All That I Am

Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

Psalm 103:1 NLT

This psalm plays melodiously on every fiber of my being! As I was reading it, it magnified within me. Come! Praise the Lord with me!

2 Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.
3 He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.
4 He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
5 He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

6 The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

7 He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
9 He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever.
10 He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.

11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

12 He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

13 The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
14 For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.
15 Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
16 The wind blows, and we are gone—as though we had never been here.
17 But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children 18 of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!

19 The Lord has made the heavens his throne; from there he rules over everything.

20 Praise the Lord, you angels, you mighty ones who carry out his plans, listening for each of his commands.
21 Yes, praise the Lord, you armies of angels who serve him and do his will!
22 Praise the Lord, everything he has created, everything in all his kingdom.

Let all that I am praise the Lord.

Prayer:

Father, 

          We don't want to forget or take for granted all that You have done for us! We extol Your goodness and faithfulness to us! As we lift our praise to You, may it be a sweet sound in Your ear. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Fighting Fire with Fire

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
Isaiah 43:1-3a ESV

I have always read our Scripture for today in light of when we're going through tough times that we will not be overcome by them, but rather we would overcome. And that's true, because His is also the Refiner's fire, burning out the dross, making us pure. It is the fire of purification. 

However, lately I've been thinking about God as a consuming fire and how if we want to be on fire for the Lord, we need to be closer to Him. Nothing can stand in the presence of God's holiness. I think the closer we get to God - the more we get in His presence - the more the junk in our lives is consumed and destroyed by His fire. 

Hebrews 1:7 reads, He sends His angels like the winds; His servants like flames of fire.  Don't you want to be sent like flames of fire to do His will - to fight the fires of hell in this world with the fire of God's holiness? Deuteronomy 4:24 tells us, For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Prayer:

Father,

           Light us up, Lord! Let Your fire so burn in us until every distraction, every other attraction is completely consumed like so much chaff. And then send us, Father, as flames of fire to accomplish Your will on Earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

To Be or Not to Be

So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

1^st Peter 1:14-16 NLT

Other than Christ, I don’t know one person alive today who has never sinned. And I think that’s one of satan’s most effective weapons in discouraging and attempting to defeat us. See? You can’t even go one day without sinning… You call yourself a Christian and you did that?  

Has anyone other than me ever heard anything like that in your head?

So how can we be holy? What does it mean to be holy? For Christians, it’s about being consecrated in our service to God and being conformed to His will in all aspects of life. How can we be holy like Jesus when He never once sinned? Oh, yeah, He was tempted in all the same ways – Hebrews 4:15 tells us, This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.   Romans 6:19b&c tells us how we become holy; Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

But how do we know it is working? Well, personal holiness is a work in progress - verse 21, And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.  I don’t know any followers of Christ who are thrilled with what they did when they were sinners. Verse 22 reads, But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.

It’s a matter of walking it out and our Christian walk is continually under attack. Sometimes, we grab on to the latest-greatest motivational speaker or system in an effort to make us feel good about ourselves. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with motivation, but I would offer a word of caution about espousing man-made ideas and ideals as our standard for living and building our self-esteem. They always seem to want to offer the easy way to it or out of it, which is directly opposed to Scripture.

God’s Word is full of instruction to watch and pray, persevere, endure. 2nd Timothy 4:3-5 NKJV reads, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

God made The Way out of sin and into His holiness – Ephesians 1:4, Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eye. He’s done all the hard parts. Our hardest part is to choose His way over ours. So which is it to be?  

Prayer:

Father,

           We can do this easy or we can do this hard. Help us to follow Your design for holiness. Give us courage and endurance and guide us into Your wisdom and Truth of being holy as You are holy. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen