Putting God in the center of our lives

This week, we are continuing to study in Psalm 63. We've talked about how we can find peace in the pressures of life if our "paddle" in the rapids (the thing we make the highest of priorities) is that we are seeking the Lord. That will help us stay afloat, navigate the rapids, and live a victorious life in Him. 

What does seeking after God actually look like? Well, I first want to say that if we are seeking God it doesn't mean that we are a mystic on a mountain, who is out of touch with reality!

Not at all!

Putting God in the center of our lives is the priority that will give us balance and perspective in the crises of life. And it's down to earth, in touch with reality.

What do I mean? Let me give you an anecdote that may help clarify things. Let's say that a Christian sister feels she is called to help in the church, and so she volunteers to work with a small group who ministers in the community. All is moving along well, and the ministry is thriving. The food and clothing is being distributed to the families, and there are new believers coming into the church family.

Then, sister Beatrice decides that the group should also offer a soup kitchen system for homeless persons in the area. The group takes up the idea in their meeting, and the discussions of setup and financing actually become rather heated! The volunteer whose story we are telling becomes quite upset at the controversy and begins to wonder if this is something she wants to be a part of, at all!

If we have put seeking God at the center of our lives, we are able to step back from a stressful situation. We can look at it in perspective - will this even be remembered in a year or two? Is this something we need to argue about, or should we simply agree to pray about it and come together in a month or two and discuss it again? The balance and the perspective that we have in the crisis times are directly related to how successful we are at keeping God in the center of our lives.

So, what does the person who seeks after God look like? How can someone look at our lives and know that it's our priority? The mystic on the mountain, after all, can be totally out of touch. But we are right here "in the trenches" so to speak, and dealing daily with stress and pressure. What are the evidences that people will see in us?

The first evidence is that the believer who seeks after God will have inner satisfaction.

I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. (Psalm 63:5)

Fads and diets come and go, but medicine tells us that there are some foods that satisfy our bodies more fully than others. The correct combinations of protein, fat, carbohydrates, etc., will stop the tummy from rumbling and give us an overall feeling of satisfaction and fullness. We're reading here that David's soul was at rest. Even in the middle of the calamity he was facing, he had inner calm. Many of us would be pushed to our limit with what David was facing; we might even fall apart emotionally. Instead, David had inner peace. 

Just as we might feel satisfied after eating a delicious, well-balanced meal, David felt satisfied after "feasting" on (spending time in thought, prayer, and fellowship) God.

In the midst of stress and pressure, he had peace.

In the midst of the crisis, David felt inner satisfaction with his personal relationship with God.

That's one evidence that we've put God at the center of our lives . . . . 

More to come.

Friday slowdown

Amidst the pressures of life, seek Him.

To deal with the stresses of life, pursue Him.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7)

These beautiful thoughts were set to music by John Varley Roberts in this lovely anthem. I actually remember singing this in my youth when I filled in at times when the adult choir was short an alto or two. Please listen carefully and ponder reverently these words from Isaiah. I hope they will "stick" with us as we go about our daily lives.

 

 Seek ye the Lord.....He will abundantly pardon. 

Amen.

Seeking after God, continued

We have all probably heard it said that there is a hole in every person that only God can fill.

It is a shape and a depth that only He can fill up. Some people refer to a vacuum in their life. It takes God to fill that life with meaning.

Seeking after God means that we will pursue Him to fill that hole in our lives.

That's probably where David was in Psalm 63. He was forced to flee the palace, to run away from his throne. He left all of his possessions and even his wives and children behind. One of his own sons was trying to find him and kill him. 

But in all of this, David wasn't seeking any of those things to fill the hole in his life. He didn't pray for God to give him back his wives. He didn't pray to have his palace and throne room restored. He didn't ask God to give him his kingdom back.

Nope.

David's prayer was that he was seeking God; his soul thirsted for God; God's love is better than life, and more. Pretty amazing!

It's super easy to fill our lives with things other than God. 
And they may be good things! 
But they are not God, and as we saw in our previous psalm, God alone can satisfy our souls. As an example, many people fill their lives with family and friends. They make certain that they "are there" for whomever needs them, and they devote many hours to those relationships.

