Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
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.
Do not withhold Your mercy from me, Lord; may Your love and faithfulness always protect me. For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me.
May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”, be appalled at their own shame. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in You; may those who long for Your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”
But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; You are my God, do not delay.
Psalm 40:11-17
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Maybe one of the hardest things for a person to do is to give an honest opinion about themselves. There just seems to be something hard about reflecting and looking deep within, critiquing who we are.
Maybe this is because of pride. We are too proud to admit we are failing in some facet of life.
Maybe this is because we are insecure. We don’t want to analyze ourselves in truth because we’re too apprehensive about what that analysis might show.
Or maybe we just don’t care about the way we are. We are who we are and so what’s the sense of dwelling on it. It’s just a waste of time and counterproductive.
There could be any number of reasons why we don’t examine ourselves more closely but I’ll give you one main reason why we should do it, no matter how many reasons we might come up with for not doing so.
For when we honestly assess ourselves and truly see who we are, we see that we can’t possibly be the people God wants us to be without Him.
In other words, if we’re ever going to hope to be the people the Lord created us to be, we have to see ourselves as we are, helpless and hopeless without Him first and foremost leading our lives.
David had this all figured out. We see so as we read the verses from today’s passage. Look at what David writes:
Do not withhold Your mercy from me, Lord; may Your love and faithfulness always protect me. For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me.
May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”, be appalled at their own shame. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in You; may those who long for Your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”
But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; You are my God, do not delay.
David saw himself for who he truly was before God Almighty and his words should be words that any of us would write as well. How did David view himself?
1. As a sinner.
“My sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.”
David saw himself as falling well short of the Lord’s mercy, grace, and love because of His sinfulness. This is why he asks this of God:
“Do not withhold Your mercy from me, Lord; may Your love and faithfulness always protect me.”
By seeing who he was, David saw he was in dire need of the Lord’s faithful mercy, love, and protection.
2. As poor and needy.
“But as for me, I am poor and needy.”
David was the king of Israel. How could he be poor and needy?
Obviously, David was speaking about his spiritual condition. All the worldly power he possessed on the throne could not make him spiritually wealthy. He could only start to find riches there by trusting and believing in the Lord Almighty who David asked to think of him.
So what came from this, from David seeing himself for who he was? What resulted from David humbly acknowledging his state, a state that was sinful and poor and needy?
He realized his dependence on a God who could do all things for him. Instead of self reliance, David learned a full dependence on the God who placed him on the throne in the first place, the God who David professed as his Protector, his Help, His Deliverer, and His Savior.
Yes, David had a great appreciation for all God was to him but to get there, he had to first see himself as who he truly was.
How about you today?
Have you stepped back from your pride and egotism to constructively evaluate who you really are?
If so, I can say with full confidence that you will be left convicted and feeling like David, feeling poor and needy and unworthy of God’s favor. It’s not a pleasant feeling but one we have to have so we can best appreciate all we receive from the Lord who always stands ready to give us all we need and everything we could ever hope for in accordance with His will and way.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment