Walking in Faith

God is my refuge, my fortress and my rock. He will deliver me (v3), He will cover me (v4) and I will not fear (v5). He does this because of His deep love for me. I don’t deserve this. I have done nothing in my life that would warrant God being my protect and yet He does so willingly. What does that tell me about my God? He loves me even though I have done nothing to deserve it. Certainly, I can relate that to my wife and my kids. It doesn’t matter what they do, what they say, or how they act — I will always love them. Pride gets in the way with man and that is when the actions of our loved ones start to affect our relationship. Unless we have a deep rooted belief that God will leave us because we have done something wrong, we are lying to ourselves. We are made in the image (characteristics) of God. He forgives us time and time again no matter what we do or say (save perhaps sinning against the Spirit). Yet, we consistently find it difficult to forgive. We find it easier (and more comfortable) to find ways out of a situation instead of forgiving and returning to that person. To take an extreme example, if one of my kid’s murdered someone, would I forgive them and still love them? Absolutely. Would I be terribly saddened by the loss and the sin? Of course! I know this is an extreme example but it is relevant to how God forgives us. I don’t think many would argue that if a person was on death row but truly repented of their sins and asked Christ into their heart, God would forgive them and accept them into His family. Why should it be different for us? Are we more advanced, more knowledgeable, more just than He? Of course not! We must listen to our Father and be obedient to Him more than anything else. That means that we follow His example of forgiving, His example of providing though not worthy. I am not worthy of my wife but God has a different plan in place. I am blessed just to have her in my life.

Verses 11 through 13 are incredibly interesting to ponder…

For He will command His angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder;
    the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

God loves me so much that He has put me a step above the angels. He has them working to protect me. He will work on their hands to protect me and provide for me. That is an extremely humbling thought. Angels are the heavenly hosts and yet they working for the Lord to provide for me. God is so gracious and forgiving. He does all of this even though I sin against Him countless times every single day. I am amazed by His grace and His love. I have so much to learn and so much growing to do in order to truly serve the Lord with all of my heart, with all of your mind and with all of my soul.

The end of this Psalm is the part that really peaks my interest, however… “Because He holds fast to me in love…”

1. He will deliver me.
2. He will protect me.
3. He will answer me when I call.
4. He will be with me.
5. He will rescue me.
6. He will honor me.
7. He will satisfy me.
8. He will show me His salvation.

Thank you, Father God, for doing all of this for me when I have done nothing to deserve you. Thank you for your great love and compassion. I pray that I can live my life every single day in a way that is closer and closer to the way You call me to live. I pray that the light I can shine into people’s lives would be Your light instead of a worldly light. I thank you, Father, for Your great Word that motivates and inspires me beyond my imagination. You are amazing! Thank you, Father.

This Psalm is packed full with words that tell of the greatness of the Lord!  It is hard for me to wrap my mind around all of the things that really stood out to me in this passage.

For God alone my soul waits in silence — David’s soul wasn’t waiting for any other man.  He wasn’t waiting for some moment of grandeur to come over him where he felt larger than life.  He knew that God alone was the Creator and Judge of life.  His soul wanted nothing more than to be with God.  Even when he was at “peak”, David wanted his soul to be with God.  He was living with an eternal perspective in mind.  Since it has been two days since I have done quiet time, it is obvious that I am not living like that.  Whether under attack or living in sin, I know better yet I am stumble.  I have to live every single day as if it were the last.  I don’t know when Jesus will return, but He will return.  He will judge the living and the dead and I have to be prepared.  Living with an eternal perspective in mind is key!

from [God] comes my salvation — Praise the Lord for that!  Salvation is a gift, not something we earn or deserve.  God’s grace is better than anything we can fathom.  He loves us so much that He has provided a way for us from under this sin.  He provided the gift of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and was resurrected three days later.  This gift is the gift of our salvation!  If we truly believe in Christ Jesus and the punishment that He took for us, we can know our own salvation!  How amazing and wonderful!

