Thursday, March 20, 2014

Lessons from a "Chick-Lit" book

Psalm 103:1-5 (NCV) "All that I am, praise the Lord; everything in me, praise his holy name. My whole being, praise the Lord  and do not forget all his kindnesses. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He saves my life from the grave and loads me with love and mercy. He satisfies me with good things  and makes me young again, like the eagle."

 I landed on Psalm 103 in my quiet moments with Jesus, it's rather odd how I got there but nonetheless, God does give us what we need when we need it. This Psalm showed up in the book I was reading last night about a Chicago woman who had been away from the Lord for some time. In the book, she attends a church service at a homeless shelter and Psalm 103 was the introductory Psalm read. Now, my book didn’t go into the entire Psalm for its purposes it only needed the first two verses… but that was all I needed this morning to flip there and begin to read. The first verse of Psalm 103 starts with “My whole being praise the Lord; all my being, praise his Holy name.” David continues in verse two with “my whole being, Praise the Lord and do not forget all his kindnesses.”

WOW! Did you catch that? Three times in two verses David encourages us to praise God with everything we have; our lives and the way we live, the way we conduct business, the way we talk to our the people closest to us, the way we are when no one is looking. In all things bring praise to God.
In verses three and four, David writes  “He (God) forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He (God) saves my life from the grave and loads me with love and mercy.” Cool! We all know God will forgive our sins if we repent of them. That’s what His word promises. But I want to camp out just a minute on the part of this verse that says “he heals all my diseases.”
When you think about diseases – what do you think about? I know for me, I think about cancer or heart disease. Maybe there is some other disease you think of when you hear the word… disease. But have you ever thought about the other “diseases” in our lives that need healing? You know… those diseases like anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, rejection, grief, denial, rebellion… and the list goes on.
So again, the question becomes what diseases in your life are holding you back from living the life God has planned for you? God desires for you to live a life of prosperity and peace.
Draw on God’s love, grace and mercy. Spend some time looking at those things in your life that hold you back, and then seek God’s strength and forgiveness. You're not going to be able to stand in your own strength. It's time to repent of those things that hinder our relationship with Christ and draw on his love, mercy and grace to STAND FIRM and be renewed and transformed.

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