On Sunday, these folks give God an hour. Maybe two, if they go to Sunday School along with the worship time. 

Now, helping other people, and witnessing to them, and the friendships there are truly blessings from God. But we cannot fill that "God-shaped hole" in our lives with people. We need to spend time talking to Him and listening to Him.

Others try to fill their lives with possessions. Grab that catalog and pick out the latest and greatest technology! Go to the marina and choose the most fabulous boat! 

Still others may try to fill the vacuum with money. Or with a successful career. Again, if we keep those things in their place, that's fine. But they are not our top priority. They are not going to satisfy our souls. God alone can do that. To seek after Him means to pursue Him to fill our lives.

So far, David has encouraged us to seek after God; he's told us to have a personal relationship with Him and always desire to know Him better. And finally, David tells us to pursue God alone, to fill that vacuum in our lives.

Next time, we will talk about the person (you and me) who seeks after God. I hope this study has blessed you, and I hope you will join us next week.

The words on the paddle

We started our study of Psalm 63 by saying that everyone experiences stress, and that we can better handle the pressures of life when our priorities are correct. 
Having the right priorities can be like having just the right size and shape of paddle to help us navigate the rapids!

Some people who canoe and kayak a great deal have a habit of writing words on their paddles. Sometimes these are words of encouragement or inspiration and other times they are words that remind them of an important moment or skill in their lives.

What's written on our paddles?

I think David would tell us to inscribe the words "Seek after God" on our paddles, and he would encourage us to make this our most important priority.

No matter what stresses come into our lives, we can handle them correctly if we will maintain this priority above all others: to earnestly seek after our God. 

What exactly does this mean? Well, Psalm 63 is like a window into the heart of David, and he's a "man after God's own heart." I think the first thing we see in his heart is that David has a personal, intimate relationship with God.

You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1, NIV)

See where David says, "You...are my God,"? He knew God in a personal way. There's a huge difference between knowing ABOUT a person and actually KNOWING that person, right?

You can see someone crossing a street and think, I know her. I've seen her at church and she sings in the choir. She even sings solos sometimes. I recognize her.

You might even have read a paragraph in the church bulletin about her, that told a little about her life and her commitments to family, church, and business life. But it's not the same as knowing her personally.

Knowing her personally would require that someone introduce you, and then you could spend time with this person over a period of time. You could observe her in a variety of situations and develop a friendship. After you discovered more about her, you could say you had a personal friendship, a relationship with her, and her with you.

That's how it is with God, if we truly want to seek Him. First, there must have been a time that we can point to, when we met Him personally through our Savior, Jesus. 

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3, NASB)

Our introduction to God comes when we repent (turn away) from our sins and trust in Jesus' death and resurrection on our behalf. We accept that free gift of salvation. Then, we must nurture that relationship. We must learn about our new Friend by spending time reading the Bible and praying. We will learn from Him as we weather the years and many different situations, with Him at our side.

Seeking after God means that we are devoting time to gaining that personal relationship with God.

Seeking Him also means that we desire to know more of Him. Check out the words in verse one up there . . . seek, thirst, yearn, long. David knew God, but he wanted more. He wanted to go further. He knew that there was more to a relationship with Him and he craved it. David even makes the comparison to a thirsty man in the desert, and how earnestly he would crave drops of water.

What about us? Do we desire to know more of our Lord? Is our seeking after Him an intense desire? There's always more to learn about God, and more to learn from God . . . . because He is an infinite person! If we think we've reached spiritual maturity and we can sit down and relax, we are in big trouble! David had walked with God for years, but he was thirsty for more.

Lord, help us to thirst for you, to desire to have a deeper relationship with you, so that we can weather the stresses of life!

More tomorrow . . . .

Verses that inspire

What a treasure our Bible is!

We find just the right verse to help us on our way; the Spirit will guide us and teach us through the Word. 
Recently, this verse inspired me and I wanted to remind you of it, too:

The Lord will give strength to His people;
The Lord will bless His people with peace. (Psalm 29:11, NASB)

As we study our psalm for this week, this verse seems so appropriate. We are reminded to seek the Lord because He will bless us with strength to handle the stress of life, and He will also give us peace as we walk with Him.

