Coram Deo – “Before the face of God”

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer”

The LORD, to whom David prays, is both his strength and his redeemer. He is the One who enables by His strength within, the believer to speak and think in a manner that is acceptable. And He is the One who has and must sanctify because we do not often speak or think what is acceptable to Him. By nature we speak and think from our fleshly inclinations. By nature we speak and think from our own desire and our own will. We speak and think according to what is acceptable to us. Thus it is necessary for the believer, who fears the Lord – knowing that he is ever before the face of the Almighty, to seek His grace in order to do what is pleasing to Him.

David’s request is both confident and realistic. It is confident because he knows that the One to whom He prays is Supreme and Sovereign over all, even the will of man. And it is realistic because he understands that his own nature is contrary to this request, he himself being but dust. Thus, if God wills - which we know that He does – then the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart will be acceptable in His sight, because God will both give strength and redeem us for that purpose.

May we all have that same confidence.  May we all believe that we are ever “before the face of God” that we may make this same request.

Our Strength and our Redeemer
What wondrous love You give
Our wretched hearts condemn us
But by Your grace we live

Each day we must seek You
If ever You we’ll please
Each day You must redeem us
Till us Your grace receives

A Few More Messages

I am grateful to my Lord and my Father to be able to serve Him in this way.  I am thankful for the opportunity to serve Him, to serve His Church, to be developed as His servant and steward over the mysteries of His Word and His Gospel and to be able to preach that same Word for His glory.  I pray that He would continue to strengthen me to that end and to sharpen this gift that He has given me for His pleasure.

Paul’s High Priestly Prayer for the Church

Gratitude is the Attitude of a True Disciple

Why we Preach the Gospel

Psalm 3 – 150 days of purposeful Medidation (Day 3)

God is a shield to His people, for it says “You, O Lord, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head…Salvation belongs to the Lord; Your blessing be upon Your people.”  Enemies of the people of God are many.  They range from lowly earthlings who themselves are slaves to sins deception and selfish inclinations to lofty principalities and powers who are bent on the destruction of those called by the name of God.

None of them know the end from the beginning.  None of them can say for certain what the future will hold.  None of them are greater in power than the Almighty.  None of them are wise enough to outsmart Him.  So what have we to fear?  We who are called by His name.   We who are His people.  Who do we have to fear?

God is a “shield…a glory…the One who lifts up [our] head.”  How then shall we respond to adversity?  Those things/people which pit themselves against us?  How shall we respond?  With evil?  With dismay?

We should respond with prayer.  We should respond with hope.  We should respond to them confidently knowing in whom we have trusted.  Knowing that the One in whom we have trusted is the One to whom “salvation” belongs.

Who or what is your salvation?  Is it the God to whom Salvation belongs?  Is it the God who is a Shield to His people?  Is it the God who shatters the teeth of the wicked?  If you are “the people” of the God of salvation, fear not and be not dismayed by your enemies…for He said “vengence is mine, I will repay.”  However if you are not for the God who is Salvation, then you have great reason to fear…yea even to tremble.  For this same God who is Salvation to His people is also a “consuming fire.”

Pray!

I got a chance to pray this morning.  I’d love to say that I do every morning to start my day but I do not.  I realized something today, that hadn’t really caught my mind before so vividly.  Today was markedly different in my overall attitude…that is until I got on with my day and was again distracted by it.  But it started off on an amazingly “good foot.”  Primarily, I think, because I took time to pray in the morning.  It was refreshing.  I was in a totally different mindset.

I don’t know about you, but I get into a rut sometimes because of work.  I get up 5 times a week and spend about 40 hours in the same place doing the same kind of stuff over and over again.  It becomes common place.  It becomes like a ritual of sorts.  My body gets used to it, my mind gets used to it and after a while I start coasting.  Maybe I excel, maybe I don’t.  Either way, I start coasting.  Of course there is something to be said about doing work to the best of your ability, for the glory of God, but thats for another post.  My point here is that I get lulled to sleep spiritually because of the monotony.  Doing this one thing which takes up the large portion of my week, becomes an exercise in spiritual futility if I allow it.  I can waste years of my life doing work.  Especially if that work has not inherrent spiritual value.

However, there was something about praying that made the day different…duh.  Praying, at least for me it seems, puts you in a spiritual mindset.  It forces you to remember that you are a spiritual being, living a spiritual life, before a spiritual God and doing spiritual things.  None of your life in Christ, no matter how rote it may become, is a mere exercise.  It all must be done “for the glory of God” because it is all for the glory of God and because God’s glory is all in it.  Not that He is glorified, per se, in our wicked behavior.  But that in a sense, the sum total of our beings, our actions, our thoughts will all be for His glory, whether it be to glorify His wisdom, grace and love; His hatred for sin and holiness or whatever it may be.

Praying puts you in the spirit.  It is a spiritual exercise that takes a spiritual mind and a spiritual connection with God.  While all of life, apart from Christ, may be as the great preacher said “vanity of vanities.”  May all of our doings in the spirit of God and through prayer be fruitful and full of grace!  And may we never be discouraged or stifled by the deceiver, but may we press on to maturity this race to the glory of God above!

Ephesians 6:18   “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints..”

Perspective

Perspective is all about point of view. Uh, right. Of course it is. Well, as I was contemplating life just a little while I ago, I realized something. Well, the Lord brought a number of things to my remembrance and it just made sense.

I was lying on the floor next to my youngest daughter earlier and my wife walked by and I noticed how incredibly big she looked from that vantage point. And I was thinking that my little girl probably thought that we were huge whenever we walked by her tiny little body.

A little later when we got back from the store I took a short walk. I intended to pray but didn’t really know what to say to the Lord. It was weird because I had taken several walks a couple of weeks ago that yielded some great prayer. But today I had nothing. It was a little discouraging until I was reminded of the verse “be still/cease striving and know that I am God.” So I thought that perhaps I didn’t need to say anything but simply to quiet my heart and mind a little and to contemplate God.

What occurred to me in that moment, as I was tempted to think about all of the little issues of my life instead of God, was that the aforementioned verse is all about perspective. As I go through life, striving about to solve all of lifes woes and difficulties, I am often as a small child looking up at all of the massive objects circling around my tiny defenseless head. It can be overwhelming and often scary. However when I consider the way the world (and me in it) look from God’s perspective, I realize that me and my problems are not so great at all.

“Be still and know that I am God,” He says. Stop looking at the world from your perspective and remember that He is God. Is there any time when God looks up at something that is greater than He?.. The exhortation for us then is not to get down on ourselves when we become worried or overwhelmed. But to stop and remember who this God is who is on our side. He is not some insignificant, powerless, limited being who is caught off guard by the ebb and flow of our lives. He is God Almighty. He is the God who Sees. He is Lord of heaven and earth. For we agree with the very first verse in scripture which reads simply and matter-of-factly “In the beginning God…(and if that were not enough)…created the Heavens and the Earth.”

To which all of us, though finite and frail, join in with the choir of angels who cry out “You are worthy our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Cease striving. He is God. Period.