Juxtaposed Pride

“But He gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” James 4:6 [NASB]

In reading James 4:1-10, we see three main things. First, we see sins keep us from God. Second, we see how we can reconnect and stay aligned with God. Third, we learn when we rightly relate to God by voluntarily humbling ourselves to Him, He provides everything we need. We say, “Surely I know this.” Yet, if we know this, why don’t we stay humble? Why do we envy other people? Why do we quarrel and fight with people?

James spoke to the Christians in Jerusalem in this letter. In these verses, he broke down his lesson to them into two opposite ways of life-the greedy, envious, and arrogant way and the content, submissive, and humble way. We think we are living humbly, but when we read the first four verses of chapter four, we realize something about ourselves. James told the Jerusalem Christians’ he knew of their quarreling and fighting. He had heard about their disputes. James pointed to the reason for these fights and quarrels. He said they came from their seeking to fill their human desires. James called these desires lust. Lusting means desiring with your heart what you do not have. It is being discontent with what God has given you. Lusting causes the person to give their desire for things a higher priority in their life and thinking than they give God. It is coveting what someone has and wanting one like or better than it. James said we want it so much we willingly murder for it. He could have meant a literal murder by killing someone to get what one wants or a metaphorical murder of running someone’s good name through muck so other people do not consider that person highly. Also, it means murdering your relationship with God so He has a lower priority in your life than the item for which you lust. Quarrels and fights come from lusting or coveting what someone else has, and it causes murder of the person, his or her reputation, or one’s relationship with God.

James added to this and said their envy caused them to fight. All the while, he said, they could have asked for it from God. Still, if they had asked for it with the wrong motive, of which lust, envy, greed, and pride are, then God would not answer. What makes what one asks for a wrong motive? James said when a person asks for something to spend it on their personal pleasures, that shows their lusts and desires. This makes a person an adulterer, he said. When someone puts someone or something higher in their estimation than God, they worship it more than God. This creates hostility toward God because the person wanted something for the wrong reasons and against God’s purposes and plans. The person purposed to go against God’s will and so made him or herself hostile, turn 180 degrees away from God (turn his or her back on God), and walk away from God.

“Surely,” we say to ourselves (because we wouldn’t dare mention this to another person), “we do not turn our backs on God. No way do we lust after and become adulterers, choosing things and people over God.” Let’s not fool ourselves; we each are guilty for choosing things contrary to God’s will. We each envy and strive for things, relationships, power, and influence. Sometimes these are contrary to God’s purposes and plans.

With verse five, James brought the sting of disappointment; we cringe at disappointing God. He said, God jealously desires the Spirit He made to dwell in believers when they became believers. When we turn our backs on God and go our own way, we cut off conversation with God or we only go to Him when we want something. That means we separate the Holy Spirit, who came to dwell in us upon our salvation to guide us in God’s way, from God with our sins. We have chosen not to allow God to guide us. We disappoint God. He jealously loves us, and He jealously desires a relationship with us, a relationship that comes through His indwelling Spirit.

What is the point James made? He painfully made the Jerusalem Christians aware of their greed and adultery that separated them from God. He told them in verse six, “But He gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’” God doesn’t take His hands off His child because they sinned against Him. He opposes the proud, the one who took his or her own life and desires into his or her own hands. God stands against the ways of His proud child. He jealously goes to combat to gain His child back from Satan’s temptations and sin. If you jealously love your spouse or child, you would go to battle to get them back from captivity. When we sin, we are in captivity and God opposes Satan to get us safely back from the sin that entangled and entrapped us. This is what James meant when he said, God opposed the proud. This is the greater grace God gives. God didn’t initially just give us grace to save us from our sin so we could be called the children of God. He gives and keeps on giving grace. The Lord opposed Satan and keeps on opposing Satan to keep us safe. He jealously loves us and His Spirit within us. God wants a right relationship with each of us. When we realize this while sinning and while in a right relationship with Him, we are humbled before God. This awareness makes us realize our littleness in comparison to almighty God. We then voluntarily submit ourselves to Him and His plans. We receive God’s grace when He rescues us, and we receive it when we have this recognition and voluntarily humble ourselves. God is favorably disposed to giving blessings from His bounty to people. These blessings are grace and can be tangible things, but also include kindness, favor, forgiveness, love, salvation, sanctification, protection, etc. Even though no one deserves God’s grace, He gives it. It’s like our relationship with our parents. Even though we did something wrong, they still love us.

