Contentment

 

 

“Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10 (NASB)

 

On account of Christ and for the advancement of His gospel Paul went everywhere and endured hardships. That’s what “for Christ’s sake” means in this verse. Paul recognized God’s purpose for his life. He willingly obeyed God.

 

Paul said he was willing to endure hardships and welcomed and took pleasure in them if it meant he advanced the gospel’s reach to more people who had not heard. His trials, persecutions, hardships, and difficulties came because he spread the gospel message. He’d rather experience pain because of evangelizing than comfort from not doing it. Paul’s pain became his badge proving he lived to serve Jesus. Because of that he could and would be content with pain, hunger, harassment, etc. These maladies proved to himself he was obeying Jesus and following His example. 

 

Paul’s weakness/feebleness came from his “thorn in the flesh.” It caused him physical and mental pain. As a human, hunger and physical maladies. 

 

Insults typically come from a person who feels superior to or wants to assume superiority over another person. The Jewish religious leaders who refused to listen to Paul would have insulted him, as might any other number of people. Their sense of superiority came from hubris—pride in themselves and who they considered themselves to be.

 

The distresses Paul wrote about would be the dire straits and calamities he lived through like being bit by a poisonous viper, being shipwrecked, and not having enough food. These also affect a person’s mind like pain and insults.

 

The persecutions are done by people against what the speaker says. They pursued/hunted Paul down like an animal to suppress him speaking. They wanted to punish God’s messenger in order to conquer him and prove what he taught wasn’t so great after all. This threat attacked his mind with fear of pain and could cause physical harm. Insults were verbal only and could cause mental pain. Persecutions went a step further to cause physical pain, too. 

 

Difficulties were extreme calamities. They caused physical and mental limitations. They were magnified distresses. These could be things like being put in chains in jail with only the food and drink that his friends took to him. 

 

Paul explained why he willingly chose to encounter and endure insults, distresses, persecutions, and difficulties. He may have grown to expect them. Paul said he walked forward “for Christ’s sake” knowing he’d face what most people ran from. What did he mean by this phrase? I explained this in the first paragraph. Paul walked into and endured mental and physical trials because it advanced the spread of the gospel to regions and countries of people who didn’t know about Jesus and the salvation He gives. His joy was the product of obeying Jesus and from the Holy Spirit who rejoiced each time a person believed in Jesus for salvation from sins and death. 

 

Paul willingly chose to obey knowing he most likely would encounter insults, distresses, persecutions, and difficulties because he was weak—he had a thorn in the flesh—and was not mighty enough to deflect or stop them from happening. He knew God could stop or deflect them, but sometimes didn’t. Why? Because, the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfect in weakness” (vs 9). Because Paul was obviously weaker than God, the strength, power, conviction, endurance, and faith people saw in Paul, though he experienced hard things, was the Lords’s strength, power, conviction, and endurance. Paul’s human weakness and frailty allowed people to see strength they knew could not come from him. They would see it and realize each of these originated in and came from God. Paul, in his devoted belief in Jesus and His love and obedience to Him, showed God’s power. In his weakness, God used Him and made him strong in appearance, word, and action to reach each person who saw and heard him. 

 

How devoted are you to God? Would you obey God if you knew you’d meet with opposition, especially opposition that could cause you physical and/or mental harm? That opposition is no greater than trusting and following God like Abraham to go to a new and unknown country like Abraham or entering the home of an antagonist like David did or being known as a follower of Jesus like Stephen was. 

 

What is God telling you to do or say? What is holding you back from obeying Him immediately? Be like Paul, Noah, Peter, Abraham, and Jesus. Don’t consider your weakness as an excuse from obeying. When we are weak, Jesus’ strength, love, and power to save will become apparently obvious and people will be saved. At what point will you be content, when disobeying God or when following Him in obedience though you don’t understand why He’d use you or how it can be done with the few talents you have? Contentment comes from obeying God.

Quiet and Thunderous Assurance

 

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 (NASB)

 

What is faith? Strong’s Greek dictionary says, “(Faith) for the believer is ‘God's divine persuasion’ – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. The Lord continuously births faith in the yielded believer so they can know what He prefers.” Faith comes from the Greek word “pistis,” which has its root word meaning “to be persuaded” or “to persuade”. What we must realize is that faith, for the Christian, always comes from God. 

