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.

Psalm 43:3-5 (NLT)

Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me
Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live.
⁴ There I will go to the altar of God, to God—the source of all my joy.
I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God!
⁵ Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!

This passage was really comforting for me this morning.

Psalm 125:1-2 (ESV)

¹ Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
² As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds his people,
from this time forth and forevermore.

Not much to comment on here, other than it blows my mind still that the Almighty God would care for me, yet He has and He does. Simultaneously the most humbling and confidence-building truth I know.

Psalm 119:91-93 (NLT)

⁹¹ Your regulations remain true to this day,
for everything serves your plans.
⁹² If your instructions hadn’t sustained me with joy,
I would have died in my misery.
⁹³ I will never forget your commandments,
for by them you give me life.

I think something that often amazes me about David and something, too, that I find pretty convicting is how David really, truly rejoiced in God’s commands. It’s easy to rejoice in God’s blessing, God’s mercy, God’s grace, etc. But, I think for many, God’s commands seem… oh… difficult.

David didn’t feel this way at all. In the above passage he writes that God’s instructions sustained him with joy! Do we find JOY in God’s commands? Do we find joy to the point where it sustains us in misery? I’d say not probably for most of us.

Something David understood very clearly and something I think we’d do well to understand is that God’s commands to us are given out of His love. He loves us without fail always and therefore He has shown us how we should live to experience the best life. His commands are not arbitrary or meaningless, but rather for our benefit and protection. In my life I have found it takes faith to believe this at times, but experience has also proven it true.

If you’re interested more in this, read Psalm 19 as well.

As I was categorizing this post, I saw my category for legalism. It made me think: If we understand that God’s commands come out of his love for us, it blows legalism out of the water. We don’t obey to be good enough for God, but rather we obey to submit ourselves to His love! Very different.

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…

I read these verses this morning and think they shed some light on stuff.

Psalm 89:15-17

“Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship, for they will walk in the light of your presence, LORD.
16 They rejoice all day long in your wonderful reputation. They exult in your righteousness.
17 You are their glorious strength. Our power is based on your favor.”

The idea here is that when we respond to the call to worship the LORD–when we WORSHIP Him, there is happiness and strength. In light of my experience, this resounds as true, but I often let my circumstances eclipse this truth.

I heard a message by John Piper a couple months ago that talked about (more or less) worship being the key to true mental health. How true that is. When our focus is set completely on ourselves, it’s hard not to get stressed, overwhelmed, depressed, confused, etc. because all we can see is ourselves: our needs, our problems, our strength (or lack thereof)… you get the idea. When we’re willing to let our focus shift off of ourselves and on to our glorious and merciful God whose loving-kindness never fails, whose power never ends, and whose wisdom is infinite… When we do this, we find freedom. It’s true freedom, though, which is not doing whatever we want, but rather being liberated from our own spiritual or moral to-do lists because we’re trusting God to take care of our needs.

Yeah, so it’s good here I think.

(For a little related goodness check out: Hebrews 1:9)

Matthew 21:28-32 (NLT)

“But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ ²⁹The son answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway. ³⁰Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’ But he didn’t go.

³¹“Which of the two obeyed his father?”

They replied, “The first.”

Then Jesus explained his meaning: “I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you do. ³²For John the Baptist came and showed you the right way to live, but you didn’t believe him, while tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even when you saw this happening, you refused to believe him and repent of your sins.”

This parable makes it really clear: What counts before God isn’t the neat, tidy lives that we try to portray. The thing that counts is a heart that is humble and repentant before God. Jesus affirms the hearts of prostitutes and thieves here over the hearts of religious people whose lives look stellar.

This is convicting to me on a personal level because I know that oftentimes, my energy and my efforts are spent more on making my outside appearance good, than on having a humble and right heart before my God. It makes me think..

Be blessed today…

Matthew 16:24-28 (NLT)

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. ²⁵ If you try to hang on to your life you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. ²⁶ And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. 28 And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

Pretty straight forward: only one things is worth my life, and it is following Jesus.

Psalm 42:7-8

I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.
8 But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.

There’s been a fair amount of stress in my life recently. I am so thankful that I can trust in and hope in a God that pours his love out on me everyday–even when I am unaware.

Romans 5:8-9

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

Later on in Romans 5 it says that because of Jesus dying for us, we are now “friends of God.” These things are amazing to me and I am so thankful that my God is so incredibly good.