He only is my rock and my salvation — Once again, only God is the way.  He is the only one that can provide for us, protect us and lift us up.  He alone gives us a way out from under sin.  He knows what we are struggling with and provides us for us to escape.  We have to be obedient and we have to listen.  If we aren’t listening to the Lord, we will find ourselves listening to ourselves (which we all know is fallible, even evil).

Impact Verse:

Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us

I should trust in the Lord at all times.  He knows everything and knows what I truly need to hear.  My wife, my best friends, my mother, everyone else falls way short of that.  They tell me what their opinion is, or even what they think I may want to hear.  God does not worry about my opinion or impression of Him.  He knows that He is greater than I and He is perfect.  Instead of pouring out my life into games, work, or other useless priorities, I need to pour out my life into the Lord.  I need to spend more time with Him every single day!  I need to read His Word more often, pray more often.  I need to listen to Him closely and know that He is walking with me.

Father, remove this burden from me of false idols.  I want to have a fire inside for you.  I want my deepest desire to be you.  I want to want to spend time with you — not out of requirement, but out of love.  Give me a heart that desires you, Lord.  Soften my hard heart and make me love You the way You love me.  You know my heart and You know my soul.  Work on me so that I would draw closer to You — walking closer to you, listening to you and praising you above all other things and people!

In one week, Hill Country Bible Church (HCBC) Hutto will launch.  This is no insignificant task.  This is something we have been planning for a few months now and will finalize come to some level of closure in just a few short days.  I am simply amazed at what I have seen happen.  God is certainly at work in this church and it is amazing to see!

The families that are coming together to plant this church have overwhelmed me with their generosity, their compassion, and their heart for reaching Hutto.  I am not sure if everyone who is involved can see (or even feel) it but it is simply overwhelming to me to experience.  Words simply cannot explain the way my heart starts to feel as I think about the church plant.  My heart starts to race and I get nervous.  Not in a bad way, but in that extremely anxious way.  To be honest, I am nervous about making sure that everything is as smooth as possible so that any families that come to visit have an awesome experience.  I want families in Hutto to have a chance to worship the magnificent Creator of the universe.  I want to give them the best experience they can possibly have at our church.  I don’t want to do that to bring glory to me or to the casts of people that are making it happen, but to bring glory to God for what He is able to do. 

Our first “practice” service is this Sunday.  This is a service (or services) where we will test out the waters to make sure that we all have our i’s dotted and our t’s crossed.  Everyone I have worked with wants very much to provide a very positive worship experience for everyone involved.  It is incredible to see all of the servants hearts as the weeks (and now days) progress.  The scary part is attendance.  We know how many families have committed to the church but we don’t know if we will have 10 visitors, 100 visitors or 500 visitors.  God is certainly up to something huge here and I just pray that His will is done and that He is pleased with what we have done and are going to continue to do.

Feel free to swing by and visit us!  You can find out more information at http://www.hcbchutto.com/.

God did everything for Israel — He won the battles, He brought them out of captivity, He rescued them from Egypt.  When you stop and think about what the Israelites did, it is rather humbling.  Stories such as Gideon’s men (Judges 7) where God took the troops from 32,000 people to 300 people and allowed them to defeat Midian whose men were as numerous as the sand on the seashore.  It is truly humbling when you think about it!

This becomes very important to me as I am challenged with work and a new boss.  I am trying to figure out what my role will be.  Instead of praying about it and asking God to give me clarity and a peace about my job, I am trying to manipulate and control the people around me to do what I think is right.  That is where I go wrong.  I need to trust that the Lord has a plan for me and He will open the right doors and close other doors to guide on the right path.  Prayer is the answer!  Patience is the answer!  Humility is the answer!  I know what gifts God has given me and what I can do with those gifts at work.  I don’t need to be a braggart or over confident.  God has a plan at work here and He will use me as He sees fit.  Old manager, new manager or managers forthcoming cannot thwart His objectives for me.  That is so reassuring! 

