A Year Through God's Eyes
Monday, July 5, 2010
From the "I'm not there yet files"
Psalm 26:2-Put me on trial Lord, and cross examine me. Test my motives and affections.
I'm fairly confident in saying that I'm nowhere close to being able to make this verse my life verse. On the plus side, I wish I were able to.
This is another of those verses that if I allow myself to stop and meditate on it for any amount of time, it scares the poo out of me. There's a reason why people cry out in Revelation for God to bury them under the mountains. Do it yourself. Take a moment to fully understand what David is asking of God. He's saying, "I don't want to be a lip-service Christian." I don't either. There's way too many of us! Lip-service Christians don't change the world. They don't even affect those around them. In fact, they take comfort in blending in. I think that's why David finishes this psalm with "I have taken a stand."
He's also asking a very dangerous thing: he asks God to test him. At this point in his life, David is king over all of Israel, lives in great comfort, hardly wants for anything. He can go wherever he pleases, whenever he wishes. He has a nice place to live, a stable full of horses, a stable full of wives, a pantry that is well stocked, an above average income. Sound familiar at all? Sometimes I think we forget how rich we are and how much we live like kings and queens. We don't always see it because our surroundings tell us to continue pushing higher, faster, harder, but all that brings us is more of the world. Imagine the horrifyingly wonderful things God could do if we asked Him to test us. He might take our home, our family, our belongings, or maybe move our dark secret sins into the light. Everything that you hold dear in this world could be ripped away from you before you ever have time to process that it has happened, all because you asked God to test you. If that were to happen to you, how would you react? A person who has nothing to lose is a very dangerous person, but also very open to listening. If you lost everything, would you listen? Would you hear God telling you how He's faithful, how much He loves you, that His Son died FOR YOU? Would you allow Him to bless you with the eternal rather than the momentary? Would you cling to Him and would it sink in finally that He really is all you ever needed?
I'm fairly confident in saying that I'm nowhere close to being able to make this verse my life verse. On the plus side, I wish I were able to.
This is another of those verses that if I allow myself to stop and meditate on it for any amount of time, it scares the poo out of me. There's a reason why people cry out in Revelation for God to bury them under the mountains. Do it yourself. Take a moment to fully understand what David is asking of God. He's saying, "I don't want to be a lip-service Christian." I don't either. There's way too many of us! Lip-service Christians don't change the world. They don't even affect those around them. In fact, they take comfort in blending in. I think that's why David finishes this psalm with "I have taken a stand."
He's also asking a very dangerous thing: he asks God to test him. At this point in his life, David is king over all of Israel, lives in great comfort, hardly wants for anything. He can go wherever he pleases, whenever he wishes. He has a nice place to live, a stable full of horses, a stable full of wives, a pantry that is well stocked, an above average income. Sound familiar at all? Sometimes I think we forget how rich we are and how much we live like kings and queens. We don't always see it because our surroundings tell us to continue pushing higher, faster, harder, but all that brings us is more of the world. Imagine the horrifyingly wonderful things God could do if we asked Him to test us. He might take our home, our family, our belongings, or maybe move our dark secret sins into the light. Everything that you hold dear in this world could be ripped away from you before you ever have time to process that it has happened, all because you asked God to test you. If that were to happen to you, how would you react? A person who has nothing to lose is a very dangerous person, but also very open to listening. If you lost everything, would you listen? Would you hear God telling you how He's faithful, how much He loves you, that His Son died FOR YOU? Would you allow Him to bless you with the eternal rather than the momentary? Would you cling to Him and would it sink in finally that He really is all you ever needed?
posted by Nathan at 9:04 PM
1 Comments:
A person who has lost everything...that's what I want to be. But how I fight that very thing! What if I could love God and serve Him only? Am I ready to even ask that...will I ask that since I'll never be ready? HMMMM...
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