Author: admin

Although God takes the initiative I our walk with Him, He does call upon us to seek for Him. There is something about our seeking, and pursuing, that God is pleased to honor.

But what might catch us by surprise is that we need to seek Him, even when we are in the sanctuary. It would seem a given that that was one place His presence would be obvious. Yet it is possible to be in the midst of God’s holy sanctuary, surrounded by saints, listening to God’s word, and yet miss God. We can do this in a plethora of ways.

At times we enter God’s house with a heart that is distracted or filled with sin. As a result, we do not see God. At other times we fail to prepare ourselves before we come to God’s house, so we miss what God is doing. We may also be distracted by the people around us, or the sermon being preached, or the music being sung so that we miss the God who is present. There are any number of ways in which we can miss seeing God, even though we have entered into His holy place.

That is why we need to always have a seeking heart. Whether it is in our quiet time or at church on Sunday, do we have a heart that is seeking after God? When we have a heart that is continually pursuing God, there is nowhere we can find ourselves where we cannot see God.

Our surroundings are far more dry and parched than we realize. We can be so busy bustling about our day, going to work, running errands, meeting with people, and traveling to and fro, that we fail to notice that our environment is parching our soul.

We live in a spiritually dry environment. Conversations, sin, greed, pride, and a blatant disregard for God and His standards, has an adverse effect upon our walk with God. We may not even realize that our secular conversations and the continual bombardment of hedonistic advertisements are withering our soul.

The business world in which many of us work is often characterized by greed and dishonesty. Many people are motivated to get all they can in their frenetic pursuit of material gain. But these attitudes rub off on us. Our soul becomes hardened in order to survive. Our heart becomes dry, due to lack of nourishment.

So it is crucial that we seek God, in a dry and thirsty land. We may not find spiritual water from our workplace, but in Christ we find a refreshing spring, that will always satisfy. Have you become spiritually parched? Return quickly to the well.

When we rise in the morning, we are quickly reminded of our fundamental needs. We face hunger. We experience thirst. Our body noisily reminds us of our deficiencies.

But our foremost need is spiritual. We desperately require God in our life. Without Him, we cannot function. We certainly cannot thrive.

In the morning, we must quickly remedy our need for fellowship with God. We must seek Him early in the day. Some people argue that they are not “morning people.” They prefer to meet with God later at night, when they have more time and energy. That may all be well. But there is something desperate within our soul that requires a meeting with God as soon as possible. Too much of our day can race by us if we do not make meeting with God in the morning a priority.

We may get through the day, but we will do so without the soul-satisfaction that comes from having met with our God. Your soul may be far thirstier than you realize. Make haste to be filled up with the presence of God.

Few truths are any more incredible than the simple, two-letter word, “my.” We could spend the remainder of eternity attempting to grasp that amazing pronoun!

God is the Creator of the universe. He brought every living being into existence. He is the center point of all reality. But He is above everything else, “my” God. He loves me. He relates personally to me. He knows and cares about me. That truth is beyond our comprehension.

At times we can attend worship services and see the throngs of people worshiping their God. We can be reduced to acting as if we are merely another person, lost in the crowd. As one, among billions of earthly inhabitants, seeking to relate to their Creator. But that is not how God views things. He sees us He loves us. He seeks to relate personally and to enjoy fellowship with us.

Our God is a personal God. He is not a concept or a doctrine. He is pre-eminently a Person, who loves us.

Take time to meditate on that marvelous truth. It will take you an eternity to do so.

You might assume that no one needs to be told that God is powerful. Yet, measuring by the way we live, we clearly need to be informed of this great truth once again! The psalmist had been told once already. But he continued to worry and fret about his enemies. So he was told a second time.

How many times do you need to be told that God is trustworthy before you trust Him? How often must you be reminded of God’s awesome might before you stop worrying? Hearing it once is obviously not sufficient for us at times.

There is a vast difference between hearing a truth and believing it. Every week Christians are bombarded with truths. But it is only the ones we believe and implement into our lives that make a difference.

Are there some eternal truths that you need to hear, again?

Many of our problems could be solved if we did not regard people as highly as we do.

