WHAT IT MEANS TO BLESS THE LORD…

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“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” (Psalm 103:1)

The psalm begins and ends with the psalmist preaching to his soul to bless the Lord—and preaching to the angels and the hosts of heaven and the works of God’s hands. The psalm is overwhelmingly focused on blessing the Lord. What does it mean to bless the Lord? It means to speak well of his greatness and goodness. What David is doing in the first and last verses of this psalm, when he says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” is saying that speaking about God’s goodness and greatness must come from the soul. Blessing God with the mouth without the soul would be hypocrisy. Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). David knows that danger, and he is preaching to himself that it not happen.

Come, soul, look at the greatness and goodness of God. Join my mouth, and let us bless the Lord with our whole being. (Tozer)

CALLING US BACK

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Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” — Genesis 3:9

Although the human mind stubbornly resists and resents the suggestion that it is a sick, fallen planet upon which we ride, everything within our consciousness, our innermost spirit, confirms that the voice of God is sounding in this world—the voice of God calling, seeking, beckoning to lost men and women!… Sacred revelation declares plainly that the inhabitants of the earth are lost. They are lost by a mighty calamitous visitation of woe which came upon them somewhere in that distant past and is still upon them. But it also reveals a glorious fact—that this lost race has not been given up! There is a divine voice that continues to call. It is the voice of the Creator, God, and it is entreating them. Just as the shepherd went everywhere searching for his sheep, just as the woman in the parable went everywhere searching for her coins, so there is a divine search with many variations of the voice that entreats us, calling us back…. (A.W. Tozer).

“Thank You, Father, for Your grace that continues to call so patiently. Lord, You’re calling some today with whom I could have the privilege of sharing the Gospel. Give me a sensitivity today to opportunities where I might be Your human voice, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

HAVE MERCY ON ME O GOD…

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Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. (Psalm 51:1)

Three times: “Have mercy,” “according to your steadfast love,” and “according to your abundant mercy.”

This is what God had promised in Exodus 34:6–7: The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. David knew that there were guilty who would not be forgiven. And there were guilty who by some mysterious work of redemption would not be counted as guilty, but would be forgiven. Psalm 51 is his way of laying hold on that mystery of mercy. We know more of the mystery of this redemption than David did. We know Christ. But we lay hold of the mercy in the same way he did.

The first thing he does is turn helpless to the mercy and love of God. Today that means turning helpless to Christ.

SHE HAD TO TELL SOMEONE

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“Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” —John 4:30

Spiritual experiences must be shared. It is not possible for very long to enjoy them alone. The very attempt to do so will destroy them.

The reason for this is obvious. The nearer our souls draw to God the larger our love will grow, and the greater our love the more unselfish we shall become and the greater our care for the souls of others. Hence increased spiritual experience, so far as it is genuine, brings with it a strong desire that others may know the same grace that we ourselves enjoy. This leads quite naturally to an increased effort to lead others to a closer and more satisfying fellowship with God….

The impulse to share, to impart, normally accompanies any true encounter with God and spiritual things. The woman at the well, after her soul-inspiring meeting with Jesus, left her waterpots, hurried into the city and tried to persuade her friends to come out and meet Him. “Come, see a man,” she said, “which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” Her spiritual excitement could not be contained within her own heart. She had to tell someone. (Tozer)

“Lord, we have so much more! We’ve seen Your goodness. We’ve tasted Your blessing. We’ve come to love you. Yet how seldom are we that impelled to tell anyone. Direct me even today to someone with whom I can share the glorious news of the Gospel in Jesus’ name, Amen”

EVANGELISM: BE PREPARED

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And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” —Mark 16:15

Recall what happened when Jesus said to the disciples, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15). Peter jumped up right away, grabbed his hat and would have been on his way, but Jesus stopped him, and said, “Not yet, Peter! Don’t go like that. Tarry until you are endued with power from on high, and then go!” I believe that our Lord wants us to learn more of Him in worship before we become busy for Him. He wants us to have a gift of the Spirit, an inner experience of the heart, as our first service, and out of that will grow the profound and deep and divine activities which are necessary. (Tozer)

“It’s so easy to become busy, Lord, especially when I’m challenged with the vital task of evangelism. Quiet my heart first, that my evangelism efforts might spring from a heart of worship in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

WHAT IT MEANS TO DWELL IN THE SHELTER OF THE MOST HIGH

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“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the almighty” Psalm 91: 1

To dwell means to live or stay as a permanent resident, to live or continue in a given condition or state (Oxford dictionary).

