When My Heart Is Overwhelmed…

 

1 Hear my cry, O God;

Attend to my prayer.

2 From the end of the earth I will cry to You,

When my heart is overwhelmed;

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

3 For You have been a shelter for me,

A strong tower from the enemy.

4 I will abide in Your tabernacle forever;

I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.

Selah—Psalm 61:1-4

I am so grateful this morning that God hears “my” cry.  I am so thankful that He attends to “my” prayer. What a gift that no matter where I am, I can cry out to Him who is higher than I…

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

9 If I take the wings of the morning,

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,

And Your right hand shall hold me.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”

Even the night shall be light about me;—Psalm 139:7-11

I can trust that the One who is always with me, who is good and does good, will lead me in His perfect way. Truly, I will praise Him who when my heart is overwhelmed shelters me in the cleft of the Rock that is Christ. In my insufficiency, He is sufficient. In my weakness, He is strong. 

I will give thanks to the One who is ALWAYS for me, gives me help from trouble and enlarges the path under me so my feet do not slip. He is my strong habitation to which I can continually resort. Today and every day I will trust in the shelter of His wings.  My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise. 

3 Whenever I am afraid,

I will trust in You.—Psalm 56:3

1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!

For my soul trusts in You;

And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,

Until these calamities have passed by.

2 I will cry out to God Most High,

To God who performs all things for me.

3 He shall send from heaven and save me;

He reproaches the one who would swallow me up.

Selah—Psalm 57:1-3

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

3 Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases,

4 Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.—Psalm 103:1-5

27 Why do you say, O Jacob,

And speak, O Israel:

“My way is hidden from the LORD,

And my just claim is passed over by my God”?

28 Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the LORD,

The Creator of the ends of the earth,

Neither faints nor is weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the weak,

And to those who have no might He increases strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall,

31 But those who wait on the LORD

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.—Isaiah 40:27-31

If You Have Run With the Footman…

 

5 “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,

Then how can you contend with horses?

And if in the land of peace,

In which you trusted, they wearied you,

Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?—Jeremiah 12:5

I love and hate this verse all at the same time.  Like Jeremiah, I can feel weary from “running with the footmen”, but therein lies God’s encouragement to Jeremiah and to me!  I HAVE run with the footmen!  I am tired, but I made it through and I didn’t give up!  God is acknowledging Jeremiah’s success and as I read His words to Jeremiah, mine also. The part I hate about this verse is obvious.  God is telling Jeremiah that there will be tougher challenges ahead.  Sigh.  I don’t want tougher challenges. I don’t want to go into the floodplain of the Jordan. 

Beloved…the Bible tells us that in this world we will have tribulation.  Trials and troubles come to all in this world…saved or unsaved.  As believers, the trials we face have meaning and purpose.  As a bonus they also toughen us up for what is to come.  Our “footmen” prepare us for the “horses” that are coming. God never gives us more than we can handle.  Whatever we face in this life, we face in Him and with Him. He goes before us.  He never leaves us.  I look back at my life and what I see is God’s lovingkindness in preparing me back then for the very things that I face today.  HE IS FAITHFUL. Trials are inevitable but in Christ, we are invincible.

Fear not, for I am with you;

Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you,

Yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.—Isaiah 41:10

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

36 As it is written:

"For Your sake we are killed all day long;

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.—Romans 8:31-39

being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;—Philippians 1:6

Father…When I am weary, help me to do as Jeremiah did…help bring my heart to You.  Be my strong habitation to which I can resort continually.  Without You, I can do nothing good. But in You, I can do all things, because You strengthen me. You have seen me through in the past and You will see me through in the days that are still to come. 

All Things Are Lawful...1 Cor 10

 

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. 24 Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being.—1 Corinthians 10:23-24

There are not many qualities more lovely or more like Christ than when unselfishness and self-sacrifice are lived out among His people. Love does not seek its own...it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things...love is eternal...it never fails.  It has its Christlike effect here, and because it is eternal, its effect goes before us into eternity.  Loving someone with this kind of love bears lasting fruit.  