 

Strong’s continues to teach about faith by saying, “It is God's warranty that guarantees the fulfillment of the revelation He births within the receptive believer. “ That’s powerful! Faith is God’s warranty, His guarantee, that what He promises will happen. Without faith, then, we believers would have no hope that we are saved from our sins, that God is real, that Jesus is God’s Son, and that there’s an eternal life. There’d be no purpose in believing in anything and no purpose for living. God, in His loving graciousness, gives us hope by giving us faith in Him, the entirety of the Trinity. 

 

Now, this faith God gives us is our assurance in what we hoped for. God’s gift of faith birthed in Christians undergirds them. Faith is the guarantee for what God says, reveals, and promises. As Christians, it guarantees the inheritance of God’s promises to believer’s because He is always faithful and Christians are co-heirs with Christ as sons and daughters of God. Rightly understood, God’s gift of faith is the undergirding, the guarantee, of our inheritance—the fulfillment of His promises to us, our hopes.

 

The hope about which the author wrote is actively anticipating and waiting for the fulfillment of promises by God. Without faith, hoping would be futile. It would be like trusting in the role of dice. Hope, to be worth anything, must have a firm and assured basis or it would just be chance, coincidence, and happenstance. God, who is YHWH (I AM), has always existed, created all things, is always faithful and loving, is almighty, omniscient, and omnipresent, is the only one who can know and does know all that will occur in the future, has power over all things, and provides a definite and unchangeable eternity for each person who yields his/her whole self to Him in recognition that He is God, the One and only true deity. Belief in YHWH means Christians can know and trust what He promises is true and will definitely happen. That is hope. It comes from the faith God births in each believer in Jesus. That faith is the guarantee that what the Christian believes and hopes will occur. True faith and hope are not a game of chance. Hope and faith in God comes from God’s love for all people. He wants only the best for us and offers that best through belief in Jesus, His Son.

 

This faith God births in Christians that guarantees in them the hope of God fulfilling His promises is a conviction that propels each believer forward in their faith and in their relationship with God. This conviction  is the proof, certainty, or persuasion of something. The faith inbirthed in a believer by God, that a person actively pins their hopes to and is assured by God because of who He is, becomes the conviction—the proof and persuasion—of the believer’s soul that leads to living out his/her faith in the world and his/her circles of influence fully yielded to God’s plan.

 

Looking at this verse in another way, faith comes down from God to a person to create hope in the person’s heart that leads to assurance of the mind, and transforms to conviction of the soul, which is enacted by the body in the world so that others see and hear about Jesus and lean towards God to hopefully seek and begin this process of faith within themselves. Faith is an all-encompassing gift. It affects a person’s heart, mind, body, and soul. That makes the Shema of Judaism more understandable. This Jewish prayer is from  Deuteronomy 6:4-9. It says,

 

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

 

Millennia later, when asked byJewish scribes what is the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, 

 

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 

 

Notice the difference between the two passages; Jesus added to the Shema that a God/believing person must love God with his/her mind. What’s most important to note is we are to love God with our whole being—heart, mind, soul, and body. God wanted to redeem the whole person. That’s one of the reasons why faith affects the mind, heart, soul, and body. When a person is redeemed in totality, that person is able to love God with his/her whole being. That enables each of us to be totally renewed. It gives us total redemption from Satan. 

 

God loves us—people whom He created—so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to earth to live without sinning and die the perfect holy sacrifice as the sin offering for anyone who chooses to believe in Him so he/shewill not die and be eternally separated from God—His goodness and love—but will have everlasting life with Him in His kingdom. 

 

Faith is a God-given gift to people who yield their lives to Him. It activates hope in the heart. It  provides assurance to the mind. And that assurance becomes active proof in the soul, which leads to actively living out their faith in their sphere of influence. When God speaks, though it’s a nearly silent whisper to your ear, it loudly thunders in your spirit and heart. God desires all people be saved—rescued—from their sins and Satan. He loves each of us and wants to save us. 

 

Hear God’s voice. Recognize His conviction.

 

Seek God. Receive Faith. Accept His assurance. Gain hope. Live convicted. 

 

Be a life wholly yielded to God. For faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things unseen.

Give It Up

 

“We must not become conceited, challenging or provoking one another, envying one another.”

— Galatians 5:26

 

We must not become conceited (having self-deluded conceit), provoking and irritating others with who we think we are and what we think we know, and being bitter because of someone else’s success. 

