Psalm 25:4. Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.
And it’s a cool, windy, cloudy Friday in my neck of the woods, but that doesn’t make a difference when it comes to shouting out ‘TGIF! Thank God it’s Friday!’ Yes friends, the way our work system is set up, the couple of days off at the weekend is sanctified, (smile) and we avidly seek it, regardless of the weather or what’s happening around our strife-filled world.
And today, we will look at an interesting poem from our One Year Book of Bible Promises with writings by Ruth Harms Calkin, titled ‘Your Child, God.’ And once we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, we all become the adopted children of God, joint heirs with Christ, with a right to our divine heritage, entitled to all our heavenly Father has. (Rom. 8:17) But, sadly, oftentimes we don’t behave like children of God, or even know what He is truly like.
So please read with me: ‘O God With deep contrition I shamefully confess My small concept of You My puny faith My limited comprehension. Forgive me, O God And enlarge my narrow vision. Stimulate my trust As I concentrate on Your greatness. Give me even now A true perspective Of Your majestic power To totally transform the child On whom You have set Your LOVE – The child whose name is engraved On the palm of Your hand The child who claims You As her Maker and Master. Your child, God! Me!’
Oh my fellow believers, that poem is simple but it says a lot, and is very relevant to our uncertain and difficult times, for as the poem says, many of us don’t see or know the true greatness of the wonderful God we claim to serve. Many of us think that He’s either a doting grandfather, or a tough nut to crack, who’s somewhere out there in the wild blue yonder, with little power, not paying much attention to what’s happening down here on Planet Earth. But all of that is totally untrue. Our God is neither a doting grandfather, a hard man to please, or not paying attention to our problems.
In fact He’s the exact opposite of all that! He’s the Creator and Controller of this universe, that means He must have a lot of power to do such an awesome job. And He does care for us, so much so that instead of letting us all go to hellfire and damnation with Satan for our persistent disobedience and rebellion, He sacrificed His only begotten Son to give us another option; that’s salvation and eternal life with Him. So tell me how could anyone who does all those things not be great and majestic, LOVING and compassionate?
Our God is so great that He’s described as Omnipotent, that’s having lots of power; Omniscient, that’s all knowing, all seeing and wise; and Omnipresent, that’s all pervading, being everywhere, universal. And it’s oh so important for believers to know the true scope and greatness of our God, to enlarge our narrow vision, because if we don’t, we’re liable to seek small stuff from Him, offer up small prayers, not understanding the full reach of His awesome might and power.
And in these hate filled and angry times, we desperately need His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, to help us fight the evil that’s controlling our world. It’s time for us to open our eyes and begin thinking of our God as the de facto, or in reality, the great and awesome God that He is! And we can only accomplish that feat by concentrating on God, on His Word and the leading of His Holy Spirit.
Now the Bible Promise given for this poem comes from Psalm 25 titled ‘Trust in the Lord.’ The New Living Bible Translation puts it thus: ‘Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord; point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.’ (Ps. 25:4-5) And to believe that, your God must be big and mighty, fearsome and fearless, LOVING, compassionate, kind and merciful! And that’s exactly what our God, He of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is! So, thinking small doesn’t’ do our God any favours or give Him any accolades at all.
And for our enlightenment, (smile) here’s how the good ole King James Version puts the verses from our Bible Promise. ‘Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.’ (Ps. 25:4-5)
Yes my brethren, in these perilous times, we do need to turn to the God of our salvation and sincerely ask Him to show us His ways, teach us what He desires us to know, and lead us in His truth. And as we said earlier on, all of that begins with reading and meditating on God’s Word, then with the help of the Holy Spirit, putting it into action in our lives. As Psalm 119 wisely advises: ‘Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.’ (Ps. 119:105)
Now, to help us get our act together, let’s go to the throne of grace, through our Friday Chant, seeking grace in desperate time of need. As one voice: ‘Oh Lord, thanks for getting me safely through this past week. You know it’s been rough… because our many serious problems are escalating instead of improving. And it’s obvious we can’t fix them on our own, so Lord, we’re desperately crying out for your help.
Oh heavenly Father, with your omnipotent help, and our trusting faith, we know that we can stand strong and steadfast and defeat the simmering unrest in our land. We therefore ask you Lord to give our leaders the wise guidance to handle these unexpected storms properly. And please help the rest of us to be responsible and to stay safe amidst all the anxiety and confusion of these ungodly times.
We fervently pray too Lord that you’ll use the discontent and dissatisfaction in our land as a means of restoring faith in you. Return backsliders to your fold. Show them the error of their ways. And please introduce a new flock of believers, who will embrace your LOVE and compassion by the example, we, your faithful believers set. So that our sinful world can wake up and smell the coffee, wake up and smell it sweet and strong! We pray this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen!’
And divine aid is certainly in the offing, but not until we improve our poor witness for Christ, which has given the evil enemy undue hegemony or dominance over our world. Much LOVE!
…until Christians truly believe and act like our God is a great God…we will never overcome the enemy…
Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien
SCRIP-BITS 