James began this chapter with a list of six things that arrogance caused the Jerusalem Christians to do and be-quarrel and fight, envy, lust, adultery, not asking or asking with the wrong motives, and having a friendship with the world and being an enemy of God. As a juxtaposition to these, in verses seven through nine, He gave six commands that the humble child of God can do to turn back to God and escape arrogance and separation from God.

 James told them to submit to God, which is a voluntary personal subjecting of one’s self to God’s plans in heart, mind, actions, and word. James told them to resist the devil which means to do to Satan what they did to God when they envied and lusted. They are to turn their backs completely on Satan by turning 180 degrees from facing him and his temptations. When a person turns 180 degrees from Satan, he or she is facing God. This turning from Satan is opposing him and forcefully declaring one’s personal conviction ardently. The LORD is my Shepherd, or any other Bible verses you have memorized help with this effort.

Next James told the people to draw near to God. The closer you get to God, the farther you get from Satan and His temptations. Nothing unholy can be in God’s presence; therefore, Satan cannot be in God’s presence. So, if you get close to God, Satan cannot still be close to you. A promise comes with this command. He said when you draw near to God, God will draw near to you. What do we need to do to be in God’s presence? James reminded the Jerusalem Christians. He told them to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts. Literally, ceremonially, and spiritually clean your hands from the sin you did. Wash them to get the dirt and stains off them. Wash them to ceremonially (mentally and with the heart) remove the sin and guilt from them. Wash their “hands” spiritually and resubmit themselves to God and His purposes. A person cannot be double-minded and be God’s child. By washing, you separate yourself from your past, and dedicate your today and tomorrow for God. The spiritual cleansing is purifying one’s self. It means to take into one’s heart the morals of God and cast away the world’s morals, the morals by which you sinned.

Finally, the last command James gave the Jerusalem Christians was for them to grieve, mourn, and weep over their sins and their intentional separating themselves from God. True contrition according to James occurs with realizing your wretched condition as a sinner who lusted after the world, feeling guilt and lamenting because of those sins, and physically weeping for the grief you caused God and yourself by being opposed to God by sinning. James meant literally to weep. He emphasized this with the second half of verse nine when he told them to turn their laughter into mourning and their joy into gloom. Instead of laughing cry. Instead of experiencing joy for the things you acquired, feel gloom because they caused you to separate from God.

With verse ten, James reiterated for emphasis what he said in verse six. He said, “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will exalt you.” James spoke about humility again. Verse ten relates humility to the six commands in verses seven through nine. If you rightly relate to God, you will submit to Him, resist the devil, draw near to God, cleanse your hands and heart, and mourn your sins. As James said in verse six, God gives grace to the humble. He gives His favor to those who voluntarily submit to and fully depend on the Lord, and not on one’s self. When a person humbles him or herself, he or she recognizes and exalts the Lord as everything they need and will ever need. When a person humbles him or herself before God, then He will exalt that person in the eyes of other people. People will recognize his or her humility as they watch him or her, and all the while God will receive the glory.

It would be easy to say, “Oh, that was just for the first century. We are beyond that and can decide things for ourselves. After all, we are the ones who advanced society.” Yet, James’ words, learned from his time with Jesus, are for us today. We should be humble. We are mere, finite creatures whom God created, protects, provides for, and loves. Nothing we can do extends our lives indefinitely. More importantly, nothing we do will cleanse us from every wrong thing we’ve done. God’s grace can and does cleanse us, and He gives eternal life to the person who believes in Jesus as Savior. Our getting things for ourselves, we think, is great. “Why do we need God?” Still, we are never satisfied when we get for ourselves. We envy, desire, lust, and allow things to make us adulterers. Only God gives and keeps on giving satisfaction because only what He gives is best, filling, and fulfilling. When He gives, we have no more need. If we submit to God and humble ourselves in relationship to Him, we will have no need because He gives and keeps on giving from His grace. From His bounteous supply, He gives eternally because of His never-ending love and His forgiveness of our sins.