 

Instead of living in the flesh (in the old sinful nature), live by following the Holy Spirit’s guiding. Obey Him. (vs 25) 

 

Remember, you belong to Christ Jesus and have purposefully given to Him your old, sinful nature, effectively crucifying it—your old way of living—to be saved and follow Him. (vs 24) 

 

When you believed in Jesus for salvation, you intentionally gave Him your old life—you put your life on the cross—and you accepted from Him the new life He gives that is guided and used by the Holy Spirit for God’s holy purposes. You chose to become His servant and child.

 

So, walk by the Spirit—obey Him—and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. (vs 16)

 

Think of nothing else. Give yourself no credit. It’s only because of God that you have what you do and you’ve done what you’ve done. You have no basis to actively be conceited, arrogant or boast. God gave you everything. He called you to do those things. God empowered you and gave what was necessary to do that for which He called you to obey. Nothing you have and nothing good you’ve done originated from you. You received from God all you have, your attributes, and your giftings. SO, you have no reason to be conceited. Instead thank God and give Him all the praise.

Love has Power

 

“(Love) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:7

 

What does love do in this verse? Consider the four verbs.

 

Love BEARS all things. Love covers, as in excuses with grace (the grace Jesus gives His followers), the errors and faults of others. Jesus modeled forgiving everyone over and over again. He taught we are to forgive 70 times 7 times—perfect perfection, basically. We show our love by excusing errors and faults and don’t hold a grudge or wish for vengeance. We take Jesus’ example and apply it to our lives, so that we are gracious to people who err or with whom we’d be inclined to judge as being at fault.

 

Love BELIEVES all things. This is more than having absolute faith in Jesus. Jesus knew that because of sin, humanity was marred. He never gave up on humanity. Jesus believed we could be good again, but only through His power. He was not unaware of the greed and deceit Judas was capable of (We are each capable of sin.), yet He knew when people believe in Him for salvation, they are capable of doing and being good. This is the kind of belief in people love has, according to Paul. Love, God’s agape love in us, because of the Holy Spirit living in us, enacted by us believes can change. We believe by Salvation through Jesus that sinner and/or one who torments us can be good. Our faith should look forward to what a person can be, just like how we are changing for good because Jesus saved us. Like love BEARING, BELIEVING a person can be good comes from Jesus. He died because He knew people could and would be changed by belief in Him. We know the person has some goodness in him/her because of the hope we have in that person’s possibility of salvation. We can’t save the person, but we know he/she can be. It’s a looking toward the future to what he/she can/will be. This believing requires hope.

 

Love HOPES all things. We actively wait with full confidence that Jesus saves people and can save this one about which we are thinking. Jesus bore everything humans put Him through because He believed they could and would change for good, the true goodness only God is and gives. He holds on with hope of a person’s salvation and graciously excuses the faults and errors of this person and all people. Jesus actively waits with confident faith and hope knowing many people will be saved and perfected when they arrive in heaven. Likewise, we can have this same hope for people to be saved, changed, and perfected because we know Jesus personally and ultimately believe in Him, His power, His plan of salvation, His love, the future perfection of Christians. Only because Jesus saved us can we have this ultimate, unsupersedable hope.

 

Love ENDURES all things because of God’s power. Jesus knew this when He prayed in the garden before His betrayal when He said to His Father, “Not My will but Yours be done.” He endured the worst form of death to be the sin sacrifice because He knew every person could and many myriads would believe, be saved, would change, would bear, and would endure many things by other people while others watched the Christian’s attitude, actions, and words. The Christian would because Jesus did and because of their hope in the promise of being with God in heaven and being perfected there. 

 

Only by God’s power and following Jesus’ example can a Christian love to the depths Jesus did. Loving a person because of who they can be with Jesus’ touch by salvation. Love bears all things from people. It believes the best of people. Love hopes by waiting confidently for what Jesus will do in that person. And love endures everything knowing that what God promised will happen and what Jesus said is true. He loves us. He died for us. He can and will save those who believe in Him. 

 

Jesus can help us bear, believe, hope, and endure all things from all people because Jesus gives us the power to do them like He did and because we care for them and see the good they can be because of Jesus. He can change each person by saving them. Each person gets to believe in Jesus for him/herself. Salvation is personal. No one can save another by baptizing him/her or being baptized in place of him/her. Jesus gives us the ability to believe in Him. 

 

Will you believe? He gives us the ability to bear, believe, hope, and endure. 

 

Are you accepting His power and living as Jesus lived? Jesus’ love has the power to save you, then make you strong enough to live love like Him. 