We can value people’s opinions, actions, and decisions more than we prize God’s. We can spend more time worrying and fretting about pleasing people than we do about pleasing God.

The truth is that people who are evil are but a vapor. They come and they go. They cause a brief commotion, loudly proclaiming their presence, and then they are gone. Every such person has ultimately met their end and faced God’s judgment. Likewise, those people of “high degree” are merely people, like us. We tend to put certain people on pedestals and treat them as if they are more important than others. Society fawns over its celebrities and quotes their every word. But the truth is that they are people, just like you. They are frail and sin-prone, just like you. The media may present them as superstars, but that is a lie.

Take time to reflect on the way you look at people. Are you spending inordinate amounts of time trying to win their favor or attention? Are you filled with anxiety because of them? How much are people controlling your life?

Draw near to God and seek His heavenly perspective. It could change everything.

It is relatively easy to trust God in certain times. But there are other moments when our faith can waiver. Yet it is in those difficult times that our faith can grow and deepen the most. It is more often in our anguish, rather than in our pleasure, that we mature in Christ.

In those moments, we can our out our heart before God. Hold nothing back. Be absolutely honest. Face your fears. Address your shortcomings. Be totally honest about the ugliness you may find in your heart. It is in those moments of complete honesty before God that you can be set free and to truly live.

You have nothing to fear when you draw near to Christ. It is only as you abide in Him that you are truly safe. He is a perfect refuge. It matters not how fierce the tumult may be raging on the outside. It makes no difference how fiendishly your enemies may be plotting against you. When you are abiding in Christ’s presence, you can enjoy peace.

Do you need to draw near to Christ? Are you facing situations that are beyond you? Are you weary from the struggle? There is a refuge waiting for you.

God is my glory. He doesn’t give me glory. He doesn’t merely prop me up to think I am something on my own. God IS my glory. The greatest glory I can possess is the knowledge that God is my God.

We often claim that we want to glorify God with our actions. But the truth is that much of our behavior simply exalts us, not Him. At times it is difficult for us to acknowledge that God is the one aspect of our life that is truly worthy of glory. Oh that our every word and act was conducted in the knowledge that our relationship with God was the one defining reality of our life.

God is also our rock of strength and our refuge. He is everything to us! He is the unmoving center point. He is the one place to which we can retreat and gain safety and solace. When everything else in our life is crumbling, we can withdraw into Him and find rest for our souls. In Him is everything that we need.

Even the greatest saints have faced opposition and criticism. Evil abounds. What can be especially difficult are those enemies who speak well of you to your face but who lie and intrigue behind your back. These people refuse to deal with you directly. They deny there is a problem between you. Yet they are covertly working to harm you.

David wrote this psalm while in the midst of a conflict with people who were working against him. Yet he did not address the subject of his enemies until he had first affirmed that he would trust in God who was his rock and defense. It is always best to evaluate our problems in the light if who God is.

David knew that his enemies could not withstand God’s justice. David’s most vehement opponent was no match for his most faithful Defender. As a result, David refused to live with fear and worry. He knew he could trust his God. He knew the ultimate end of his enemies. He knew his enemies well. But he knew his God even better.

Scripture often pictures God as a Rock. That is because He is immovable. He is reliable. He is strong. In Him we can place our complete confidence. Because of who He is, we have hope that our enemies and difficulties shall not prevail.

God is also our salvation. He will save us, if we will wait upon Him. He is not known as our Savior for nothing! But we must also realize He alone is our rock and salvation. He is not one of several rocks and saviors. We do not simply copy him in our group e-mails for help! He is the only One we need turn to!

Storms and trials can batter against our lives. We may have to make adjustments in what we do. We might even lose our job or health. Yet we shall not be greatly moved. That is, despite the worst that evil and problems can hurl against us, when the dust settles, we shall remain standing. We may be battered by the storm but we will be left on our feet when it finally subsides.

When we take matters into our own hands, we can find that we have moved far from where we once were with God. Our personality, behavior, and attitude may all be much different than they once were. Handling our own problems can greatly change us, for the worse.

But when we place our trust in the Lord, we remain firm in our position with God.