                      “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”                                         

John 4:10 [NASB]

God gives and keeps on giving grace to the humble.

Lord, I am a mess of contradictions. I call myself a Christian, but then I want what my co-worker, neighbor, or family member has. Lord, I get so caught up in earning enough money to buy the things I want or getting the perfect spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend then I lose sight of You, forget about You, and don’t remember You are the giver of all good things. Please forgive me, God. Forgive my pride and envy. Forgive my turning my back on You. Help me trust in You more and remember Your Promises and Your past blessings. Help me withstand temptations and stand strong with You. Amen.

God, Our Hope

“They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again, He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him.” [NASB]

In Mark 10:32, it confused the disciples after Jesus taught the rich man how to get into the kingdom of heaven. They still believed obedience to God’s commands and statutes, as given to the Israelites through Moses, gave them eternal life. Jesus had said to them in chapter ten after the rich man went away, “Only God can save a person and give them eternal life.” He also told the disciples they would have to leave the people they love and follow Him. For this, anyone who followed Jesus would receive rewards to replace everything they gave up, and would be mistreated-persecuted.

With verse 32, we read of the disciples’ confusion, and the other followers’ fear. Was this confusion and fear because of not wanting to leave loved ones and possessions? Was it because Jesus said those who follow Him would experience persecution? It could be one or the other, or both. If someone has been a follower of Christ for long, both likely has occurred. Generally leaving the people and things you love is one of the first stages of following Jesus. The disciples, or at least most, had already given up family and loved ones to be Jesus’ disciples. In this passage, they faced the idea of being persecuted. The other followers who Mark said experienced fear probably feared both things. They had not yet processed what following Jesus would cost them.

For any follower of Jesus in any age since the time Jesus lived and taught on earth, these have been the costs of discipleship-leaving loved ones and possessions and being willing to suffer persecution for Christ. For the confused disciples, they did not understand why Jesus led them to Jerusalem where they knew the religious leaders hated Him. Jesus and the disciples knew those leaders would persecute Him. Still, He led the disciples and other followers to the place of His persecution. For the other followers who feared, Jesus told them they had to leave the people and things they loved to be saved (to follow Him). He taught that salvation would not come by offering animal sacrifices as Moses taught them in the Old Testament.

Though each step of following Jesus is hard, once it’s done, it becomes easier. After that you move to the next things in your life you must give to the Lord to dedicate for His purposes. Sometimes you revisit earlier lessons such as leaving family behind as they age. To my mind, the hardest thing would be to suffer personally in body and mind for the advance of the gospel. Each of these costs help the person grow toward Christlikeness and grow relationally with God. Growing in this way is a step by step, day by day process, one thing gradually after another. Though it may seem a person is constantly under stress or duress (both of which can be part of the believer’s growing process), the person is never alone and doesn’t have to go through the trials/battles in his or her own strength. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:5-11,

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness.’ Is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus so tat the eternal life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. [NASB]

Paul spoke of persecutions of every kind in this passage. He said God’s greatness surpasses any persecution. Though believers go through affliction, distressing and perplexing situations, bodily harm, and defamation, these persecutions will not cause the person to be crushed, lose hope, experience forsakenness, and destruction. Why? Jesus delivers believers from death to eternal life. He is victorious over all things. Nothing can separate God from His children. Jesus already defeated death. These instances of persecution might cause a person to grow weary, dim his or her mental state, or die, they ultimately cannot defeat what God has already accomplished – victory over sin and death.

