discipleship

The Promise of God’s Way (Psalm 37)

Waiting

Wait for the Lord and keep His way,
And He will exalt you to inherit the land;
When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

I love the resolute conviction we find in the writings of David.

If you ever lack clarity in your faith read the Psalms. Soon something, like this verse, will resonate. Its why I love verses like these; it’s assured, it’s compelling, and you know its true.

David gives us two things to remember and to do. 1) Wait for the Lord and 2) Keep His way.

1) Wait for the Lord.

Much of what we get wrong in life is due to wrong timing. But God, His timing is always spot on.

So often we are so busy and hurried along by the issues of our lives. Trying to squeeze God into a crevice in our day is not going to work. Rather than working to contain God into smaller and smaller cracks of time in our schedule, wait for Him.

Wait on the Lord, trusting Him, going to Him each day and knowing that He is good.

2) Keep His Ways.

His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). But that is not to say He doesn’t want us to make them our ways.

Whilst in our hurried pace of life we need to wait for Him, on the other hand following Him is immediate and total in nature. His ways are all consuming. They are life swallowing Him. And what He wants is that would be solely and wholly given over, not to a list of rules, but to living Lord and Saviour.

Keep His ways. Do what you know to do. Follow through and strengthen your relationship with Him.

THEN (this is the promise…)

He will exalt you to inherit the land;
When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

THEN He will exalt you.

God is looking for people who He can exalt, promote, lift up, and show off to the world as His faithful ambassadors. He is not shy about this. But He expects us to be proven (tested) in it.

He will exalt you, you will inherit the promised land. Others might miss it, but the invitation is there for you to grab it and see it for yourself.

PRAYER: Father, I ask for your grace and enabling to wait for you and to keep your ways. I trust you Lord and hear your word. I give myself to you and the process you have for me. I love you Lord. Amen.

The Importance of Foundations

Concrete Pour

Psalm 11:3 says:

If the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?”

Foundations are the most important part of any building. Everything else that is built is then built upon the foundations. If the foundations are firm, then the building will stand. But if the foundations are faulty, then there is a strong chance the building will need to be destroyed and rebuilt.

This is also true of Christ and our walk with Him. If the foundation upon which we build our lives is faulty, then our very lives are in jeopardy. If the foundation of our life is not Christ, then all that we have built and slaved over in our lives in susceptible to cracking, splitting, slipping and causing irreparable damage to what we’ve built.

The issue with a foundation is that it is the lowest part of the building. It is not readily fixed from above. There is few if any quick fixes or patches that will protect what has been built.

So too with our lives, apart from the foundation of Christ. When the day comes and that foundation cracks, slips or splits, the “righteous” are unable to help. “What can the righteous do?”

If the foundation of your life is not secure in Christ, go back, re-dig it, pull it apart. Make Jesus the foundation – firm and secure – and rebuilt your life upon Him. He will never let you down.

PRAYER: Father, I ask you to reveal any area of my life not firmly established upon the foundation of Jesus Christ your son. I submit all of my life to you Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.

A King Just Like Everyone Else (1 Samuel 8)

King

1 Samuel 8:7 says:

The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.

When Israel decided they wanted a king to be just like all the other nations they did so by rejecting the Lord as their king.

There is a saying that says “if you want to live like no one else, you’ve got to live like no one else”. In other words, there is a cost of discipline and choosing a different path of life to most people, if you want to truly succeed in a way that most others don’t.

The same is true of the life of the Christian. Wanting to live like everyone else AND live for Jesus is mutually exclusive.

You’ve got to pick one or the other.

The place the Lord must take in our lives is the place reserved for King. That is why He is titled the “King of kings”. If He is not King of our lives, someone or something else will be. And that means Jesus is not King of kings.

In out lives there will always be a king. Be it the one who is rightfully king or the one we choose in His place, just like all the “other nations”.

Who is the king of your life? The King of kings? Or something or someone just like all the other nations have?

PRAYER: Father, I want you to be my King. Lord rule and reign in my life as King of my heart, my mind, my future and my affections. I love you Lord, Amen.