gladitudes

When you ask God to hear His voice, is this what you are expecting?

Psalm 29:4-9

The voice of the LORD is powerful;
   the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.

⁵The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
   the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
   and Sirion like a young wild ox.

⁷The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.
⁸The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
   the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

⁹The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth
   and strips the forests bare,
   and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

Christians sometimes talk about hearing the voice of the Lord. In reading this this morning, I was just really challenged at how I perceive God and how I think about hearing from Him. The truth is that through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for our sin, we are now able to come boldly before God (Eph. 3:12). God doesn’t destroy us with His voice (or other agents of His strength), but we still serve the same God. Holy awe at His Being is the only honest response to understanding who He really is.

Just a thought.

Today, over lunch, I took a little drive to collect my thoughts and get some lunch. I popped in a CD that I really enjoy: Sara Groves – Add to the Beauty. I’ve listened to the CD a lot and now don’t always pay that much attention to the words. This time, though, for some reason I really listened.

As I heard the words to this song, I guess, I was really touched. This is totally the attitude and motivation I have sometimes and want to have all the time.

Take a listen. Song: “Loving a Person”

I really like this passage I read this morning:

John 10:28-30
²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

As someone who has been a Christian for a while, it’s easy to forget some of the most basic truths about my condition. It’s a beautiful reality that I have been given eternal life and that I will never perish. Additionally, I’m secure in the hands of God—He won’t let anything “snatch me out of [his] hand.”

Surely God loves us and surely he has blessed us greatly! Be thankful.

“⁵ Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
⁶ The LORD preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
⁷ Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.”

Let me just say that I love this passage. For me, so much of the time, I find myself really fighting to find joy in the Lord and rest in Him. It is always because I forget who God is, I forget who I am, and I forget, therefore, what my fitting response to these truths should be. This verse concisely points me toward the truth regarding those three areas.

1.) About God: Verse 5 reminds me that God is gracious: He shows me favor when I don’t deserve it; that God is righteous: He’s not going to harm me or try to abuse me somehow; and that God is merciful: He spares me the punishment that I deserve for falling short of his standard (Romans 3:22-24).

2.) About me: Verse 6 reminds me that God has preserved me and that he saved me. I know that I am not right on my own apart from Jesus Christ. This reminder is helpful for when I’m feeling proud or when I think I have it together. God saved me and I am therefore indebted to him–but it’s debt of gratitude. I can’t every begin, even, to pay it back.

3.) Response: The last verse is so beautiful to me because it shows us the fitting response to these truths. By nature I am a person who worries, so that makes this is even more helpful for me. This verse clearly reminds us to stop and rest in the Lord because he has shown us so much favor that we don’t have anything left to be concerned with. He has dealt very bountifully with me! The salvation of my soul, of course, being the most generous gift He could have ever given, but that’s really only the beginning of the blessings He’s shown.

Love the Lord today!