This thought is what Jesus wanted the disciples and His followers to understand. For this reason, Jesus continued to teach and lead them toward Jerusalem and cause them to grow though confused and afraid. In Jerusalem, Jesus would take his last earthly stand and utterly defeat sin and death. The disciples and His other followers needed to see and experience it. They needed to grow in their faith so they, too, could stand firm knowing Jesus Christ paid everything necessary to defeat sin and death forever. Since God was for them, who could be against them. Nothing that could come, and did come, against them would separate them from Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate Victor. Looking to Christ and His victory would bolster their faith/trust in Him and give them hope onto which to hold during their persecutions. Jesus did not want His followers to be troubled when facing persecutions, but willingly and with hope go through them. He told them when they face difficult times and remember Him, holding on with hope with the strength of the Holy Spirit, they would have His peace. His peace is not like the world’s. Read what Jesus said about His peace as recorded in John 14:1 & 27.

¹ Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
²⁷ Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. [NASB]

Today you might feel you are at the end of your rope. You might wonder why God is allowing you to go through your current circumstances. He allows them so you can grow in likeness to Jesus and in relationship with Him. He doesn’t leave you to fight the battle yourself. God provides the Holy Spirit to strengthen you, calm you, give you the peace of Christ, remind you Jesus is the eternal Victor, and give you hope. You can have hope, endurance, strength, and victory. Ask for the Spirit to give what you need then step out in boldness with the strength He gives you, and with hope and trust in God. He will never leave you nor forsake you.

How can you be a follower of Jesus and have this peace, victory, and eternal life with God? Call to Him with your whole heart. He promises to hear you. By faith believe in Jesus as your Savior. Confess your wrongdoings to God. He will forgive you. God will save you from judgment. Once you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior, He will walk with you through your difficult times. By doing this you will overcome, grow, and be useful for God’s purposes.

Lord, God, I am weak. I am going through a great difficulty right now and I think I am going to drown in it. Please help me trust You to walk with me through it. Help me to believe and call to You for strength to endure and grow from this trial by. Remind me You have secured the victory over everything and I need not worry if I ask You to walk with me. Help me to rest in Your peace and the hope You give. Help me to trust You enough to give my dilemma to You and rest in Your hands knowing You know how to win this battle. Let me grow from this so I become more like You. Thank you for loving, strengthening, and helping me every day. Amen.

Hardened Heart, God Revealed

“So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.’” Exodus 4:23 [NASB]

In earlier studies of God’s “I am” (anoki/ani) statements in the Old Testament, we learned God told Abram He is his shield (his Protector and King). He told Abimelech, a non-Hebrew, He knew and restrained him (all-knowing and all-powerful). God told Isaac and Jacob He is faithful to His covenant with their ancestor Abraham; He is loving, Blesser, Protector, Keeper, all-knowing, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, transcendent, Provider, and Restorer. He told Moses He would always be with Him, is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is faithful, and deserves worship. In Exodus 3:14-15, God revealed His name for the first time. God told Moses His name is “I AM WHO I AM” (ehyeh asher ehyeh or Hayah or Yahweh). He said He is the self-existent One. God is the eternal God who was, is, and forevermore will be. He is the unchanging, eternal, self-existent One. God continued to speak to Moses in Exodus 4:11-15 by calling him to be His mouthpiece, though Moses felt and expressed his fear of being unable to be His spokesman. He doubted his ability, forgetting God prepares those whom He calls for His service. He reminded Moses He is the all-powerful, all-knowing, Creator who gives people their mouths and makes one able to speak or not. God commanded Moses to go and speak, and He would guide His mouth; He would be His Teacher. Still Moses feared his inability, then God provided a mouthpiece for Moses through his brother Aaron.

The next time God said I AM using anoki or ani was in Exodus 4:23, immediately after He told Moses he would be His mouth and speak to the Israelites. In Exodus 4:21-23, the LORD, Yahweh, told Moses he would perform His wonders before Pharaoh, but He would cause Pharaoh’s heart to harden and not let the Hebrews go. It seems odd that God would cause Pharaoh’s heart to harden against His command to let His people go. Why would God do that? We need to notice, when Moses would speak with Pharaoh, it would be the second time recorded in the Old Testament that God said “I am” to a non-Hebrew. Why is this significant? It shows God is God over all people, not just the Hebrews. He is over all other gods, those that humans create. It shows His care and love for every person. Because God is Creator of all people and things, God cares about everyone and wants them to know (yada) Him and be in a loving, saving relationship with Him. Most importantly, we learn from this passage, God can cause or allow things to happen that seem negative to show His might. He might cause or allow a person to have a hardened heart against Him to show His might over a situation, like the Hebrews’ release when He convinced Pharaoh through the many plagues that He is stronger than him so let His people go. God is greater than any person and created thing.