 

Will you choose to live by and through His power-filled loved?

Love gives Hope

 

 

“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” (1 Peter 5:10)

 

Note, when a person is called by God, it’s a calling to Him, His glory, and His kingdom. It’s not a random calling to  something vague. Peter reminded these Christians of the hope of their faith in Christ. God called them to His glory—to be with Him forever in His presence in His kingdom. 

 

Peter does not leave these Christians to hold onto just that hope they have because of belief in Christ. He reminds them of four promises that will affect them then. These are promises that are for now and not yet. What are they? Restoration. Security. Security. Establishing. These give a Christian the ability to hold on to their future hope.

 

Restoration is perfecting. This restoration ethically perfects/completes Christians and returns them to the image in which God originally created humanity before the fall in the garden of Eden. Restoration (perfection) is nothing humans can do for themselves because all are sinful. This perfection must come down from the author and source of perfection and righteousness. Only God can perfect people and that will only happen when the Christian no longer is alive in bodily form but has entered into heaven. Right now Christians are being perfected by Jesus through His indwelling Holy Spirit. When they die, Jesus will fully perfect them with His righteousness because of His grace, love, and mercy.

 

Jesus securing his brothers and sisters (Christians) is His firmly establishing them in their faith. He provides a firm foundation in the hearts, minds, and spirits of believers so they don’t lose faith but continue living without doubt or fear. 

 

Strengthening goes in tandem with securing.  This strengthening from God allows Christians to carry their faith actively into their lives. It affects their lives so that they affect the lives of other people. This strengthening is the living out through the body the security (absolute belief) in the firm foundation Jesus gives us in our hearts, minds, and spirits. 

 

Establishing is Jesus’ erecting in the soul of believers the absolute knowledge He is the Son of God and their Savior who lived, died, and rose again because of God’s love so they could receive His grace, mercy, and forgiveness and be restored into union with Him by believing in Jesus. This is the security—the firm establishment of of Himself and our salvation—in their souls, so that whatever troubles, persecutions, or torments may arise against them, their faith in Jesus will not fail and that God has them securely in His hand. Nothing can separate believers from Him (Romans 8:38-39). No matter what happens in life, their salvation and eternity cannot be taken from them. 

 

This verse causes Christians to reflect on their faith and remember their faith is not in vain. It rests securely in Jesus. A Christian’s faith is secure, strengthened, and established by almighty Jesus and backed by His ever faithful promises. Jesus’ promises are for Christians now and in the future. He will walk with believers throughout their lives giving them these things—security, strength, and establishing—then lead them into His eternal kingdom when their mortal lives are over. Through their saving, securing, strengthening, and establishing, Jesus’ work of perfection occurs in the lives of Christians. This work and the first promise in 1 Peter 5:10 will not be completed until the mortal lives of Christians are finished. 

 

These four promises affect a believer’s soul, heart, mind, spirit, and body. Though we believers may stumble, fear, and doubt, Peter says we can know we are saved and safe because, through Jesus’ Spirit, He is bolstering, strengthening, establishing, and securing us so that we are not overcome now and can know we are safely resting in His hands from where nothing can separate us and where nothing formed against us will stand forever (Isaiah 54:17).

 

Each believer is on their own journey with Jesus. We are each at different places on that journey. Yet each of us can know these truths and promises are with us and can rest in them. God is faithful. Though it may look like the storms in our lives are too great, Jesus is with us securing, strengthening, establishing, and perfecting us. He never leaves us. We are His when we believe in Him as our Lord and Savior and nothing can ever separate us from Him. Hold on to that hope. Hold on to those promises.

 

If you are not a Christian and do not have these promises and hopes in your life, you can be. Admit you need a Savior. Believe Jesus is God’s Son and died for your sins (wrongdoings). Confess your sins to Him and promise not to do them again through the strength Jesus gives you by His Spirit. It’s as simple as A.B.C. Living correctly in a sinful world is hard. Living eternally with God is impossible without belief in Jesus. 

 

Have hope. Receive salvation, perfection, security, strength, and establishing through Jesus.

Love Rejoices

 

“Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.””— Luke 15:2

 

In Greek, this “grumbling” in verse two is an onomatopoetic word that sounds like what was happening. The word itself sounds like humming bees or doves just as the crowd of murmuring/grumbling Pharisees sounded as they discussed among themselves Jesus’ actions and words.

