Creators or Destroyers?
2010-05-30

Father, it's a new week. I'm actually looking forward to this new week. I have a few goals in mind to accomplish and most of them involve music. I pray for the discipline to accomplish them. I also continue to pray for a job, and give me the patience to wait for the one that you have waiting for me.


Psalm 63:9-11

9 But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; 10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. 11 But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

It's hard for me to identify with David in this portion, because I don't know of anyone who is actively seeking to destroy my life.

The author of the devotional book makes a comparison to gossip and slanderous talk, and I suppose that there could be those who attempt to destroy a life through the use of the tongue. But, again, I don't know of anyone who would be doing that to me.

Nevertheless, Mr. Wyrtzen does have some wise words for us: "It's much easier to be a critic than a creator - to pick apart someone's work rather than to put together something new. How insidious we are with our criticism! 'So and so is terrific, but...' Those negative evaluations tear down those who are made in God's image and destroy the creative process as well."
(From A Musician Looks At the Psalms, by Don Wyrtzen)

We would all do well to be more careful with our tongues. I certainly wouldn't want someone praying Psalm 63:9-11 about me!



Jerry Bridges has some good words about Paul and his writings: "Paul was no ivory tower theologian. He did not write from the comfortable confines of a minister's study or a counselor's office (nor, for that matter, does any competent pastor or counselor today). Paul wrote from raw experience because he 'had been there.' The anguish he experienced was real anguish, and the grace he received was real grace. It was not theoretical, nor make-believe, nor merely 'whistling in the dark' to keep up his courage. No, Paul experienced a very concrete expression of God's love and power as the Holy Spirit ministered comfort and encouragement to him in the midst of affliction."

Paul's experiences in life more than adequately validate the relevance of his writings for me. Real faith and real grace. It doesn't get more "real" than Paul's experience.



Father, I pray for a new-found excitement as I read the writings of Paul. Let me find courage and faith and grace in the pages of Scripture as I read them. Let me be inspired by the lives of the people that you chose to be your examples. Let me be adequately warned by those you chose to be our negative examples. Let the pages of Scripture come alive for me!

I pray, also, that I would not be guilty of trying to destroy lives of brothers and sisters, either through words or other actions. Let me love the Family the way Christ loved us. Let me be willing to give my very life for your Church.

Father, I pray again for graduates. Last week, today, and next week (and probably anywhere in between) there are people all over the world graduating from high school and college. I pray that you give them direction. Help them find your purpose for their lives. And if you choose not to make that purpose visible to them, yet, give them patience to wait on you. I pray that none of us, graduates or otherwise, would run on ahead of you. After all...if we are ahead of you, we might not see you if you turn.



Let us never be destroyers. Instead let us be "builder-uppers."

Grace and peace, friends.



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