When a person hardens his/her heart against God that person chooses to be his/her lord over his/her own life. He/she effectively states, “I will do what I want to do no matter what You say, God. Though I hear You, I will ignore You.” Pharaoh considered himself, as his ancestors did, a god of the Egyptians. He felt his word was final, and he was almighty, nothing could go against him. Isn’t that the way we each feel when we choose to do what we want even though we know or sense God prompting us to do something else? In this passage, even before Moses confronted Pharaoh, God told him Pharaoh would say no each time he told him God says, “Let My people go.”

God knew Pharaoh’s heart. He foretold to Moses what would happen. God prepared Moses for Pharaoh’s stubbornness even though He realized it might cause Moses to balk again at speaking to Pharaoh. In this passage, God showed He is all-knowing, faithful, covenant-keeper, all-mighty, and Yahweh. God knows when each of us will be stubborn. He knows us and is prepared to show us Who is Yahweh. God allows us to make our own decisions; that’s free will. Still He doesn’t give up on us but keeps showing Himself to us.

God wants each of us to know and love Him, to be in a saving relationship with Him. He wants us to turn back to Him, to accept His gift of salvation from our sins, and have eternal life with Him. Without God’s saving us from our sins, we would receive the judgment of eternal separation from Him our sins deserve. Every one of us do wrong things in our lives. We each deserve judgment for those sins. God offers us grace from our sins through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, who died on the cross.

God knows you. He knows about your hardened heart against Him. Still He calls to you telling you He loves you, wants to forgive you, and wants to have an eternal relationship with you. Will you harden your heart to Him and keep being your own god? There’s no future in that path.

Solomon said in Proverbs 28:13-14:

“The one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy. Happy is the one who is always reverent (to Yahweh), but the one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.” [HCSB]

The writer of Hebrews implored people in Hebrews 4:7 when he said, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” [HCSB]

Lord God, I know You are real, though I try to ignore that knowledge at times. I choose to do what I want so many times and often those go against Your moral laws. That makes me my own god. Lord, please forgive me for turning my back on You and ignoring You. Forgive me my stubbornness. Lead me to desire a relationship with You and make me aware of Your glory so that I am overwhelmed and realize you truly are Yahweh. Help me to realize I am just a finite, feeble, created human, but You are Almighty Creator and Savior. Amen.

All About God

“The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’” (Psalm 91:1-2 [HCS])

So often, when we read the Psalms we think something like this, “David was such a faithful man of God.” Or, “David wrote all those psalms, but my life isn’t like that. Real life isn’t like that.” As I read Psalm 91 yesterday, it came to me like it hadn’t in a while, David didn’t write about himself; he wrote about God and how He manifested Himself in his life. When we understand this (the Bible is really all about God), then we can read each psalm looking for how God revealed Himself in that particular situation.

Consider Psalm 91. The first two verses of this psalm are the crux of the psalm. The last three are God’s response to David’s “ah ha.” What did David say about God in verses one and two? He said God is Protector, Most High, Almighty, Refuge, Fortress, and trustworthy. Did you get that? God had revealed Himself to David over his life in these ways and David reminded himself he could trust God because He is the Most High over all things and He is Almighty. Nothing can go against God and defeat Him.