As a Christian, I do have freedom.  My freedom was purchased by the precious blood of my Jesus who gave Himself for me.  Paul says rightly that all things are lawful for him, but not all things build up and some things can lead us back to our old Master...Satan.  He reminded the Corinthians of this earlier in Chapter 6 verse 12. 

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

We who have died with Christ are now His slaves unto righteousness. We are no longer in bondage to sin. We have the freedom not to sin. 

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.—Romans 6:5-11

In our freedom we also have a responsibility to those who are weaker in the faith. Some of the things that I am free to do, might lead another to go against his conscience and fall into sin.  (For whatever is not from faith is sin).  As a member of the body of Christ it is my job to always build the other members up and seek their advantage over my own. As Christ followers than, love is our rule of law.  Love is the one thing that we always owe and is never repaid.  Love edifies. Love fulfills the law because it does no harm to a neighbor. 

Father,  thank you for the freedom you have given me in Your Son.  Thank you that I have been set free from sin through faith in my Jesus. Thank you that by Your Spirit’s power, I have the freedom NOT to sin!  May I glorify You today by living out the truth of what I believe. May my actions follow what my heart believes!   May all I do today be done in love and for Your glory. Praying that by the means of the Spirit’s power within me, I use my freedom to build others up by loving them with Your self-sacrificing love. May I treat them the way You, my God, have treated me. 

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!—Galatians 5:13-15

Be Merciful to Me, O God…

 

1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!

For my soul trusts in You;

And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,

Until these calamities have passed by.

2 I will cry out to God Most High,

To God who performs all things for me.

3 He shall send from heaven and save me;

He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah

God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.

7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;

I will sing and give praise. —Psalm 57:1-3; 7

I love thinking that spiritually speaking it is God who performs all things for me.  It is my God who works in me both to will and to do for His good pleasure. 

In his self-sufficiency he will be in distress;

Every hand of misery will come against him.—Job 20:22

I so desire to rest in Him.  I didn’t work to save my own soul…Christ is my Savior.  So often though, I worry about being insufficient to get through this life…about not being able to keep up…about not being able to hold on or keep my head above the waves.  Instead of fearing this though, what I really should FEAR is doing this life in my strength.  

Praying today that I will never again look inwardly for wisdom and strength but look to my God who sees me, looks after me and  performs all things for me. Oh Father! You are my Helper.  You are my strength, my shield and my exceedingly great reward. Help me to look to You in all things!  Give me a steadfast heart. Let my entire reliance be fixed on you.  Today, I will cast the burden of all my cares and insufficiency on You who perfects that which concerns me and performs all things for me.

The LORD will perfect that which concerns me—Psalm 138:8

It is God who arms me with strength,

And makes my way perfect.—Psalm 18:32

I will cry out to God Most High,

To God who performs all things for me.—Psalm 57:2

I love thinking that spiritually speaking it is God who performs all things for me.  It is my God who works in me both to will and to do for His good pleasure. 

In his self-sufficiency he will be in distress;

Every hand of misery will come against him.—Job 20:22

I so desire to rest in Him.  I didn’t work to save my own soul…Christ is my Savior.  So often though, I worry about being insufficient to get through this life…about not being able to keep up…about not being able to hold on or keep my head above the waves.  Instead of fearing this though, what I really should FEAR is doing this life in my strength.  

Praying today that I will never again look inwardly for wisdom and strength but look to my God who sees me, looks after me and  performs all things for me. Oh Father! You are my Helper.  You are my strength, my shield and my exceedingly great reward. Help me to look to You in all things!  Give me a steadfast heart. Let my entire reliance be fixed on you.  Today, I will cast the burden of all my cares and insufficiency on You who perfects that which concerns me and performs all things for me.

The LORD will perfect that which concerns me—Psalm 138:8

It is God who arms me with strength,

And makes my way perfect.—Psalm 18:32