3 They did not conquer the land with their swords;
it was not their own strong arm that gave them victory.
It was your right hand and strong arm
and the blinding light from your face that helped them,
for you loved them.

Ah, sizzle. This is from where victory comes! HIS right hand!

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.

19 If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
20 but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

A few thoughts:

To me it’s absolutely incredible that God would forgive our sins. They are like scarlet, red as crimson, yet He, through the work of Jesus Christ (if indeed we are trusting in Christ), has made us white as snow–brilliantly white. I know what’s in me and it’s not very pretty. The real me is pretty black. So it’s humbling and staggering and hard to believe, but God has loved us and lets us be made perfectly clean. It’s incredible.

The second thing I want to draw out of this passage is in the second two verses. God is telling Israel (and surely us, too) that if we’re willing and obedient, we will be blessed. If we refuse to obey, we will reap the consequences accordingly–there will be destruction.

This concept, for some reason, is so tough for me to practically grasp. I can intellectually preach it all day, but when push comes to shove it’s often so much easier to settle for immediate comfort/satisfaction than to wait for the long-term blessing.

See, I think it’s always easier to disobey. Because sin, most of the time if not all of the time, provides faster and/or easier “satisfaction”. Obedience, on the other hand, usually involves us making a hard decision now for a payoff later. It takes discipline, perspective, maturity, and faith to live for later and not now. But that’s the decision we have to make repeatedly to experience God’s best.

So, let’s live for later in faith that God will deliver on his promises, for He loves us.

I love this passage so much. It shows two things clearly: a right understanding of God’s law and a right heart-response to it.

In short: God’s law is infinitely good for us. It protects us, blesses us, makes us wise, and brings success. Therefore, the right response to God’s law (in light, too, of our inability to follow it on our own) is to simply say, “God please help.”

Father, I pray that you would burn a true understanding of your law on my heart and help me to seek righteousness out of love for you and faith in your goodness.

Delight in God’s goodness to you today.

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Whether we realize it or not, sin is our greatest enemy. Every pain, heartache, and hardship we face is the consequence of our or someone else’s sin. Jesus Christ came and died to free us from it. Praise His name!
 

Check this verse out:

1 Peter 1:3-4

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.

First, it’s only by God’s great mercy that he has saved us. Without his mercy, we would all be left to pay for our own sin by ourselves in death. Yet, God so loved us that He gave His only Son, so that when we believe in Him we can have eternal life.

Because Christ died and was raised, as the verse says, we can have great expectation of good to come! Then this line rocks me: “We have a priceless inheritance–an inheritance that is kept in heave for [us], pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay[!]”

I have an inheritance in heaven! I have something great to look forward to there. Furthermore, it’s totally secure, not even I am able to lose it at this point.

To me this is a total power thought. When my circumstances day to day are not good, when I have a huge (and growing) list of things that I wish would change, and when I struggle to find hope in my circumstances I can rest knowing that God has things set for me in heaven. That powerfully gives me the strength to persevere through this life.

Praise the Lord today and be thankful to Him!

Bless.

¹¹Teach me your way, O LORD,
that I may walk in your truth;
unite my heart to fear your name.
¹²I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and I will glorify your name forever.
¹³For great is your steadfast love toward me;
you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

I love this simple and honest prayer to God.

Grace is given to heal the spiritually sick, not to decorate spiritual heroes.

-Martin Luther

And Matthew 9:12 says, “But when Jesus heard this, He said, ‘It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.’”

Praise God that he helps those of us who are sick and in trouble. I’d have no hope otherwise.

Psalm 121 (NLT)

¹ I look up to the mountains—
does my help come from there?
² My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth!
³ He will not let you stumble;
the one who watches over you will not slumber.
⁴ Indeed, he who watches over Israel
never slumbers or sleeps.

⁵ The Lord himself watches over you!
The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade.
⁶ The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon at night.

⁷ The Lord keeps you from all harm
and watches over your life.
⁸ The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go,
both now and forever.

Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT)

¹⁴ So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. ¹⁵ This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Briefly, I share these two passages because despite the fact I’ve been a Christian for 10+ years and despite growing up in the church there is still something astonishing to me about how close God is to each of us and how engaged He is in our lives. Look at verses 5, 7, and 8 in Psalm 121: “The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you [...] The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go[.]”

Then, also, in the Hebrews passage: “This High Priest of ours understands our weakness, for he faced all of the same testings we do[.]“* Wow. No other god stepped down from his position to connect with people and experience their plight–but our God did.  Our right response to such a compassionate and sympathetic God? “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we fill find grace to help us when we need it most.”* Amazing. Praise the Lord today!

*emphasis added, of course

Now, that’s the goal, but usually I only read 2-3 of them instead of all 5 or however many there are for that day. I alternate where I start so that, in theory, I read all of them regularly. The reality is that I often don’t get to the last 50 Psalms very often. So, when I do, there are always some gems that I have missed. Today was a day I found one!

Here’s the passage I read that got me:

Psalm 147:10-11 (NLT)

¹⁰ He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse
or in human might.
¹¹ No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him,
those who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Two truths here that I find so important for myself:

1.) God does not judge value the same way we humans do. In the first verse above it says God isn’t pleased with a strong horse–I think we could safely say that this includes other “strengths” humans tend to be impressed by: cars with a lot of horsepower, big guns, successful sports teams, high-paying jobs, fancy clothes, etc. God doesn’t delight in these things like we do.

It also says God takes no pleasure in human might. So, the strong man, the rich man, the powerful man, the smart man, the respected man–none of them have any more clout with God on account of their endowment than anyone else.

While we find our value in these things, God is unimpressed. He does not value us in the same way that we value ourselves.

2.) The second verse talks about what does please God: “The Lord’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.” This is pretty amazing to me. I think a lot about “pleasing God” and not often do I think of the things it says here. I usually think of doing great things for God, instead. Here it says that to delight God I should fear him and hope in his unfailing love.

What does it mean to fear God? I don’t fully know, honestly, but I think it has to do with having a deep, humble respect for him and a subsequent submission to Him in everything. That means our beliefs about God are defined by what He says about Himself and not what we make up in our minds. It means that we place our lives under the authority of His word. It means that we recognize that He calls the shots, not us. This sort of orientation toward God does delight him.

This last part is the part that makes me most excited. It says that, “The Lord’s delight is in [...] those who put their hope in His unfailing love.” What does this mean? Well, I think this means that to delight God, we need to learn to get our excitement, hope, and joy from the simple fact that He loves us unconditionally. The implied truth of this passage is that GOD DOES LOVE US UNCONDITIONALLY! That’s really incredible. Not only does God love us better than any human ever could, he is pleased when we build our lives on this truth.

There’s much more I could maybe say about this, but I’ll leave it at that. Be blessed today; delight in the Lord and His unfailing love for you!

This truth along with various other factors have been kindling in my heart an urgent and desperate plea to God that He would use my life and make it amount to something worthwhile for eternity.

I read this verse a few days ago and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind: 2 Timothy 2:20-21 says,

In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. ²¹ If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.

Now for clarity’s sake, God does not love us more or accept us more completely when we live better lives, but it’s true that God is more able to use for the advancement of His kingdom and His good if we work hard to live pure, righteous lives. Purity makes us ready for the Master’s work.

To me, this is a great motivator to seek purity and not give up in it. I don’t seek it for righteousness’ sake, but for usability’s sake–which is a very significant difference.

A few other verses come to mind that I think support this notion:

Hebrews 12:14 says,

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (ESV)

If we don’t live holy lives, we don’t see God and the people around us won’t see God through us, either.

There are more verses, but these are the ones that have been on my mind.

Really quickly, then, so am I saying start freaking out and work super hard and make yourself a slave to rules so that God will use you? Not really. God is still the one who sanctifies us and changes us. We, however, can help him by having a humble heart and doing our best to please Him.

Check out James 4:6-10:

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ”God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

When we have a humble heart, God gives us grace. So, our path to change is humility, repentance, and by grace moving forward in faith (a.k.a. doing our best and trusting God with our weakness).