 

Jesus actively welcomed and awaited to receive with a warm arms-open welcome any sinner who wanted to go to Him then, just as He does now. He didn’t just wait to talk with sinners who came to Him. Jesus waited to invite them in with Him and to break bread with Him. These sinners became His friends and, He hoped, family by their belief in Him.

 

In the parable of the lost sheep, the lost sheep represented the sinners who chose to enter and eat with Jesus. (Each person has sinned and Jesus desires that all be saved.) The person who thinks he/she is righteous does not avail him/herself of being welcomed by Jesus to break bread with Him. He/she thinks they don’t need Jesus because he/she is already righteous. Jesus will not force Himself on these people, like He didn’t with the Pharisees and religious leaders. Yet, those who choose to be welcomed by Jesus and break bread with Him, by which becoming family, those He will seek like the one sheep who was missing of the 100. This one sheep who was part of Jesus’ flock strayed away from Him like His followers who sin after being saved by Him. These saved souls are precious to Him and He will leave the safe 99 to rescue the one. 

 

Jesus actively welcomes and makes a sinner part of His family—a sheep in His flock. He actively seeks, defends, heals, guides, and restores His sheep—His saved child—back into His flock. Jesus doesn’t force Himself on a sinner, but welcomes. He doesn’t let Satan steal His child away, but cherishes His child so much that He goes after that one to rescue and bring him/her back home to be with Him. 

 

Jesus does one more thing once He rescues His child. When He returns with His sheep, He actively rejoices; He created a time of celebration and invited others to celebrate that His child who had strayed had been found. It was not an unremarkable event, but a well-known and recordable event. 

 

Jesus was elated and desired to celebrate God’s grace—His favor and love—that sought the lost sheep and rescued it. The celebration wasn’t because the sheep had found His way home, but that Jesus rescued, healed, guarded, and carried the sheep back to His flock in His pasture.

 

God celebrates when each person goes to Him believing in Jesus and is saved by Him. He celebrates each time His saved child obeys Him. God celebrates each time a wandering child returns. This celebrating is God’s granting favor—His grace—of love and blessing on His child. Each of these times of celebration points to God, not humanity. They point to His goodness and love. God’s love for a person is cause to celebrate. 

 

Today, is God celebrating what He has done in your life? Have you gone to Jesus’ open arms and been welcomed to break bread with Him as family? Have you heard God’s guiding you to do something and obeyed? Have you wandered away from God and chosen your own path that led you to be separated from Him, and caused you to be lost, afraid, and hurting? 

 

Each of these times, God has shown or wants to bestow His favor—His grace and love—on you. Will you accept and let Him? Will you become part of His celebration today? 

 

It’s never too late to be saved or rescued by God. You are never too far away from God to be unreachable by His love and grace. Will you let Him save and rescue you today? Will you become part of the reason He rejoices today? 

 

(Taken from Luke 15:1-7)

Love in Truth

 

 

“We know love by this, that He (Jesus) laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (Christians). But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother or sister in need and closes his heart against him/her, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”

— 1 John 3:16-18

 

Jesus gave up His life so that anyone who believes in Him can be saved. He didn’t die just for people who bathe, or have money, or are pretty in form, or who are adults, or who have jobs, or who are from a specific country, tribe, or clan. Jesus had pity and sympathy for each and every person in the world. 

 

John wrote this letter to Christians, which means he was telling the Christians they must not be prejudiced in thought and action  against other Christians, the ones for whom Jesus died and who believed in Him. How can one hate (not love) a brother or sister in faith so much as to withhold earthly relief from a fellow believer in need, especially since Jesus didn’t withhold earthly or spiritual provision from anyone? Jesus went so far as to die so that the spiritual need of the poor could be met.

 

Fellow believers, John wrote, love your family in Christ impartially with you mouth and in action. Don’t let anything earthly, including your old nature, keep you from enacting the life-giving love of Jesus. Jesus literally gave His life to save people. Believers can give life-sustaining support to other believers in need. Plus, what Christians have God gave. So it’s really God giving to Christians in need through other Christians. 

 

Love fellow Christians impartially by word and action. Jesus had pity on you and loved you impartially in the most supreme way. He died for you. Jesus had pity on you and all other people.

Love is…

 

 

“(Love) does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;”

— 1 Corinthians 13:6

 

Love, the “far better way” about which Paul began to write in 1Corinthians 12:31. 

 

He wrote about love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.

