Blessed be the Name of Lord O! my soul and forget not all goodness. Praise the Lord O! my soul and all that is within me praise His Holy Name, for indeed He had done great things in my life, family, career and ministry. Thank You Gracious God.
I will praise Thee from everlasting, everlasting to everlasting. What about you dearie beloved? Do you know in the beginning, God’s original plan is for us to tend the garden and not to till the ground but when Satan outsmarted our first parents, the modus operandi changed and here we are with so much to do just to survive and little time for fellowship with the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Listen, despite all that we have to do, our brother David, encouraged us to delight ourselves in the Lord. This is true essence of worship. Our relationship with the Lord should not be a routine neither should it be a duty but it should signifies joy in the Holy Ghost.
What I am putting across to you is that, it does not matter what you are going through, it does not matter where the storms of life has landed you, nor does it matter what the situation is right now or whether your bank account is in red. Once you come into His presence, all those burdens should be left behind or better still you lift it up to Him, the burden bearer and worship like never before.
Our God is not a wicked God Who wants to see His children suffers, His hands are neither short nor His ears deaf, He is the Living God and will attain to all, if only you will look up to Him alone and fret not (Ps 50:3).
Beloved, you will delight yourself before God with a cleanse hand and a purified heart so that your prayers and praises will be accepted by God.
“Delight thyself also in the Lord.” Psalm 37:4
The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are strangers to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only the inculcation of a recognized truth. The life of the believer is here described as a delight in God, and we are thus certified of the great fact that true religion overflows with happiness and joy.
Ungodly persons and mere professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either that they may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do otherwise. The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in their language stand further apart than “holiness” and “delight.”
But believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them. They who love God with all their hearts, find that His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. Such joys, such brimful delights, such overflowing blessednesses, do the saints discover in their Lord, that so far from serving Him from custom, they would follow Him though all the world cast out His name as evil.
We fear not God because of any compulsion; our faith is no fetter, our profession is no bondage, we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty. No, our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, and our duty is our delight. Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower; as indivisible as truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious jewels glittering side by side in a setting of gold.
Beloved, we are not bound by the region we profess, rather we find true freedom, true liberty (2 Cor 3:17) in our relation with God, His son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. But there is a catchall here, In Gal 5:13 and 1 Pet 2:16, we are warned not misuse the freedom we obtain in Christ Jesus, so watch it, my dear the way you live:
“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face… because we have sinned against Thee.” Daniel 9:8
A deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness, and the punishment which it deserves, should make us lie low before the throne. We have sinned as Christians. Alas! that it should be so. Favoured as we have been, we have yet been ungrateful: privileged beyond most, we have not brought forth fruit in proportion. Who is there, although he may long have been engaged in the Christian warfare, that will not blush when he looks back upon the past?
As for our days before we were regenerated, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though we have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and against love—light which has really penetrated our minds, and love in which we have rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of a pardoned soul! An unpardoned sinner sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God’s own elect ones, who has had communion with Christ and leaned his head upon Jesus’ bosom.
Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I pray you look at his repentance, and hear his broken bones, as each one of them moans out its dolorous confession! Mark his tears, as they fall upon the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the softened music of his harp!
We have erred: let us, therefore, seek the spirit of penitence. Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter’s denying his Master. Remember, it is written, “He wept bitterly.” Have we no denials of our Lord to be lamented with tears? Alas! these sins of ours, before and after conversion, would consign us to the place of inextinguishable fire if it were not for the sovereign mercy which has made us to differ, snatching us like brands from the burning.
My soul, bow down under a sense of thy natural sinfulness, and worship thy God. Admire the grace which saves thee—the mercy which spares thee—the love which pardons thee!
This is a call to retrospect in your journey of life, wherever you have erred, repent of it. Be humble enough to say “you are sorry, Lord” and like the prodigal son, return back to your Father, for He will welcome you back with great feast. Sing along with me as we meditate on the “Grace” that found us out:
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound—
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see. (Click here to continue )
Remain blessed in the Lord.
