O Father,
You have made man for the glory of yourself,
and when not an instrument of that glory,
he is a thing of nought;
No sin is greater than the sin of unbelief,
for if union with Christ is the greatest good,
unbelief is the greatest sin,
as being cross to your command;
I see that whatever my sin is,
yet no sin is like disunion from Christ by unbelief.
Lord, keep me from committing the greatest sin in departing from him,
for I can never in this life perfectly obey and cleave to Christ.
When you take away my outward blessings, it is for sin,
in not acknowledging that all that I have is of you,
in not serving you through what I have,
in making myself secure and hardened.
Lawful blessings are the secret idols, and do most hurt;
the greatest injury is in the having,
the greatest good in the taking away.
In love divest me of blessings that I may glorify you the more;
remove the fuel of my sin,
and may I prize the gain of a little holiness
as overbalancing all my losses.
The more I love you with a truly gracious love
the more I desire to love you,
and the more miserable i am at my want of love;
The more I hunger and thirst after you,
the more I faint and fail in finding you,
The more my heart is broken for sin,
the more I pray it may be far more broken.
My great evil is that I do not remember the sins of my youth,
nay, the sins of one day I forget the next.
Keep me from all things that turn to unbelief or lack of felt union with Christ.
1 O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! 2 For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. 3 They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. 4 They say, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!"
Asaph has stumbled upon a great truth in his psalm writing. "Lament almost always precedes praise." He is in pain over Israel's circumstances, so he groans to God. He cries out in his lament.
He doesn't water anything down, either. He desperately wants God to get involved. He's not afraid to tell God exactly what he's thinking.
I firmly believe that we should be the same way. If something's on my mind, I'll tell God about it, and I'll be blunt, usually. Much more blunt than I would be with a human associate or friend. It's not that I don't fear God, or revere him. I definitely do. But I know that God will not be offended when I speak my mind to him. I might be wrong, and he will definitely let me know when I am. But he won't run away and hide like humans will. He won't sulk. And he won't lash out at me in defense. He won't say, "Oh, yeah?? Well, so's your face!"
And when words fail me, I have the promise that the Holy Spirit is interceding for me (Romans 8:26).
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." (Matthew 5:7)
This is a continuation of yesterday's reading on the "beatitudes."
"Fifth, the merciful are happy. We must not only bear our own afflictions patiently, but we must do all we can to help those who are in misery. We must have compassion on the souls of others, and help them; pity those who are in sin, and seek to snatch them as brands out of the burning. Sixth, the pure in heart are happy; for they shall see God. 'Create in me such a clean heart, O God.' None but the pure are capable of seeing God, nor would heaven be happiness to the impure. As God cannot endure to look upon their iniquity, so they cannot look upon his purity. Seventh, the peace-makers are happy. They love, and desire, and delight in peace; and study to be quiet. They keep the peace that it be not broken, and recover it when it is broken. If the peace-makers are blessed, woe to the peace-breakers! Eighth, those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake are happy. This saying is peculiar to Christianity; and it is more largely insisted upon than any of the rest. Yet there is nothing in our sufferings that can merit of God; but God will provide that those who lose for him, though life itself shall not lose by him in the end. Blessed Jesus! How different are your maxims from those of men of this world! They call the proud happy, and admire the gay, the rich, the powerful, and the victorious. May we find mercy from the Lord; may we be owned as his children, and inherit his kingdom. With these enjoyments and hopes, we may cheerfully welcome low or painful circumstances."
(Note: In this writing, "gay" refers to "happiness.")
I thank you that we can speak freely to you, Lord. I also praise you that the Holy Spirit will intercede for us when we cannot come up with the proper words to say. There are many times when a circumstance or person is on my mind, and I know not what to say. I have confidence that it doesn't matter so much, and my "prayer" at that point is heard, even if it isn't uttered. We all frequently say, in our worship meetings, that we have "unspoken" prayer requests. I know that you "hear" those "unspoken" matters.
I desire to love you, to hunger and thirst after you. I pray for those desires to deepen. I pray for more love for you.
Lord, may our worship be acceptable this morning. I pray that we will all leave the service with different attitudes than when we arrived. If someone is hurting when the arrive, I pray that they will be free from pain when they leave. If someone is struggling with sin when they arrive, I pray that they will have left that struggle at your feet when they leave. Let us all worship you and love each other as you have loved us.
PRAY FOR OUR JUDICIARY
{The Supreme Court is on recess.} A federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission�s
indecency policy as �unconstitutionally vague.�
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled against Texas school principals who had forbidden
students to hand out candy cane pens and pencils with �Jesus is the Reason for the Season� descriptions.
Pray that our courts will continue to protect our national and personal freedoms.
Grace and peace, friends.