Therefore dwelling in the shelter of the Most High God can be an attitude of acknowedging his presence at all times. It means giving him praise in our hearts constantly. To be in a permanent place of saying yes Lord. It is being at that place of total surrender to God. I believe it speaks to being obedient to the word and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead and direct our paths. Dwelling in the shelter of the Most High means that we turn over all our worries, anxieties and fears to him because He cares for us. It means a life that is totally submitted to Him. When we are at the place of rest in God we find peace no matter what storm may be raging. We can trust Him because we have proven Him many times. This entire Psalm is about the benefits of trusting God.  It is about God’s protection and provision. The Psalmist cries out in the 2nd verse, “I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” What confidence!!!z  It is clear the author of Psalm 91 had a personal knowledge of God and an intimate relationship with God. Like the Psalmist we too can find rest in the shadow of the Most High. It is offering our lives up to Him with praise and adoration no matter what is happening. It is having the knowledge that God will be there for us therefore we can rest in Him.

Psalm 55:22 encourages us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares. Would you do that today?

GOD IS DEPENDING ON US

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“Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him love….” —Ephesians 1:4

Sin is a disease. It is lawlessness. It is rebellion. It is transgression—but it is also a wasting of the most precious of all treasures on earth. The man who dies out of Christ is said to be lost, and hardly a word in the English tongue expresses his condition with greater accuracy. He has squandered a rare fortune and at the last he stands for a fleeting moment and looks around, a moral fool, a wastrel who has lost in one overwhelming and irrecoverable loss, his soul, his life, his peace, his total mysterious personality, his dear and everlasting all! Oh, how can we get men and women around us to realize that God Almighty, before the beginning of the world, loved them, and thought about them, planning redemption and salvation and forgiveness? Christian brethren, why are we not more faithful and serious in proclaiming God’s great eternal concerns? How is this world all around us ever to learn that God is all in all unless we are faithful in our witness? In a time when everything in the world seems to be vanity, God is depending on us to proclaim that He is the great Reality, and that only He can give meaning  to all other realities.

“Forgive me, Lord. I fear that all too often I have let You down when You were depending on me. Use me today as a faithful servant. Amen.”

GOD'S WISDOM AND DIVINE PURPOSES

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”But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison (Acts 8:3) NIV.
If ever we need proof that God is a God of purpose and can use anyone, the Apostle Paul is that proof. When one studies the life of this man before his transformation we cannot help but see a person that appeared merciless. The scriptures said he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison! In fact the very day he had his encounter with Jesus he was heading into Damascus to bring back Christians to Jerusalem for imprisonment. Nevertheless God stepped in and Saul’s life was literally turned around for the glory of God and to fulfill His divine plan. The fact is we know many people who are not walking with God and their lives may seem beyond redemption according to our judgment. However we need to remember that no one is beyond God’s reach. The bible said that it is not His will that any should perish .(2 Peter 3b) Most of us know of loved ones or people within our radar who have total disregard for anything to do with God . However we need to still pray for their salvation; Paul’s passion was not only for the Gentiles to be saved but he also had a passion for his own people to know God. Speaking about the people of Israel He cried out in Romans 9:2 ‘I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.’
When was the last time your heart cried out for the salvation of the unsaved in our nation? Every day we meet people who may be going to a loss eternity. Do you care enough to ask and share the good news of the gospel? Acts 9:21-22(NIV) says ”And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

OUR WEAKNESS REVEALS HIS WORTH

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“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  (2
Corinthians 12:9)

God’s design for suffering is that it magnifies Christ’s worth and power. This is grace, because the greatest joy of Christians is to see Christ magnified in
our lives. When Paul was told by the Lord Jesus that his “thorn in the flesh” would not be taken away, he supported Paul’s faith by explaining why. The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God ordains that Paul be weak so that Christ might be seen as strong on Paul’s behalf. If we feel and look self-sufficient, we will get the glory, not Christ. So Christ chooses the weak things of the world “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:29). And sometimes he makes seemingly strong people weaker, so that the divine power will be the more evident. We know that Paul experienced this as grace because he rejoiced in it: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the
power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10). Living by faith in God’s grace means being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus. Therefore faith will not shrink back from what reveals and magnifies all that God is for us in Jesus. That is what our own weakness and suffering does.

IN ONE ACCORD

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“…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that
they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” —John 17:21

Someone may fear that we are magnifying private religion out of all proportion, that the “us” of the New Testament is being displaced by a selfish “I.” Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become “unity” conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life. (The Pursuit of God, 90.)

“Lord, let this start with me. Give me a closer walk with You today. Then as a leader enable me to encourage others as well, individually, so that all to
whom I minister might be in harmony as we individually are close to You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”