Do we feel like we have strength? Do we enjoy His peace?

The Amplified Bible tells us that the Hebrew here has the meaning of "unyielding" strength. In our minds' eyes we may see something that to us carries a feeling of stability. Paul wrote about this kind of strength, and said he prayed that the people would have it:

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner self, (Ephesians 3:16)

Paul explained to Timothy that God had strengthened him:

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened and empowered me, so that through me the [gospel] message might be fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear it; and I was rescued from the mouth of the lion. (II Timothy 4:17, AMP)

The writer of Psalm 68 puts it this way:

You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary;
    the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.

Praise be to God! (Psalm 68:35, NIV)

God will strengthen us as we seek to be like Him. He will bless us with stability. With peace.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, NIV)

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you. (II Thessalonians 3:16)

With His strength, and His peace, we can feel a stability, a peace that passes all understanding.

Thank you, Lord!

Up a creek - where's that paddle?

If we had to choose one word that would best describe our society today, perhaps the one that we'd hear the most would be "stress." If we were walking about in a coffee shop or sliding between tables to get to our lunch appointment, probably we'd hear that one word repeatedly. 

Stress.

Pressure.

And why not?

This is an era that is marked by stress in almost every facet of our lives. When we are little, we are thrust into kindergarten and we must perform and compete for grades from then until we graduate college or go to a technical school or apprenticeship. On athletic teams, there is pressure to win, win, win!  After elementary school, we face high school and an emphasis on getting good grades to get into the college we want, and once there, we're under stress to do well and get a good job after we graduate.

After that, there's the stress of finding the right marriage partner and building a trustful marriage in a culture where divorce is a foregone conclusion for many. Once we have children, there's pressure to try to raise them to be godly and faithful people of integrity in a world full of sin. Around our dinner table or around the water cooler at work, we talk about world problems, economic issues, personal crises, and the problems of our friends.

In the midst of so much stress, what can keep us grounded? What is the one thing that will keep us from being swept away in the rapids of life? What is it that will keep us from being overwhelmed by all of these problems and pressures?

Our priorities. Everyone, whether they've given it much thought or not, has a set of priorities. If we say something is a priority, it's something that we feel is very important and must be dealt with before other things are addressed.

So, if we have a clear set of priorities, we can respond to stress by making choices that are in line with those priorities. That gives our lives direction. That's the "paddle" we need to navigate the rapids. That means that having the right priorities is absolutely essential! They will determine how we spend our time. And who we spend that time with. And how we will make decisions about the stressful issues in our lives.  Our "paddle" of priorities will help us steer our course to the proper destination.

But what does that have to do with Psalm 63? 

As the king of the nation of Israel, David knew what it meant to live with stress. He knew by personal experience that the higher the position of leadership, the greater are the pressures. He had a son named Absalom who led some of the people in a rebellion against David. David was forced to flee for his life; in the wilderness of Judah, feeling humiliated and betrayed, he wrote Psalm 63.

It's become one of the best-loved psalms.

And it shows us the priorities of David under stress. I'll just bet that if you or I were under the kind of stress that David was, we'd be doing something else besides writing songs. I guess if we did, though, the songs would probably be pretty repetitive: lots of urgent requests, pleas for help, etc. (Grin)  But Psalm 63 doesn't include any of those. David does express a longing for God's presence, and he talks about joy in fellowship with God. He also says he has confidence in God's salvation. 

This psalm shows us that David's priority during this incredible time of stress was to seek the Lord.

That's where we will focus in the days to come.

Friday slowdown

 

We've covered a lot of ground in the past two weeks as we have studied Psalm 62. I hope that something in our studies has been a blessing to each of us and will help us in the days ahead.

Remember, the main reason we should pray and work toward having God's peace in dangerous times is not only so that we will be at peace -- in addition it's because God will be glorified and others will be drawn to Him. 

God's peace is ours in the dangerous times when He alone is our salvation and our refuge.

This is a familiar song which may have its meaning refreshed after our studies.