Archive for August, 2022
Know and Understand
We cannot say on one hand that we understand and know God, while we live in a way that denies His Lordship and authority over our lives. So it naturally follows then that to understand and know God means we will begin to appreciate His ways and act in accordance with His character. This creates increasing spiritual maturity and will bring glory to Him. By the way, understanding and knowing God is not a once for all thing. We don’t “arrive” to a place in this life where we fully understand and know God. That’s impossible. In fact, we will spend eternity understanding and knowing God in far greater detail than we ever will in this life. It is an ongoing process, but of course it will be far easier to accomplish this in the next life when our sin nature has been excised from us and as we are given new, glorified bodies.
What God Wants
One thing I know. I want to be sure that, one way or another, His will and only His will is accomplished. The last thing I want to hear the day I stand before Him is that I failed to walk through a door that He had held open for me. What a huge disappointment to me that would be.
Don’t Forget the IF…
It seems clear enough as far as God is concerned, that the Israelites did things outwardly to appear holy and righteous while they actually called into contempt man and God. They fasted, but they completely ignored the heavy burdens that some Israelites were carrying. Some Israelites were forced to beg and no other Israelites would come to their aid, ignoring them.
Anxious? Confused? Fearful?
Habakkuk 3 begins with the prophet’s prayer to the Lord. Habakkuk heard God’s complaint and understood coming judgment was due to the need to purge evil from Israel. Certainly, the nation had been given plenty of opportunities because God is righteous as well as sovereign. There is no way God could continue to overlook the tremendous and continuing evil that existed within Israel. It had become a tremendous stench in God’s nostrils, which required Him to deal with it.
Welcoming the Enemy
Finally, bathe your life in prayer throughout the day. Make sure you are in constant communication with God. Don’t try to do this on your own. Psalm 37 tells us in part to “Trust the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness.” The implication is that we are to ignore or not be taken down by evil but instead focus on doing good and trusting the Lord to provide for us.
The more we trust Him, the more faithful He will appear to us.
What Does the Lord Delight In?
Simply put, God is pleased when a person makes the correct decision to do the correct things. Remember how often I’ve talked about fearing the Lord? We need to remember to place the word “offending” after the word “fear” and before “the Lord” to get the gist of what the Psalmist is saying. “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear (offending) Him…” This is not the fear of God pouring out His wrath or anger on us for slipping up. It’s the idea that our devotion to and love for God is so great that we simply do not want to cause Him any grief through our words, thoughts, or actions.
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