Day 77 with David: If the Lord’s favor “isn’t working” for you, it’s because of user error

“O God, You have cast us off; You have broken us down; You have been displeased; Oh, restore us again! You have made the earth tremble; You have broken it; Heal its breaches, for it is shaking. You have shown Your people hard things; You have made us drink the wine of confusion.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭60:1-3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Have you ever known people who made a bold proclamation concerning the ineffectiveness of a particular diet, and yet you knew for a fact that they were not following the diet? Maybe we all need to take a moment and think on that…. But we know it’s the truth: people are all the time blaming “other things,” whether it be exercise equipment or diets, for being totally ineffective when the intervening variable, the thing that was really at fault, was the user of the diet or the user of the exercise equipment.

Someone once said, “no pain, no gain.” Well, it’s human nature that we want all the good from something, but we don’t want to be responsible to change anything WE are doing. Come to think about it, perhaps we’re not looking for a diet or exercise equipment, but rather, a “magic wand” we could just wave and get what we want without making any change.

Now, those of you who are familiar with modern computer technology, just put a hand in my direction while I vent. When you don’t know all the ins and outs of the pull down menus with the endless selections put before you in different computer programs (I think that word is even outdated), it can feel like the computer or the program is not working. But generally, the hard truth is that it is user error standing between you and success.

Sadly, the tendency for us to want to declare things, and even people, as being “ineffective,” rather than seeing our own failure to commit ourselves to a process, or to know what we are doing, or to make the needed changes, etc., does not stop short of our relationship with God.

Now, I’m nobody’s judge, but you know, what you know, and there have been times I have seen people accuse God over something (that was going wrong, or wasn’t the way they wanted it, or some physical illness), and I knew full well that they, themselves, were the guilty party (in terms of the results they were seeing). Again it wasn’t God‘s fault; it was user error.

We find the Lord often in His word, instructing His people in righteousness, instructing His people in how things work in a relationship with Him.

“Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭55:7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Time and again, the Lord offered to get His people out of trouble, while instructing them as to how they had come to be out of favor.

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity. No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭59:1-4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Still, many people would rather accuse God of having arms too short to reach them than to admit that their disobedience has gotten them into their current pickle.

In our portion from Psalms today we see David praying urgently to the Lord for the restoration of His favor. We see basically the same prayer in Psalms 108. Rather than make accusations about the Lord’s “inadequacies,” David speaks of the Lord‘s promises, asking Him to restore favor to His children. David knew that whatever was wrong, it wasn’t the Lord’s fault.

Now, we’ve all ended up in situation‘s, circumstances, and so on, that, deep down inside, we knew we had had a large part in bringing it to pass. We must avoid placing blame anywhere else; and especially not to indict the Lord! The good news is that even when we are in a stew of our own making, the Lord will hear and help if we approach Him with humility and repentance, asking Him to restore His favor toward us.

You may be wondering if we still have a part in receiving God’s favor, given that the perfect sacrifice, and finished work, of Jesus Christ has bought us our salvation. Here it is: salvation is a gift from God, but make no mistake, we will still reap what we sow in terms of continued disobedience to God’s word and resisting the leading of the Holy Spirit. God has given us access to His favor but continuing to walk in disobedience brings big trouble and allows the enemy to devour your stuff!

For today let us know and understand what David knew:

If the Lord’s favor “isn’t working” for you, it’s because of user error.

#100dayswithdavid