We Humans ought to appreciate God’s Goodness much more than We do!

24 Apr 2025 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Psalm 107:15.        Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness (LOVING-KINDNESS), and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

So we’ve come to Thursday, the penultimate day of our work week, a warm and sunshiny day, and we’re just panting for Friday, like a hungry or thirsty animal panting for food or water. Oh, how I wish we could be like the sons of Korah say in Psalm 42: ‘As the hart (deer) panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?’ (Ps. 42:1-2) 

And Bruh David corroborates it in Psalm 63, ‘A Thirsting Soul’ while  in the wilderness, running from his arch enemy King Saul. He writes: ‘O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul longeth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;’ (Ps. 63:1) 

Yes friends, it’s the living God we should be panting and thirsting for; not the day when we get a break from work! For who do you think allows you to have that break eh? In the long run, it’s the living God! In fact everything that you have or get, initially flows from Almighty God! It might come through other people, but it all originates from the grace, mercy and LOVE of our heavenly Father! As Bruh David spells out in the next couple of verses. ‘To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee (looked for thee) in the sanctuary. Because thy LOVING-KINDNESS is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.’ (Ps. 63:2-4) 

Now that’s how we supposed believers ought to be behaving, not looking forward to the material, perishable things of the world, as so many of us are currently doing. It’s like Jesus says in the Beatitudes: ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.’ (Matt. 5:6) 

And the scholars offer this interesting explanation of that verse. ‘These future possessors of the earth are its presently installed rightful heirs, and even now they hunger and thirst for righteousness. They experience a deep desire for personal righteousness, which in itself is a proof of their spiritual rebirth. Those who are poor and empty in their own spiritual poverty recognize the depth of their need, and they hunger and thirst for that which ONLY God can give them. They shall be filled refers to a complete satisfaction. The psalmist proclaimed: “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” (Ps. 107:9) 

And that’s the indisputable truth my fellow believers! When we sincerely hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God, He fills us up, because that is His very nature, which He cannot deny. And we find one of the best examples of that in the Book of Acts, on the Day of Pentecost when the church members were sitting together in a room, ‘And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven (divided) tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues (in other languages), as the Spirit gave then utterance.’ (Acts. 2:2-4) 

Oh my brethren, that was certainly an unusual outpouring of righteousness all at once, but it marked the beginning of the Holy Spirt indwelling believers and not operating outside on certain occasions. It’s what God promised the Israelites in the prophesy of Ezekiel. ‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgements, and do them.’ (Ezek. 36:26-27) 

And this commentary offers an explanation of those verses. ‘They promise a spiritual transformation, where God will replace the Israelites’ “heart of stone” (stubbornness, resistance) with a “heart of flesh” (responsiveness, obedience), and infuse them with a “new spirit,” symbolizing a renewed relationship with God and obedience to His laws. This promise is a type of the New Covenant, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, offering spiritual renewal to all believers. 

In essence, Ezekiel 36:26 is a powerful message of hope and spiritual renewal, promising a restoration of the Israelites’ relationship with God through a transformation of their hearts and minds. This transformation is also seen as a foreshadowing of the New Covenant, where God’s spirit dwells within believers, enabling them to live in obedience and righteousness.’ 

Now that ought to help us believe God’s Word even more, as those prophecies in the Old Testament keep being fulfilled in the New Testament. Consequently, our behaviour ought to be like the psalmist says in Psalm 107: ‘Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness (LOVING-KINDNESS), and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he hath broken the gates of brass (bronze), and cut the bars of iron in sunder.’ (Ps. 107:15-16) 

Yes, friends, the Lord has broken all our chains and released us from the prison of sin and being hell bound through the auspices of Christ’s work on the cross of Calvary. That means we should be thankful, grateful and show it through our obedience and LOVE, especially since He’s further showered us with our Thursday Blessings, undeserved blessings to do His earthly work. So let’s declare and activate them right now nuh. 

As one strong and sincere voice: ‘I declare that I am blessed with God’s supernatural wisdom and receive clear direction for my life! I declare today that I am blessed with creativity, courage, talent and abundance! I am blessed with a strong will, self-control and self-discipline! I am blessed with a great family, good friends, good health, faith, favour and fulfillment! 

I am blessed with success, supernatural strength, promotion and divine protection! I am blessed with a compassionate heart and a positive outlook on life! I declare that any curse or negative word that’s ever been spoken over me is broken right now in the name of Jesus! I declare that everything I put my hands to, will prosper and succeed! I declare it today and every day! Amen!’

 And having made that declaration (yeah!!!) we are now duty bound to go out and share those blessings with others, just as generously as the Lord shared them with us, so that they too can come to know and LOVE Him like we do! Much LOVE!

…instead of yearning for perishable earthly things…we ought to ye yearning for imperishable spiritual or heavenly things…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit   18 January 2022 Psalm 107:8.

18 Jan 2022 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Psalm 107:8.       He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.  

And the big cleanup is in progress this bright, sunshiny Tuesday morning after the big storm yesterday. And it was a real big one, one like we haven’t seen possibly in a decade. My driveway is clean now, but not the lane, especially the entrance to it, where the snow plow just moves up and down the main road cleaning that, while blocking  up the laneways with piles of unpassable snow.