Father God, thank you for providing for me.  You always provide fr me.  You don’t test me, but you allow me to make mistakes.  You love me like a father loves his son only more perfect.  I have to trust You to provide for me and put my life in Your hands.  I should be self-confident but humble at the same time.  Father, guide my ways.  Teach me how to walk in Your light and not the light of the world.  As I travel to another country to meet with my new manager, give me clarity on the role You want me to take.  Give my family a peace about that role and what that means to us.  Make it abundantly clear that this is Your doing and Your objective for me.  Father, I pray for a clear understanding of Your will in my life.  I pray this is Jesus Christ’s holy and precious name.  Amen.

Once again, Challies writes on a topic that really hits home with me: Selfish prayer.  Prayer is something that I have a hard time doing in a way that I feel is pleasing to God.  If I recount the typical day, I pray maybe two or three times.

One of the times I typically pray is before I begin my quiet time.  In that time, I praise God for who He is and what He does.  Sometimes (but sadly, not always), I move to asking for forgiveness of my sins.  I remember when a pastor once explained to the congregation how essential it is for us to prepare our hearts before the Lord when we pray.  This is an essential step and yet so often left out by me.  Then it is time to move on to me!  I mean, after all, prayer is all about me asking God for things, right?  Yeah, right.  While I know better, the evidence of my prayer life would shout much louder than my words right now. I will spend a bit of time asking for Him to help change me and give me a heart that searches after Him.  I ask for wisdom from His Word — I ask that He helps me understand what I am about to read and that I really learn from it.  At this point, one of two things happens: 1) I start to lose focus and begin tinkering with something (pen, paper, anything around) or 2) I close the prayer and move on.  Don’t get me wrong — I am a firm believer that everyone should pray before beginning quiet time and ask for clarity and inspiration from the Spirit; however, prayer should not end there.

Another time I will typically pray during the day is when I close my quiet time.  This time is even worse than the previous.  What do I do?  Close in prayer thanking God for His Word, and sometimes going over what I previously read.  More Godly wisdom from one of the elders at my church commented that when we read God’s Word, we should pray back to Him what we “hear”.  Why?  Because we are conversing with the Lord Almighty.  Just like any conversation, it is important that both people understand what the other is saying.  Don’t make assumptions and then walk away thinking you understood what they were saying when they were trying to tell you something completely different.  Typical communication issues, right?  God is perfect but we are fallible and will misrepresent what we hear because of our preconceived ideas and notions.

On my “best” days, I will pray about people close to me, people I don’t know, situational assistance, etc.  Of course, my best day’s are probably once a month.  Certainly not what I believe God expects or desires from me.

A comment on Challies blog I think hit home with me the most, however.  The author, who goes by simply “D”, commented:

Consider prayer as your child asking for something. Most of the time it revolves around himself/herself. Dad, can I have a pony, an Xbox, and motorcycle. If they persist, you sometimes give in.

But when your little child looks beyond his or her own needs and asks you to help others, or asks to spend time with you or go fishing, doesn’t it simply warm your heart?

God does give good gifts, but as we grow, we look at others and at God with increased love and our prayers follow our heart. Read pauls prayers for the churches and for himself. His prayers were focused on increased love, grace, and peace.

How true and how this hits home!!  I think this will stand out in my mind more than nearly everything else as I think about my next prayer.

John Piper suggests that perhaps we should pray for ourselves and then move outward in concentric circles… pray for your family, your church, your neighborhood, your state, country, etc.  The other key is to pray Scripture — God’s Word.  Yeah, that would be ideal, wouldn’t it?  There is another point for me to work on!

Another great resource that John Piper shares with us is how to pray for the pastoral staff.  The lessons from this article apply to all prayer and should be used by everyone.