My Jesus, My Saviour - Michael W Smith - Listen
Psalm 66
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
4 All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.” Selah
5 Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
7 who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah
8 Bless our God, O peoples;
let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept our soul among the living
and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net;
you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
12 you let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.
13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will perform my vows to you, 14 that which my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
17 I cried to him with my mouth,
and high praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened;
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me!
~who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah
Christian life has a lot of different aspects. We begin with belief, mature into actions and these are tempered with our experiences. Each of us exists to experience similar experiences, we can share, but our lives and the sequence is unique. (This is why I've always looked at horoscopes as horror scopes). God designed each of us. As I've flown on airplanes at night, it always amazes me to see all the lights we produce at night, representing & actually used by people uniquely created and loved by Him.
It's interesting to see small children experience life, they are always so filled with zest! Just as important learning to put childish ways from us, is remembering the joy we had for the daily blessings God gives to us. Today, with the rains after we've had such drought, I remembered the beauty of the trees in my childhood home after the rain. The leaves glisten and seem to be so much more green, the trunks darken and show much more detail. Maybe I was bored & wanted to go outside, but maybe the unusual rain in Texas was always a blessing. We all had something creating awe and gratitude in us.
God tells us something about growth and maturity His eyes have seen during all of mankind's creation:
19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Just as we are called to mature into action in our faith & remembering the joy of belief, we will use our experiences, folding & becoming the unique plan God has created us to live. I loved the homily of a favorite priest, in Dallas, who always said "look for the opportunities... God will give a gentle way and you will shine for Him."
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