Tag Archives: praise

Careful to Remember

Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied … then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Deuteronomy 8:11, 12a, 14, NIV*

A quick search of Bible Gateway turns up 31 instances in Deuteronomy when the Israelites are warned to be careful not to forget Him and His decrees.

After everything Israel saw God do to rescue them from Egypt and bring them to the Promised Land, someone from another planet might ask how they could be in danger of forgetting Him.

As humans, we know better. We still do the same thing.

We start off well, depending on God and walking closely with Him. Especially when times are hard and we see the need.

But it’s so easy over time to rely more and more on our own strength and understanding. We slip into trusting what we do instead of trusting He who made us. We start fighting our own battles with the universe. We forget to pray and to do our battle in His name and strength.

Father God, our Saviour and Deliverer, forgive our forgetfulness and draw our spirits nearer to Your Spirit. Grow us in dependence on You, teach us to walk closely with You and to be careful to stay near Your side. Help us remember how You brought us out of slavery to sin. Help us to love, honour and worship You and live in Your light.

∞

The Newsboys’ “We Remember” is a good song to get stuck in our heads.

When God Says No

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At that time I pleaded with the LORD: “Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.”
But because of you the LORD was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the LORD said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter.”
Deuteronomy 3:23-26, NIV*

This is part of Moses’ final address to the Israelites, and he’s referring to the incident where he lost his temper with disastrous results.

Moses is blaming the people, who surely tried his patience, but he was the one who acted in a way that didn’t honour God.

He tells them he asked God to relent and let him into the Promised Land. But God said no.

Not just “no”. “Don’t ask Me again.” Period.

There are other times in the Bible where God gives the people what they want when they insist on it, even though it’s not in their best interests. Psalm 106:15 says in the King James Version, “And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.”

Romans 1 talks about people continually turning away from God until He “gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts” to all manner of wicked living.

We’re called to persist in prayer. I think it comes down to trust: God is good, and He knows best. And He has the right to make choices—from His greater wisdom—that we may not like.

It’s about persisting until we get an answer—not until we get the answer we want.

Silence may be a sign to keep praying. “No” is an answer.

Mighty and holy God, You are all-wise and You love us. Help us to pray with praise that You listen and answer. And help us to hear Your answers, be they yes or no. Grant us faith to trust Your goodness, and obedience to not push for our own ways when You reveal them to be against Yours.

∞

I love this song from David Meece: “Things You Never Gave Me”

Feelings and Emotions

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He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Isaiah 53:3, NIV*

I’ve been writing a lot lately about the deceptiveness of feelings and how we need to trust God instead of ourselves. I’m still learning, thinking it through on-screen, discovering what it means in my own life.

For me, the emphasis has been on not believing false feelings: the vague unease, dissatisfaction or sadness that can have me living “in the dumps” instead of in the confidence in my heritage in Christ.

Then there are true feelings, and I’ll call them emotions to help me see this clearer. Things like grief, fear, loneliness. Anger. Happiness—why does that one not come around as much as the others?

Jesus experienced emotions. There’s nothing wrong with them, and I think they’re a key ingredient in what makes us human. It’s not healthy to suppress or deny them, but we still can’t let them rule us.

Recognizing them can help us rely on God’s sustaining grace in our daily lives. In the words of author/speaker Grace Fox, if we feel fear over something God calls us to do, we need obey anyway—to “do it afraid.” Or sad, or whatever.

And He is calling us to do things. If angry, we’re still responsible to refrain from delivering a sinful response. Grieving, to treat others in love.

God our Maker, You know our weakness and You promise to give wisdom when we ask. Teach us to discern between deceptive feelings and genuine emotions. Teach us to rely on Your truth and to reject the lies. And help us rightly handle our emotions so we’ll live as genuine humans who trust Your care, neither denying what we feel nor being ruled by it.

∞

There aren’t a lot of songs about true emotions and about the lie that we shouldn’t express them. Here’s Don Francisco’s “It Ain’t No Sin to Get the Blues.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17cnMkBcTCA

Fear and Lies

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You grumbled in your tents and said, “The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.”
Deuteronomy 1:27, NIV*

It seems we have a propensity for believing lies over the truth.

I’ve been working through the study material with Robert S. McGee’s book, Search for Significance. This week’s lesson included listing some of the lies the devil has told us. Identifying them is the first step in replacing them with truth.

With that in mind, Moses’ words above struck a chord. He’s referring to the people’s reaction to the spies’ report of the Promised Land, when instead of entering the land they ended up wandering in the desert for 40 years. (See Deuteronomy 1)

Wow. We’re not usually so open in articulating the issue, or at least I’m not. I’ll feel anxious or put upon, maybe discouraged or even resentful, and in the past I haven’t investigated the feeling’s origin to root out the lie.

You can hear the fear in the Israelites’ words. And there were indeed giants in them-thar hills. But instead of bringing their fear to God, remembering that He’s bigger, relying on His promises, they went the other way with it and accused Him.

We may be more subtle, but don’t we do the same? Too often we listen to the doubts and believe the lies instead of standing on the truth.

Holy and sovereign God in whom is no lie or shadow, if not for Your grace, patience and love, we’d be doomed. Teach us to recognize the enemy’s lies and to rely on Your word and Your character. Thank You for setting us free; now help us learn to live in that freedom and in confidence in You.

∞

This week’s song is Casting Crowns’ “Voice of Truth.”

To Praise the Lord

Handle With Care

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Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:15, NIV*

Don’t you love it when God takes a verse you’ve known for years and shows you something new in it?

What does it mean to correctly handle the word of truth?

Well, if we prayerfully study the Bible, mindful of context and culture, looking for what God really says instead of for ways to justify our own opinions, we’re learning to handle it correctly. We can learn to live by its precepts and to trust God’s character. (And we need to learn how to share it appropriately as God leads, in a loving and non-aggressive manner, but that’s another blog post.)

This week I’ve seen another layer of meaning. Although it may be blindingly obvious to everyone else, my Wednesday posts are where I share what God is teaching me, so here goes:

To correctly handle the word of truth, we have to believe it.

Not just believe intellectually that it’s the inspired, inerrant Word of God, but believe the promises God whispers to our hearts and spirits.

Believe God instead of believing the lies.

If I’m feeling scared, am I going to believe the fear and its many whispered lies about inadequacy and failure, or believe the truth? God is with me. In Christ I can do all things. And if I fail, He can do something with the pieces and He will still love me.

Feeling down, will I believe what that insinuates about my worth or will I receive the truth that God delights in me?

Last week’s post was about not believing the lies. And I’ve posted before about not believing our feelings. I don’t think I’ve clearly seen until now that not only do the feelings often lie, but that we have a choice over which source we’ll believe.

Promise-keeping God, thank You for Your written Word. Help us recognize Your truth, and help us to use that truth in defence against the lies of the enemy, of the culture around us, and our own feelings and misunderstandings. Help us believe You, not just in our minds, but in our hearts and spirits. Help us act on the truth You give, so that others can see the difference You make.

∞

“You Shine” by Brian Doerksen asks why we should be afraid or discouraged when God is Who He is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEuuoqMsD9Y&feature=related

Believing the Truth

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We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5, NIV*

Tuesday morning, yesterday now, I curled up with my Bible and journal, tea at hand, reminding the Lord that I still didn’t have anything for today’s post.

Since He nudged me into blogging in 2008, He’s given me a devotional thought to share each week. Sometimes it comes early, sometimes it’s pretty close to the finish line, but He provides every time.

I don’t fret about it anymore, although I do like a few days’ breathing space in case something else in my schedule goes boink. So no stress on that account, but something else was bothering me this time.

When I tried to read the day’s psalm, my spirit felt tight, shrink-wrapped. Instead of pushing on, I stopped to pray. “Lord, there’s some kind of blockage. I feel… well… like You’re holding out on me.”

Everything seemed to hush.

Okay.

I knew that lie! It’s so old, it goes back to the Garden of Eden.

Truth defeats the lie, so I asked God to give me a verse to counter it. I knew He wasn’t holding out on me, because He’s not like that. He gives good gifts. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17, NIV*) That was my answer, although I didn’t remember the reference.

And if we ask Him for bread, He won’t give us a stone.

“Recognize the lie—defeat it with truth.” I’m hearing that a lot lately. It’s one of the things God is working on in me, but it’s also something to share today. I’m not the only one learning this particular lesson.

God who is holy, faithful and true, You know we’ve accepted lies and they’ve diminished us. Some of them are so rooted-in that we think they’re true. Shine the light of Your Word into our darkest places, reveal the deceit, and help us to replace it with Your truth. Teach us how to believe and rely on Your Word.

∞

Jonny Diaz’ song, “More Beautiful You,” counters one type of lies we face. The line “Don’t buy the lies” applies to them all…

The Lord Will Fulfill His Purpose for Me

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“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your love, O LORD, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.”
Psalm 138:8, NIV 1984*

Not everyone has a large and visible calling-type of purpose, but we’re each called to the “long obedience in the same direction,” to the faithfulness and openness to God that lets us touch many people’s lives in small ways.

And it’s His purpose, not my plans. Oswald Chambers writes, “We have to maintain our soul open to the fact of God’s creative purpose, and not muddle it with our own intentions.” (My Utmost for His Highest, Sept. 21)

This takes the pressure off. Instead of trying to keep track of everything and move it forward, I need to be looking to see what He’s going to do in any situation. What He might want to do through me.

I’m under authority. I’m neither the strategist nor the victim of circumstances. I’m a vessel the Potter has made, to fill and pour out as He sees best. And I believe on the other side of this life we’ll look back from His perspective and see that He has done all things well.

The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me…”

Simple. Straightforward. I think I can hold onto that today.

Father, help me keep perspective and balance. Help me not get too self-absorbed or take too much responsibility for my own usefulness. Help me trust and obey You.

∞

Here’s Robin Mark with “Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)”. (Note the line “The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures…”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXyFgXeGvmc

* The 2011 NIV says “The LORD will vindicate me…” New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

How Irritating Are We to God?

Janet Sketchley

Writing Christian Mysteries & Suspense