by
But I know Thou art with me, and tomorrow I'll rise
Where the storms never darken the skies
Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more
Till the clouds roll forever from the sky
Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand
Keep me safe till the storm passes by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_obOSQoOpQ
Caution: This link may contain ads
No comments:
Post a Comment