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!

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

Psalm 89:14-18 ESV

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;
steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
¹⁵Blessed are the people who know the festal shout*,
who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face,
¹⁶who exult in your name all the day
and in your righteousness are exalted.
¹⁷For you are the glory of their strength;
by your favor our horn is exalted.
¹⁸For our shield belongs to the LORD,
our king to the Holy One of Israel.

(*Note: “Festal shout” basically means joyful sound.)

Here are my thoughts that have been encouraging today:

1. Verse 14 says that the foundations of God’s throne are righteousness and justice. That is so comforting to me. There is so much in the world that is corrupt, broken, dishonest, and that really concerns and even scares me. I can trust that in God there is no corruption, but only righteousness and justice. Furthermore, the next part of that verse says that steadfast love and faithfulness go before Him. God’s love will always be steadfast toward me and He will always be faithful. This, too, gives me so much comfort when it seems the things to worry about are mounting up. I don’t have to fear that God will let me down. He won’t.

2. Verses 15 and 16 say that people who walk in the light of the face of the Lord and people who exult in His name all day are blessed. This is the part of this verse that really impacted me this morning. I was struck with how often I totally fail to recognize that I get to know the Almighty God! He, who created the heavens and the Earth, who spoke all things into being, has chosen to allow me (a totally unremarkable, ordinary guy) to know Him! That’s amazing! I don’t deserve it at all, but I have access to the Most High God!

If I only thought about that more and let it affect how I see my circumstances, my life, and even myself, how much would my attitude in life change?! I think I want to make this a new goal of mine, to just recognize a.) what an honor it is that I can know God and b.) how mighty He is always. It’s crazy to me in a good way.

The other verses are really good, too, but I’ll let you think about them on your own.

That’s all for today. Surely, if we know the Lord, we are truly blessed. Think about that today.

Andrew

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.

When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

(The album I was listening to was by Ascend the Hill and was a free download from Come & Live. Listen and download it if you’re interested.)

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.

My God is worthy of praise. When I call on Him, he will save me because of his love and grace. This gives me great hope and courage.

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

I think this passage is pretty self-explanatory, so I don’t know how much reflection I need to provide. It’s just really convicting for me.

The one thing I’ll say is this. I think it is possible to be saved, but not really know God. God himself and a relationship with Him is the far and wide best thing that exists and being given Him is the ultimate blessing that humans can receive. Not knowing our Almighty God when it’s offered to us, is an epic fail on our part. In a sense, too, it blocks us from truly enjoying anything else God blesses us with.

How do we get to know God? Well, we start by obeying Him…

Over the past years of my life, I’ve found myself more and more wanting to understand what God’s love really is. In that time I’ve done a lot of thinking and reading and here are a couple thoughts I’ve had. Take a read:

1.) Love isn’t just a feeling. In our culture we think of love as something you feel—more or less feeling good about someone. If God’s love for us was just Him feeling good about us, it would be nice, but it wouldn’t really be life-changing. I feel good about a lot of people and things and it usually doesn’t result in anything other than a smile here and there. But, that’s not what love is. Yeah, love involves feelings for sure, but love is way more than that. True love is a decision and commitment to put someone else’s interests above your own. It’s acting to benefit another above one’s self.

Love understood in this light is profoundly different! God does not just feel good about us, God actively seeks out our best interests. If you haven’t thought about that before, take a second to let it sink in. The Almighty God takes real action to help you and bring about good in your life. You might not see the good and you might not see all your circumstances as good, but it’s there and it’s true.

2.) God’s love for us affects His emotions. Love isn’t a feeling, but it does involve feelings. This is pretty cool to me, in fact, a realization of this is what is prompting my writing today. Check this out:

Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV)

The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.

