- araratchurch
- May 19, 2022
- 3 min read
“Blessed is he who considers the poor; The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.”
Psalms 41:1-3 NKJV
Many years ago, when our sons were small, we often ran very close on our finances. At one point, we began to make ends meet by the use of credit cards; that proved to only put off the constant running short. And then you find yourself facing unmanageable debt.
I remember one Sunday, saying to the Lord that we really were in a tight place and we needed help. That Sunday at church one of the ladies gave me $200 saying the Lord has spoken to her to do that. This was not given as a result of my “poor mouthing.” I told the Lord my need and He spoke to a an open heart.
I know the stress of not having enough and I know the relief of someone “filling in the gap and making up the hedge.” Thanks be to God, I also know what it feels like to be able to help others who are in need.
I have a theory: I believe that grateful people are generous and look for ways to bless others. On the other hand, I believe that ungrateful people have somehow developed a sense of entitlement to what they don’t have. I have seen this attitude in people who are not poor, so to speak, but they fixate their mind on what they don’t have, making those around them miserable until they get it. That’s a sad, sad, state of being. If you look around you in the world, you will see that even our poor, sometimes live better than the majority of people in other countries. To be ungrateful for what you have is one of those things that the Lord frowns on.
“So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.””
Luke 17:17-19 NKJV
People who are grateful for what God has done for them don’t look at what they don’t have; they’re grateful for what they do have. They also have a heart open to the needs of others.
Jesus, speaking about His judgment, made a very clear distinction between the generous, grateful, and merciful soul and the soul that is greedy, grasping, and unmerciful.
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.””
Matthew 25:40, 45-46 NKJV
It’s obvious that the Lord places a premium on those who freely give as they have been freely given.
In our portion from Psalms today we see David referencing those who are generous to people in need. He obviously puts himself in the category of those who “consider the poor.” He then presents his situation, for which he found no one willing to help him, asking the Lord to help him as he had helped others. Now, if that kind of reasoning seems odd, we do well to remember that our Lord—in teaching His disciples to pray—said to ask for forgiveness based on the way we forgive others. In fact, this reciprocity principle is found all through God‘s word. Put succinctly: do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12).
Think of the parable Jesus told about the wicked servant—having been forgiven a great debt—turned around and started “squeezing” those who owed him; the end of that person was not good.
“Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.”
Matthew 18:32-34 NKJV
I truly believe that the person who struggles with being generous needs to ask the Lord to forgive them. Somewhere along the line they have become ungrateful, and as such, have become unmerciful, and yes, unholy.
For today let us know and understand what David knew:
The Lord blesses those who bless others.
- araratchurch
- May 17, 2022
- 2 min read
“I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness In the great assembly; Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord, You Yourself know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly. Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.”
Psalms 40:9-11 NKJV
Many years ago I was in a group of very closely connected people as one person was elaborating on the fact that her husband was going to be out of town for a week. She went further to explain that his absence would be made worse by the fact that all of her “fun friends” were out of town. Now bear in mind that all of the people in that group considered themselves friends of this person. Well, tell the truth and shame the devil; but I can imagine that there was probably a better way to find out that you are not numbered among the “fun friends.”
We all know this scenario, because we’ve all been there. You have “friends” who are very close with you when it’s just you and the friend; but, in the company of others, they struggle to remember your name. Now, we know this happens for a number of reasons; generally it all comes down to the fact that we are messed up. I know that that “technical jargon” may have thrown you off; but you know what I mean. We develop complexes that make us insecure and self-seeking (selfish). So, we seek out the attention of some people (“fun friends”), take advantage of other people (“old faithfuls”), and combine those two phenomenon more often than we’d like to admit.
Jesus once made a stunning remark just after emphasizing the importance of making sure we don’t lose our own souls. He made clear that His goodness when we stand in judgment, will be extended to those who have acknowledged Him (and His goodness) in this life.
“If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.”
Luke 9:26 NLT
In our portion from Psalms today we see David reminding the Lord that he has never failed to tell others of the goodness of God. In other words, people were very clear in terms of his relationship to the Lord. He then asked the Lord—based on what he had just said in terms of his faithfulness to acknowledge the Lord—to be merciful, to acknowledge his need, to help him.
Fact is, you may never be somebody’s “fun friend” in this life; but, we need to make sure that we haven’t done the same thing to the Lord that we see other people doing to us. If we acknowledge Him now, He’ll acknowledge us before His Father in Heaven.
For today let us know and understand what David knew:
If you are ashamed of Him, He will be ashamed of you.
- araratchurch
- May 16, 2022
- 3 min read
“I said, “I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me.” I was mute with silence, I held my peace even from good; And my sorrow was stirred up. My heart was hot within me; While I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:”
Psalms 39:1-3 NKJV
Moses had been given a daunting task. As you probably know, he led the children of Israel out of Egypt, through the desert, on the way to the Promised Land. Now, if you’ve ever had to deal with large groups of people, you understand the difficulty in trying to please everybody, while keeping things running smoothly. It was no exception in the case with Moses. The people seemed to be long of “lip” and short of faith; Moses had had his fill of their foolishness.
This time, they were crying out for water. So, Moses sought the Lord as to what to do. The Lord told him to take his rod and speak to the rock and enough water would come out of the rock to meet everyone’s needs. But, this whole thing had gotten the better of Moses, and as he stood in front of the rock, he disobeyed God.
“And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.””
Numbers 20:10-12 NKJV
In Psalm 106 we see a sad commentary of this event:
“At Meribah, too, they angered the Lord, causing Moses serious trouble. They made Moses angry, and he spoke foolishly.”
Psalms 106:32-33 NLT
It may seem unfair that the Lord punished Moses, given the stress and strain of his circumstances. But God had given Moses great power; and with great power, comes great responsibility. He could not let Moses get by with using that power in a disrespectful, disobedient way.
As I have shared with you at another time: not long ago, I said something stupid in jest, that really, only I heard. But the Lord was also listening; He didn’t like it. He gave me this cautionary instruction: “Either I am going to honor the words of your mouth, or I am not.” Trust me (as the Lord helps me), He won’t have to say that to me again. Yes, He is very serious about the words He speaks and expects His representatives to be just as serious about the words they speak.
And then there’s poor old Job who was greatly tried at the hand of Satan. In the midst of his suffering, he had basically been very “sassy” with the Lord, an act that may have lengthened his suffering; but definitely, came back to cause him shame, as is indicated in his words to the Lord:
“You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’ It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me.”
Job 42:3 NLT
My grandfather Aram, a great prophet of the Lord, on more than one occasion gave some interesting advice. He said that before saying something (in referencing something that might have major impact), think about it 10 times. You see, that puts time between your impulse to say something, and it actually coming out of your mouth. This gives the Holy Spirit an opportunity to temper your words.
In our portion from Psalms today we see David talking about how hard he had tried to keep his mouth closed and keep from saying something that would displease the Lord. On this particular occasion he had apparently given vent to words he now regretted.
As my sons were growing up, I often reminded them, “You can always say something; you can never un-say something.” Words are so easy to say, yet may cause more trouble than you had ever anticipated.
Allow the Holy Spirit to help you guard your tongue. Additionally, don’t allow your thoughts to reinforce your angst to the point that you say something you will live to regret.
For today let us know and understand that David knew:
Your words can get you in big trouble.