Deliverance and Justice

But You, O God, the Lord, deal kindly with me for Your name's sake; Because Your loving kindness is good, deliver me;PSALMS 109:21 NASB

 I can't help but marvel at how the Israelite viewed injustice as coming from man and God as the one who delivered justice. Today in our culture man is so quick to blame God for all wrongs and then use it as the excuse to not trust or believe in Him.

Lord, help me to trust in your justice, help me lean heavy on your mercy.

Perfect, As Your Heavenly Father is Perfect

Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.MATTHEW 5:48 NASB

This whole chapter is just hard. No one can be perfect! It's an impossible command if we try to do it on our own.

And maybe that is the whole point, that we can't do it on our own resources.

Could it be that the whole point is that the Holy Spirit is to be what is perfect within us? That rather than being perfect in and of ourselves, we submit to Him and let Him be what is perfect in us?

How To Break The Cycle

For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; And they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.PROVERBS 4:16 NASB

 Submission to the Lord means that we adopt his rubric for right and wrong, not our own.

The world (our sinful nature) does not submit to him and continually seeks a flawed and short sighted vengeance for personal wrongs. It chews us up. While in pain we lash out -causing even more harm, continuing the cycle on others. When we accept that God will settle the accounts without causing residual harm, it frees us to break the cycle.

You can be RIGHT or you can be in RELATIONSHIP. If you are so focused on the the things done that were wrong it's very difficult to release it to the Lord and allow Him to make it right. Proverbs tends to make everything so black and white for teaching purposes, but people are complicated and never all of one thing or another. I've had my share of times when I couldn't sleep for wanting to make someone pay for something they'd done. This observation isn't just about "the world" but about me too.

The lesson in this for me today is to remember who has my back when I am wronged. He sees the heart of the people around me when I am blinded by my own emotions. Lord, help me trust you with my outrage. Help me lay my own agenda down, to submit to your leading and take up your cause instead of my short sighted and emotion - fogged one. Amen.

Hate Evil Psalms 97:8-10

Zion heard this and was glad, And the daughters of Judah have rejoiced Because of Your judgments, O Lord.For You are the Lord Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.Hate evil, you who love the Lord, Who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.PSALMS 97:8-10 NASB

 There is a theme ringing through Psalms 97 and 98 and reflected again in the first part of Proverbs 31 about God's Righteousness and His judgments. In both cases all people's and even creation is happy to see it come. God's judgment is something to rest in and long for. They rejoiced in it.

Judgments made by anyone in today's culture are not received that way and I wonder if it's a lack of trust in Him... or that the Enemy has taken the gift of discernment between right and wrong and made it suspect ...  I mean, does this politically correct culture really hate evil?

Likely it's both and many more things I haven't looked at from this angle long enough to see yet.

 Lord, teach me to trust you more. Give me a discerning heart that can see your truth from the lie of the enemy. Help me make right judgments and the courage to quietly stand on them even if I do it alone. Amen

Slow To Anger

He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit, than he who captures a city.PROVERBS 16:32 NASB

Wow. This flies in the face of what the world has to say. We just aren't encouraged to do this today. I love the echoes of this thought in the father character in Little Women who encourages his children to "conquer themselves"(The book version, not the movie) . I wish more of our stories held the bar up and showed us how to rule our spirit instead of following our own desires.