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In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
My times are in Your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me. Let Your face shine on Your servant; save me in Your unfailing love. Let me not be put to shame, Lord, for I have cried out to You; but let the wicked be put to shame and be silent in the realm of the dead. Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly against the righteous.
How abundant are the good things that You have stored up for those who fear You, that You bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in You. In the shelter of Your presence You hide them from all human intrigues; You keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues.
Praise be to the Lord, for He showed me the wonders of His love when I was in a city under siege. In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!” Yet You heard my cry for mercy when I called to You for help.
Love the Lord, all His faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to Him, but the proud He pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
Psalm 31:15-24
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Time. We all have it. In fact, we all get 24 hours a day.
We reference everything to time, don’t we?
We go to work at a certain time, for a certain number of hours, and finish at a later time.
We attend meetings and events that are held at a given time that everyone who needs to attend is aware of. We know what time we need to be there, how long of a time we will be there, and the time of the next item on our schedule.
We try and make sure we have time to exercise and adequate time to sleep to take care of our bodies so we can achieve all we hope to do with the rest of our time.
And in times when health might fade, we even are given some opinion on how much time we have left.
Yes, there isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t consider the matter of time. But do we consider who is in control of that time?
For some, they may see this question as a no brainer. This is because they believe that they control everything about their lives to include how they use their time.
But what does the Bible say about it? We get a glimpse as we look at the remainder of the 31st Psalm. Let’s look at the scriptures:
My times are in Your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me. Let Your face shine on Your servant; save me in Your unfailing love. Let me not be put to shame, Lord, for I have cried out to You; but let the wicked be put to shame and be silent in the realm of the dead. Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly against the righteous.
How abundant are the good things that You have stored up for those who fear You, that You bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in You. In the shelter of Your presence You hide them from all human intrigues; You keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues.
Praise be to the Lord, for He showed me the wonders of His love when I was in a city under siege. In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!” Yet You heard my cry for mercy when I called to You for help.
Love the Lord, all His faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to Him, but the proud He pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
What were David’s first five words in this passage? He wrote, “My times are in Your hands.”
There was no question to David as to who was in control of his life, who controlled his time. It was the Lord and the Lord alone. David’s time was in God’s hands and so is yours and mine. The same Lord that held David’s times in hand holds ours as well. We are not in control, not even close.
So what benefits come from this, from realizing God holds our time in His Almighty Hands?
Look back to the words of David and you can pinpoint some of them.
For with the Lord at the wheel of our life, leading us through the time He controls, we, like David, will find ourselves experiencing the following:
1. Blessings
“How abundant are the good things that You have stored up for those who fear You, that You bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in You.”
When we surrender our time to the One who holds it in His hands, we realize the fullest measure of His blessings. The words from this Psalm speak to the abundance of good things that the Lord stores up for us when we respect and honor Him with all that we are and with all of our time.
Remember that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father (James 1:17), the Father who holds our time in His hands.
2. Amazing love.
“He showed me the wonders of His love.”
As we experience all the abundant blessings that God bestows on us over time, we realize how deeply He loves us. The Lord is ever showing us the wonders of His love.
Truly, that love is as amazing as the grace we so freely receive, a grace made possible through the death and resurrection of God’s only Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. God so loved the world He created that He chose to give up Jesus as a living sacrifice to pay the debt for the sins of the world. That truly is a wondrous love, a love that went on to offer eternal life to anyone who placed their faith and trust in Jesus.
In other words, God, through Jesus, offers us eternity, or all the time we could ever dream of, and we get to spend that time with Him and Jesus.
Remember, God holds our times in His hands, now and forever.
3. Preservation.
“The Lord preserves those who are true to Him.”
Life isn’t always easy. Our times can be challenging and could leave us hopeless if we didn’t have the assurance of God being with us, of holding our time in His hands.
But look at the words of David.
When we are true to God, we find He is true to us. He holds our time in His hands and in doing so holds our life as well. He sustains us and preserves us during all the time He grants while we’re in the world, and through Christ Jesus, we are preserved forever.
4. Safety.
“In the shelter of Your presence You hide them from all human intrigues; You keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues.”
God preserves us during our times and He does so by providing His shelter against those who wish to do us harm. In that we are blessed. For think about it, who else would we want to have on our side than God Himself? I can’t think of anyone or anything.
Yes, everything is referenced by time in life. When we know God has our time in His hands, then we know that our times, and in turn our lives, are referenced in and through Him, the Lord who brings us blessings, amazing love, preservation, and safety.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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