 

Love does not rejoice and take delight in unrighteousness—injustice and evil—but rejoices and finds joy in life that is in harmony with divine truth—righteousness. [my paraphrase]

 

Each person receives one or more spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit. No gift is better than the other, just as no Christian is better than the other in the body of Christ. Each believer should strive to know God better and grow to be more like Him daily, as Jesus taught.

 

Instead of comparing ourselves to another, follow Jesus’ example, who, because He loves each person, chose to live as a man for about 33 years. He faced temptations but did not sin, endured ridicule and persecution by people close to Him, as well Gentiles and the people of Israel. Jesus chose to continue to teach, face accusations and scrutiny, endure doubt and betrayal by men, and suffer the pain and suffocation of the crucifixion because He loves each person He creates.

 

Love is God’s motivation. He loves us so much that He chose to send His Son, Jesus, to earth to endure all these evil things so that our sins (our wrongdoings) could be erased from our names. God wants an eternal relationship with each of us. If we do not believe in Jesus and His death as the sacrifice (the Savior) for our sins, God’s judgment of each person requires unbelievers to receive the just judgment for those sins. 

 

What is justice for unrighteousness (choosing your will/desires instead of what’s right)? Unrighteousness is opposite of righteousness—rightness with God. Since God is holy and the epitome of righteousness, unrighteousness is the opposite of holy; it’s evil. Because evil cannot exist where holiness is, the judgment for unredeemed sinners (someone who has not believed in Jesus and accepted the sacrifice He paid to redeem and free each person from the penalty and right judgment of his/her sins) is separation from God. Therefore, since God is in heaven in His kingdom, unsaved sinners cannot exist forever with Him in heaven. So unbelievers will be judged for their sins and suffer the penalty of eternal separation from God, which is hell.

 

“We know love by this, that Jesus laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (other Christians).” 1 John 3:16.

 

Love is rejoicing because of living in harmony with God and sharing His love with others. God’s love for us is our ultimate example of how we are to love and live. Rejoice and delight in God’s love, then rejoice and delight in loving other people like God does.

In His Presence

“You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shade of the Almighty, Say to the Lord, “My refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust.””— Psalms 91:1-2

 

This psalm is written about the psalmist who chose to be near (make your residence/habitat) God, even as near as in His dwelling place (for the Jews this meant within God’s temple in Jerusalem). He wrote it to describe the relationship he had with God because he abided in the shadow of the Almighty (so close to God and in position lower than Him so His shadow falls upon you, like that of the shadow provided under eagles wings) [This imagery connoted for the Jews being in the Holy of Hokies below the seraphim wings and the mercy seat upon which God’s presence rested (1 Kings 6). It gave the sense of absolute shelter and protection from anything and anyone to any person who had a close relationship with God that the person chose/desired to be with God above all else.]

 

The psalmist had such a close relationship with God that his daily habit and life put him always in God’s presence while considering himself lower than God. This relationship and his recognition of God’s greatness and his own smallness put him under God’s wings and at His mercy. He knew he was sheltered because of God’s mercy and love. We each can have this relationship with God, too.

 

Because of this, the psalmist could and did proclaim to/about God and others saw/heard, like the he wrote in verse 2,

 

 “My refuge and fortress,” the place where my heart dwells, the place where I always know I’m safe, where an impenetrable wall surrounds and protects me, that is my God, Elohim (supreme, all-powerful God). Elohim is the One I absolutely trust and before Whom I lay down my life. 

 

Each of us can proclaim this about God if we chose to know God like David did.

 

What kind of relationship do you have with God? Do you run to God in crisis or are you already in His presence? David loved God with all he was. He was in God’s presence while in the pasture, in the temple, and on the battlefield. David did not have to go be with God; he was always with Him. He recognized his small stature and placed himself under mighty God. David recognized who God is and who he, himself wasn’t. 

 

Running to God in crisis is a good and right action. When you do that, you show God you realize He is Elohim, almighty, and you have finite power and strength. You display who you absolutely trust. 

 

When you dwell in the shelter of Elohim, you never leave His presence in thought, word, action, or attitude. You acknowledge Elohim with your whole being. You choose to be with Him throughout each day. When you live this way, you never have to ask for refuge and fortress because you are already resting in it, in the shadow of God almighty.

 

I want to dwell with Elohim. I want to be in a close, intimate relationship with God. Lord, grow me so I do and be this. Teach me how to be under Your wings (in Your presence) whether I’m at church, in my quiet time, working, driving, or at home. Let my every breath breathe in the incense of Your presence.