One thing stands out that so often people miss. I’ll admit I missed it until last night. Consider the prepositional phrases of verse one-“under the protection of the Most High,” and “in the shadow of the Almighty”. Consider, too, the subject of the verse. The “one” in this psalm is the child of God. How do we know this? Because God protects him or her. But there is more to the relationship of the child and Father, just as there is in human relationships. God isn’t just Protector. We must, if we truly are children of God, activate the faith we profess (put our faith into action) and be the child of God. Being the child of God means living in relationship with Him. Being in a relationship means being close, not wandering off, not going before or lagging behind because of fear. Living in a relationship is a closeness in location, spirit, emotion, and mind. Does that ring a bell? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is what Moses taught in the Old Testament and Jesus re-iterated in the New Testament.

What does this have to do with Psalm 91, you ask? Everything. Yes, God is Protector, Almighty, and Most High. But, if we are not near Him, if we do not let Him lead us, then we cannot be in His shadow (under His protective watch). Consider shadows in our physical world. If the bird is above the tree, the tree cannot provide a shadow or shade for the bird. If the bird is not near the tree as the sun moves, the sun will not cast the tree’s shadow on the bird to protect it from the heat of the day. Similarly, if we choose not to put our faith into action and be near God in relationship, (location, heart, mind, and spirit), then God’s shadow cannot be our dwelling place, our protection. We can’t live in God’s shadow if we try to live without Him, above Him, or around Him. He must be in His rightful place, above us. “He must increase and I must decrease,” as the disciple, John, said in John 3:30. So this verse says of the “one” who is a child of God, he or she will be “under the protection of the Most High” and “in the shadow of the Almighty” because he or she is in a close, vibrant relationship with God.

Many times in our life, we forget Who is almighty and all-knowing. We forget Who has all-wisdom and is available to be near us if we will draw near to Him. At those times, we drift away from God and His shadow (protection). Not that  God can’t protect us anywhere we are, but when we walk away from God, He doesn’t always chase us to make us return to Him. He calls to us, but His perfect love gives us free will and so He waits for us to return to Him. Does it hurt Him when we get hurt because we walked away from Him? Of course. But any wise parent knows that sometimes a child must learn from experience and God allows experiences to help us grow. He’s always there waiting for us to call to Him, to return to Him. He’s ready to stretch out His wings for us to take refuge. God wants to protect His children from terrors, plagues, pestilence, wickedness, and evil. He won’t force Himself on us. We must want to be in a vibrant relationship with Him and “dwell in the shadow of the Almighty.”

When we “dwell in the shelter of the Almighty,” we will see the hunter’s net fail, the plague slip by, the wicked punished, and God’s angels protect us in all our ways so we receive support, and don’t strike our foot on a stone, and we will defeat lions and snakes. Most importantly, when we choose to live in the shadow of the Most High God, we will devote ourselves to Him and know His name, and He will deliver and protect us. God will answer us when we call to Him. He will be our Protector and Savior, satisfying us with long life with Him.

David learned from God’s response to his own faithfulness to Him that God loves him and would be his Protector. God would provide shelter for David to dwell in His shadow as he lived with Him in a close relationship. He learned God takes care of His children and blesses them, as God stated in verses fourteen through sixteen. This psalm is about God, and it’s about being in a close, faithful relationship with Him. When I ask people if they go to church or know Jesus, I often get the response, “Oh I took care of that a long time ago. God’s got my back.” The problem with this statement is that we do just that. We show God our backs and leave Him behind us. When we leave God behind, we make God irrelevant for us and walk away from a close relationship with Him. We no longer dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. We leave Him back there somewhere.

Do you say “God’s got my back?” Or, is God a very real and vibrant part of your life? Is He as close to you as your next breath? Can you say with David that you “dwell in the shadow of the Almighty?”

“Oh Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name: for You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat.” (Isaiah 25:1, 4a [NASB])

Oh Lord, God, You haven’t given up on me. Though I have wandered and walked away sometimes not realizing I left You, You have not given up on me. You wait faithfully for my return. Lord, Your love and grace have upheld me in the past, but I still tend to walk and not realize I’ve left You. Please forgive me for neglecting our relationship. Forgive me for wandering on my own paths. Lord, my life You’ve given to bring You glory and I have failed You many times. Thank you for Your love and forgiveness. Grow me closer to You and to be more like You. Make my life be a testimony about You so that my life is like the Bible, all about You and You alone. Amen.