PRESERVATION NOW AND FOREVER

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk.com.

In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

My soul faints with longing for Your salvation, but I have put my hope in Your word. My eyes fail, looking for Your promise; I say, “When will you comfort me?”

Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget Your decrees.

How long must Your servant wait? When will You punish my persecutors? The arrogant dig pits to trap me, contrary to Your law.

All Your commands are trustworthy; help me, for I am being persecuted without cause. They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken Your precepts.

In your unfailing love preserve my life, that I may obey the statutes of Your mouth.

Psalm 119:81-88

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes an incredible amount of perseverance to endure the things life brings before us and sometimes we just find ourselves worn out by it all. Maybe you can relate.

I know the longer I live, the more I look forward to the day when I will receive the salvation promises granted in the scriptures and be free from the things of the world that can afflict, frustrate, stress, humiliate, and often oppress us. And I give thanks to Jesus our Savior that we can have that kind of hope to cling to, a hope presented through His death and resurrection, a hope that leads us to see that we will be preserved eternally through the victory we have in Him.

But what do we do in the interim, in the time of waiting between now and that day when we will experience our promised salvation?

The answer is that we remember that we are preserved in the here and now by the God and Father who promised us that He would always be with us and because of that truth, no one can stand against us (Romans 8:31).

The psalmist certainly understood this fact well as we look at our scripture excerpt from the 119th Psalm. Consider these words:

My soul faints with longing for Your salvation, but I have put my hope in Your word. My eyes fail, looking for Your promise; I say, “When will you comfort me?”

Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget Your decrees.

How long must Your servant wait? When will You punish my persecutors? The arrogant dig pits to trap me, contrary to Your law.

All Your commands are trustworthy; help me, for I am being persecuted without cause. They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken Your precepts.

In your unfailing love preserve my life, that I may obey the statutes of Your mouth.

The psalmist knew his hope was in the Lord and so he asked for the Lord’s preservation as He longed for the salvation to come. And notice that he wasn’t asking for preservation so he could just sit idle waiting for salvation to come. No, the psalmist wished to be preserved so he could obey the word of the Lord. He not only longed for preservation and salvation but also for obedience. He strongly desired to conform himself to God’s will and way for Him. We should do likewise.

This all seems easy enough but note that life wasn’t just going to allow the psalmist to have these yearnings unopposed. No, he was up against adversity.

We read where he was being persecuted without cause. Maybe you have been there. I know I have. He also was under attack by arrogant people who wished to dig pits and trap him. He even confessed that his enemies almost wiped him from the face of the earth, but they failed evident by his presence to write the words of the psalm. Indeed, the Lord did preserve him.

The Lord preserves us as well. He is ever present to help us deal with the challenges of life and will never let us down. He and He alone is our hope now and forever. In Him, we, like the psalmist, are preserved now and forever.

So what are we to do with life as we face trials and tribulations? Drawing from our psalm, I suggest the following five things:

1. We are to trust that God can handle everything and anything we’ll ever go through. We are to also trust His promises for they all are kept.

2. We are to wait for the Lord to carry out His perfect work in, around, and through us.

3. We are to seek God’s will and way, no matter our circumstances.

4. We are to learn from His word and Holy Spirit as we study the Bible daily.

5. We are to ever maintain and sustain hope, a hope granted through the salvation promise of Jesus, the Way and the Truth and the Life, the only way to the Father (John 14:6). For it’s in this hope, that we see ourselves as we are, victorious with our lives preserved now and forever by the Father and His Son Jesus.

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