Psalm 32

"God-affirmers find themselves loved every time they turn around."

I realized that I feel loved...all the time....by God...no matter how ornery I'm feeling otherwise. That's something that I've chosen to believe I can count on...and it's been written on my heart.

So...according to this verse...that means I'm a *God-affirmer*!

So many times I've read a verse and wondered...*do I fit that?*...good and bad. It really feels good to KNOW that I fit THIS...and it's a GOOD thing!!!

Amen!

From Psalm 51

"What you're after is truth from the inside out."

Amazing...confirmation that what we've been learning IS truth! When it's foundation on the inside, it starts to happen on the outside!

"...shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life."

YES!!!

"Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice."

When our hearts are broken, we can be re-shaped. It doesn't have to be a horrible, painful thing...just broken before God...willing to be molded.

From Psalm 86

"you never, never quit." (talking about God)

I'm so grateful He's never given up on me...no matter how much I deserve it. Come to think of it, it seems those times when I think He SHOULD give up on me...end up to be the times when my heart is broken and pliable!

From the Psalms

Psalms 3

The last verse says, "Real help comes from God." I can stop searching and looking for answers. God is the *real deal*. When HE helps, it is truly HELP, not a quick fix.

Psalm 4 says, "He listens the split second I call to him." Then further down it says, "Keep your mouth shut, and let your heart do the talking."

So often I call out to God, but I don't hear any response and I get frustrated. Yet there are other times when I hear right away, even through my complaining. I guess it's a heart issue!

Psalm 13 is so cool! From what I can tell, David is calling out to God, but has not received his deliverance yet. Even so, he's CHOOSING to praise God for the answer he expects, AND he is doing that by looking back at all the things God has already answered! It really does work!

Psalm 111

Verse 10 in the message Bible says,

"The good life begins in the fear of God -
Do that and you'll know the blessing of God."

So...realizing that when the Bible was translated into English, often the words that were chosen were for control purposes (that's a post in and of itself)...I tried to look up the Hebrew word that was translated into *fear*.

http://www.drbilllong.com/Lectionary/Ps111.html has this commentary...

"A whole book could easily be written on the Biblical concept of wisdom. Suffice it to say here that gratitude and "studying" lay the foundation for wisdom. When it says that the "fear" of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the Psalmist is not pointing to an attitude of terror or shrinking away from God. Rather, as Gerhard von Rad, the leading OT theologian of the last generation says, the fear of the Lord includes both the experience of awe and the irresistible attraction to the graciousness of God, but it is not a state of anxiety.

In fact, from all that has been said, it sounds like the one who praises God is in love with God. That isn't a word that is overly used in the Psalms but it one for our day. We give thanks with our whole heart. We "study" the works of God through worship. We cultivate an "irrestistible attraction to the grace of God." Our lives and our hearts are irreversibly touched by the Easter news. Praise be to God."

I love this! I can't for the life of me imagine how someone can LOVE someone they are IN TERROR OF! It just doesn't make sense. And if God wants a RELATIONSHIP with us...then why would He want us SCARED? Do we want our children SCARED of us? No...we want their LOVE, their RESPECT...their AWE, if you will. So this exerpt makes total sense to me.

Here's the challenge I see...

For years I was taught that *fear* really did mean *being afraid*...I suppose of what God would do to me if I didn't do the *right* thing. There was no love there...because I was too busy being *afraid* to *cultivate and irresistable attraction* to God. But somewhere along the line I got too mad to be *afraid*. I figured my life was miserable enough...that if I was gonna be miserable anyway I might as well be honest with God. And somehow from there, I find myself in a place of truly WANTING to LOVE God!

So as I continued in the Psalms this morning (I read 111-118), I read something else that David said about God that isn't necessarily accurate. It IS how David felt...and there is some truth to it...but it's not exactly accurate.

David commented about God is in heaven doing anything He wants. Yes...He CAN do anything He wants. However, he has chosen to live by the laws...the covenant, if you will...that He created. Part of that covenant is the understanding that man has dominion over the earth. And following spiritual laws, that means that God MUST have man's permission to work on the earth. As I read that, it hit me. I've had it backwards for years! I've seen God's laws and commands as being so restrictive...yet they are actually FREEDOM to ME! They restrict GOD!

Check this out! If something in my life is going haywire, God WANTS to help me. But if I'm not following the rules He set out...HE CAN'T! He is ABLE...but if I don't give Him PERMISSION to work in that situation by BELIEVING He CAN and WILL...then that takes His ability to intervene away!

To some this would sound like heresy. I'm not saying that I CONTROL God in that I tell Him what to do and make demands on Him whenever and for whatever I want. What I'm saying is that I have the CHOICE to allow Him to work on my behalf, or to take care of things my own way.

Here's the clincher. In order for me to DESIRE to *follow His commands* because I LOVE them, I MUST believe that HE loves ME! I MUST believe that He is truly FOR me and not against me! I MUST believe that He is NOT an egomaniac just trying to make Himself look and feel good! (And yes...I believed that one for years!) I MUST believe that every law, every command, every part of the covenant was made for MY GOOD.

If it's just another set of rules and regulations...that I follow and HOPE things will go good for me...what's the use? Our country has rules like that...that seem to work for some and not others...or are bent as somebody with influence (read...money) desires. At best, it's frustrating living under those conditions.