God isn’t just some stoic, uninvolved power force. I want to unpack this verse for a second. Look at it by line:

1. The LORD your God is in your midst – This means that He is near to us. He’s not far off and uninvolved, but rather He is close and he cares.
2. [God is] a mighty one who will save – God is mighty to save and He, in His love, has saved us. We have this problem of sin—we think we’re better than God and that we don’t need him. Sin, though, destroys us because good can only come from God. God hates sin because he loves us so much that he hates seeing us be destroyed and missing out on good. God sent his Son, Jesus, to die that He might rescue us from the consequences of our sin, and bring us back into right relationship with Him. That’s intense love.
3. [God] will rejoice over you with gladness – God rejoices over us; in His proactive love, He is excited and full of joy. He doesn’t resent us, He’s not disappointed in us. Rather, He is glad that He made us and that we are His creation.
4. [God] will quiet you by his love – I have to read into this a little bit, but saying that “He will quiet you” implies there’s anguish and maybe some hurt. God longs to bring us peace and comfort through his love. Incidentally, this also alludes to how deeply He cares about us and our circumstances.
5. [God] will exult over you with loud singing – Have you ever heard some really good news (like a favorite sports team victory, a great job offer, etc.) and just started shouting for joy? I know I have. That is how God feels about us every single day. He’s that excited. Sounds crazy? I think it does, but when you love someone, you do crazy things… and God loves someone… everyone, actually.

To me the notion that God gets excited or that He shouts for joy is pretty crazy. But, I know that I feel things, and I get excited, and I shout for joy. Maybe we feel those things because God feels those things. And maybe, too, God gave us those emotions so that we would better understand Him and how He feels about us. Think about it.

God cares about us deeply; He proactively works to bring about good for us; and He shouts with joy over us because His love for us is so intense that it fills Him with excitement. That is what it means when people say, “God loves you.” :)

Psalm 94:14-23

For the LORD will not forsake his people;
he will not abandon his heritage;
15 for justice will return to the righteous,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.

16 Who rises up for me against the wicked?
Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 If the LORD had not been my help,
my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
18 When I thought, “My foot slips,”
your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many,
your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
those who frame injustice by statute?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the LORD has become my stronghold,
and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will bring back on them their iniquity
and wipe them out for their wickedness;
the LORD our God will wipe them out.

I really don’t want to get political on here, but I guess I will just say that there is a lot of injustice in our world—and not just overseas or in a far corner of the country. There’s a lot of injustice in your and my neighborhoods. Whether it’s the life of unborn children being brutally snuffed out, people’s hard-earned tax money being spent foolishly, or anything in between, we are suffering. We might not know it yet, but this world is not functioning the way it was intended to function.

This condition of our world weighs on me. I see it, I feel it, and it hurts as I watch people suffer from it. Verse 16 really echos a cry of my heart; I wonder who will rise of against the wicked? Verse 19, too, really is my heart as well. When my cares are many, God is the only one that really cheers my soul. I know I can hope in His steadfast love and I will not be let down or forsaken.

Verses 20-21, again, I feel are so applicable for what I think about. I see political leaders making foolish and often wicked decisions and I wonder why God has allowed them to be in power. They do appear to band together in corruption and leverage for things I truly believe are evil. Again, though, God is my stronghold and I am thankful that He will bring justice. When people die and face Him in judgement, they/we will all give an account. I can rest assured that no injustice will go unpunished, no wrongdoing will be left unaccounted for.

While this is a truly sobering thought (because we ALL sin and NONE of us is perfect), it’s also comforting as my heart yearns for justice. I am so thankful that God has redeemed me by the blood of Jesus Christ and that he offers redemption and salvation to all who will humbly turn to Him. I am glad that through Jesus, God has offered a way for us to have our Sin forgiven so that we don’t have to face the painful day of judgement in the same way. My hope, of course, is that everyone would repent and be forgiven (including those political leaders I here refer to), but knowing that not all will, I am comforted that justice will be served.

Matthew 5:44-45

“But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! ⁴⁵In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”

I really love nature and I have long told people that my two favorite things are the sun and water. Something about the light of the sun, just really lifts my spirit, invigorates my body, and makes me want to live. Because of this, I have often praised God just for showing me his love by blessing my days with sunlight.

The thing that struck me newly today as I read these verses, was how God does, in fact, bless us with sun and rain. The crazy thing, though, is how as be blesses he doesn’t discriminate. Those who hate Him and those who love Him both get to experience His goodness. I am so thankful for this because it reminds me of His character: God is such loving, gracious, and merciful God—even to those who might not want His blessing and good.

This truth about God’s character has significant implications for the way followers of Christ should live. If God is merciful to those who hate him, what ought we to do? If God perseveres in giving grace to apathetic hearts, how should we interact with people who are such?

Be thankful today for God’s blessings and next time you see the sun shining or rain falling, remember that it’s shining/falling for the righteous and unrighteous alike. Praise God for giving good to those who don’t deserve it—yourself included! :)