Saturday January 21, 2017

Psalm 138:8 "The Lord will work out his plans for my life--for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don't abandon me, for you made me" NLT

Psalm 138:8 "The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever--do not abandon the works of your hands." NIV

Psalm 138:8 "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever--forsake not the works of Your own hands." AB

Today I wrote the 3 verses to show the different wording of the same verse. And to better illustrate for you the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.

The Lord does have plans for each one of us. But our sinful nature, at times, overrides God's plans. Let me explain, if we are led by our sinful nature then we are not listening to what God is telling our hearts. We go off and "Do our own thing." And as we are doing our own thing, and we fail, what then. What does our heart tell us? How do we feel? Is it possible that God allowed that failure to happen in order for us to realize that we are not following Him? I truly think that is the case.

Look at the beginning of those 3 verses. "The Lord will work out." "The Lord will fulfill." "The Lord will perfect." When we begin to understand that the Lord is Almighty and that He will not fail, we will begin to read those words and see that our failures, at things, are because we are not living the life that God has for us to live. Notice that I said "has for us to live." The life we may be living may not be the life He has for us to live. If we are feeling defeated, anxious, a failure, then you are not living the life He wants. None of those words are in the Lords vocabulary, period! He has plans to prosper us and give the blessings He so desires us to have. Living for Jesus was, and still is, never easy. But because of that, when we succeed, we can give praise to Him that has walked beside us the entire way. Opening the door for us to live an ever increasing life filled with the love of  Jesus and then acquiring an even greater amounts of blessings and joys at our obedience to Him.

Lets look at the next part of these verses. "your faithful love." "Your love." "Your mercy and loving-kindness." No matter our pasts, let me say that again, no matter our pasts, God is faithful. Even when we are not following Him, He loves us. Even when we are not on the "road" He designed for us to walk, He walks with us. The Holy Spirit is continually calling out to us. It is called "our conscience!" Because when we are not walking on His path, our conscience cries out to us. God's plan for us is for us to walk on the road of His design. Being led by the Light of His mercy and grace. Allowing it to illuminate our way so that the "potholes of life" are easily seen and we can avoid them. Those feelings of defeat, hopelessness and despair are not what He wants for us to feel. His plans are for us to have peace, joy, and the feeling of His forgiveness. Now don't get me wrong, life will not be a bed of roses. But when the hard times come, Christ is there to run to, to shout at, to lean on. Because as the rest of that second part of the verse goes "endures forever," then no matter where our lives are at, the Lord's love for us will never end, it goes on and on. Jesus endured the cross, so that we would be saved. So His love for us, and in us, will enable us to endure the hardships that this world brings. The evil in the world goes about happening, but we are able to endure just as Jesus endured. Just think about it. Jesus arose the third day from the grave, you could say that He endured death, and concurred it, He overcame it. So by following Christ we too can overcome our troubles and hardships and fears. We will be able to endure, because in our hearts is the power of Jesus, when we are following Him.

Again realize that if we are not following Jesus our plans will fail, we will be defeated, we will suffer, because we are not living the life that Christ planned for us. But if we truly are "Living for Jesus", then we will succeed because His plans NEVER fail! There will be ups and downs, but in the end we will prosper. And that prosperity will enable us to endure the next trial with an even greater spiritual strength than before.

So now lets look at the last part of those verses. "Don't abandon me, for you made me." "Do not abandon the works of your hands." "Forsake not the works of your own hands."  Right here we read that God made us, He formed us in our mother's womb. So we can rest assured that what He made, He WILL NOT ABANDON!!!  Just as we would never think of leaving our own children, neither will Jesus leave us. Again no matter what we have done He is true to never leave us or forsake us. Just as we look past the faults of our own children, but love them un-conditionally, the same it is with Jesus!

In conclusion, know this. If we follow Jesus, He sets our feet on the solid path that He has made for us. The Lord is always about His business, and He WILL SUCCEED!!!! His plans for all of us is to live with an inner peace even in the face of the storms in our lives. His love for us endures forever and He is faithful to love us forever. And He will not leave those He has made, and since He made you, you are included no matter what road you are on at the present time. So if you are having troubles, hard times, doubts or fears, take them to the Lord. Express to Him, through prayer, your feelings. Allow Him to take your burdens and carry them, the cross has given Him this strength. Accept Him as your personal Savior, begin to humbly follow Him and allow His love for to carry you through your trials and hard times, bringing you out the other side stronger, wiser, and more spiritually filled.