Psalm 31:23-24 (NIV)
23 Love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full. 24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.
It is our task to be strong in the conviction of God’s faithfulness. We have to be convinced and I do believe that most of the onus is on us. The tendency to degenerate and “float” in life cannot be accepted as o.k. If I want to preserver through difficult times I have got to understand God’s faithfulness. When we have a grasp of that, then we can be strong and we can take heart.
There are several ways that we can understand the faithfulness of God. First of all we can be in one difficult circumstance after another and see God come through. I don’t think that this can be totally avoided, yet I think that we could not be in so many difficult circumstances if we would learn the lessons we are suppose to get. The second way is to know God through His Word. It is an amazing thing – the Word of God. We have a great opportunity to know God through His Word which we are so richly blessed with.
God, help us not to drift away from the knowledge of your faithfulness without trouble. Keep us close to you. We desire to be strong in heart and mind.
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This passage really spoke to me because this had to be my brother's state of mind just before he made the decision to take his own life.
ReplyDeletePsalm 31:9-13 talks about how we get beaten down and become weak, consumed by anguish. We can become drained completely both physically and emotionally and feel like we just can't go on because everyone has turned against us. We can get to the point where we feel so bad about ourselves that we assume that we are "the utter comtempt of our neighbors" and "dread to our friends".
Then we are reminded in verse 14 (if we can stop feeling sorry for ourselves long enough) that if we just trust in our Lord saying "You are my God" that he will deliver us! His love is unfailing! "In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men..." If we just hang on, trust in the Lord, and continue to place our hope in Him, He will deliver us from all of the craziness that happens in our hearts and minds when we forget. How often have we read in the Old Testament of how they forgot? How faithful was God in providing everything they needed? Let us not forget that our God is a faithful and loving God and that he cares about every little thing in our lives!
Let's not forget to pray - to bring everything in prayer to the One who will provide everything to us. Let's not get stuck in our fear or weariness. Let's refuse to say small prayers to our HUGE God!!