The lanes are always left for last, though I don’t know how they expect us to get to a clean main road, if we can’t get out of our lanes. And when they do the lanes they block up the driveways, so that ofttimes you can’t get out because the snow pile at the bottom is so big and icy. But that’s the government for you!

Now let’s hope that we don’t get any more snowfalls even close to the magnitude of this one, because then we’ll hear that they’ve run out of money to do the clean up properly. Steups! Every year they raise the taxes that’s supposed to pay for that amenity, but every year they clam to run out of money. Is it just bad money management…or something entirely different eh? (smile)

But that’s a story for another day. Today, let’s consider something much more important – a search for righteousness, one that will automatically improve that money situation we were just talking about. (smile) Now, Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount spoke of some traits that believers ought to possess, and what happens when they possess or ardently seek them. We call them the Beatitudes, and one of them goes like this: ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.’ (Matt. 5:6)

But before we get into what that means, let’s look at another even important statement Jesus made later on, where He warns His listeners. ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.’ (Matt. 6:33). Now, if we are supposed to seek God’s righteousness, then that gives us some idea of how important righteousness is, and it’s a continual thing.

Once you have found God, made allegiance to Christ, you don’t ever stop searching for righteousness. And righteousness is basically wanting to do the right thing. Most of us know what’s right from wrong, but don’t always do it, being led astray by our sinful nature and the lies and deceit of the enemy and this evil world. And seeking righteousness is just trying not to be led astray, through reading God’s word, meditating on it, praying, mingling with other believers, and accepting His promises for your future.

And going back to our Beatitude, we find this explanation from the scholars. ‘5.6. These future possessors of the earth (referring to the previous Beatitude – blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth: Matt. 5:5) are its presently installed rightful heirs, and even now they hunger and thirst after righteousness. They experience a deep desire for personal righteousness, which in itself is a proof of their spiritual rebirth.

Those who are poor and empty in their own spiritual poverty recognizes the depth of their need, and they hunger and thirst for that which only God can give them. They shall be filled refers to a complete satisfaction. The psalmist proclaimed : ‘He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.’ (Ps. 107:9).’

Yes friends, that’s one of the many promises of our faithful God! If you come to Him spiritually hungry and thirsty, He will indeed fill your soul with His righteousness. But sadly, in these times of great spiritual hunger and thirst, of spiritual famine, not enough of us are recognizing our drastic need for spiritual awakening, and thus are not turning to Almighty God to refresh and satisfy our famished souls.

How sad is that eh? And it’s one of the reasons why our world, why Christ’s church, and our own lives are in such disarray, that we are miserable and unhappy, and not living the abundant life that Christ died for us to have, first down here on earth, and then with Him in heaven for all eternity.  Now let’s check out a few scriptures that reinforce our contention of blessedness for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

And the first one comes from Bruh David’s immortal, or more correctly, one of his immortal psalms. (smile) That’s Psalm 34, where he writes with exceptional confidence: ‘O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want (lack) to them that fear (revere) him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want (lack) any good thing.’ (Ps. 34:9-10) How reassuring and encouraging are those words when we take them seriously!

Then we turn to one of my favourite passages of scripture, the Magnificat, the soul and spirit baring or emptying words that Mary, Jesus’ mother spoke of her rather unusual situation when she went to visit her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother. Amongst her outpouring of heart-felt  words, were these, on our current topic. ‘He hath put down the mighty from their seats (thrones), and exalted them of low degree (the humble). He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away.’ (Luke 1:52-53)

Oh my people, our God does take pleasure in exalting and filling the humble with good things, but those who don’t have time for Him, He leaves up to their own devices. The Lord LOVES and cares for us all, but He desires us to come to Him. In most cases, He won’t infringe on the free will that He’s given us. So the responsibility lies with us to answer His call.

And the last scripture again comes from the psalms, this time from the pen of the sons of Korah, who in Psalm 84, positively declare: ‘For the Lord is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.’ (ps. 84:11-12) And that’s the gospel truth, as all of us who trust in Christ Jesus know from long experience!

Now for those of us who sincerely seek the Lord’s kingdom and His righteousness, let’s go home declaring (steups!!!) our Tuesday Mantra, letting the whole world know to whom we belong, lock, stock and barrel. As one strong and confident voice! ‘In God’s eyes, I’m not what I do. I’m not what I have. I’m not what people say about me. I am the beloved of God, that’s who I am. No one can take that from me. I don’t have to worry. I don’t have to hurry. I can trust my friend Jesus and share His LOVE with the world. Amen!’ 

Now let’s go out and action those statements like Jesus desires of us, sharing His amazing LOVE and awesome friendship with others, so that they too can come to know and LOVE Him like we do! Much LOVE!

…in Jesus…we find ALL that we need…no ifs, ands and buts about it…

P.S. They have finally cleaned my lane, but if you see the two big piles of snow they set up in front of my two neighbours’ houses, completely blocking sight of the main road. Then, as the duchess complained, there will be noise all during the night as the big trucks come to remove the snow. But that’s life! You have to put up with some discomfort to get the final comfort! (smile) Much LOVE!

Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZJ8