Love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he
pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.
In these two verses we can learn so much about God. My first reaction when I read these verses was to take an index card and write down what I should be doing. These verses tell us to: love the Lord, be strong and take heart. I could think I have to remember these three things that I am supposed to do when I am in a difficult situation. Then I realized that I am trying to find a method to deal with hardship and I end up leaving God out of the picture. He is there but He is no longer active, I am the one that needs to know what I am doing then things will get better. If I think of what the Bible teaches me, I begin to realize that God loved me first and He fills me with His love so I can love Him in return. The end of verse 23, teaches me that God is justice and He will deal with other people in His time. Even when I am struggling because of other peoples pride I need to completly depend upon God for the outcome of the situation. Then David says: Be strong. I look at this as I put my feet on the ground and I stay where I am. Have you ever stood in the water when you are at the beach and the water comes up above your ankles and you feel the sand coming and going over your feet as the waves come in and go back out? Have you ever felt as if your body is moving but actualy your feet are staying in the same location? Be strong means we put our feet in a location, we position ourselves, we stand in the presence of God, we know that God is with us in the midst of the difficult situation and when things shift we don't loose our balance because God is there with us. Take heart means as we stay strong standing near God, He gives us the courage we need when we look at the situation and start to feel as if it will never change and we are to weak to do anything to improve things. God is filling our heart with His love and while we look at Him we trust Him to make the situation bearable for us and He promised that every thing on earth is temporary. And our hope comes from the Lord! God will give us the hope that we need as we look to Him.
In these two verses we can learn so much about God. My first reaction when I read these verses was to take an index card and write down what I should be doing. These verses tell us to: love the Lord, be strong and take heart. I could think I have to remember these three things that I am supposed to do when I am in a difficult situation. Then I realized that I am trying to find a method to deal with hardship and I end up leaving God out of the picture. He is there but He is no longer active, I am the one that needs to know what I am doing then things will get better.
ReplyDeleteIf I think of what the Bible teaches me, I begin to realize that God loved me first and He fills me with His love so I can love Him in return. The end of verse 23, teaches me that God is justice and He will deal with other people in His time. Even when I am struggling because of other peoples pride I need to completly depend upon God for the outcome of the situation.
Then David says: Be strong. I look at this as I put my feet on the ground and I stay where I am. Have you ever stood in the water when you are at the beach and the water comes up above your ankles and you feel the sand coming and going over your feet as the waves come in and go back out? Have you ever felt as if your body is moving but actualy your feet are staying in the same location? Be strong means we put our feet in a location, we position ourselves, we stand in the presence of God, we know that God is with us in the midst of the difficult situation and when things shift we don't loose our balance because God is there with us.
Take heart means as we stay strong standing near God, He gives us the courage we need when we look at the situation and start to feel as if it will never change and we are to weak to do anything to improve things. God is filling our heart with His love and while we look at Him we trust Him to make the situation bearable for us and He promised that every thing on earth is temporary.
And our hope comes from the Lord! God will give us the hope that we need as we look to Him.
And our hope comes from the Lord! God will give us the hope that we need as we look to Him.
ReplyDeleteSo true Claire.