DON'T HOLD BACK!

O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
—Psalm 139: 1-4

Is there something in your life you want everyone to know? David did, so much so he hired a choirmaster to put his feelings to music and give it the full harmony and crescendo treatment he couldn’t quite pull off with his harp!

What had he discovered? He discovered the immense value added to his life when God’s faithfulness caused him to replace hiding and running with humbled rejoicing. This psalm is David’s reflection of a lifetime of being spiritually searched which resulted in a deep sense of thankfulness.

God is very able to identify whether our heart’s desire is to bring Him glory. What David writes in this psalm helps us discern that today. So, our investment in God’s glory demonstrated in our lives can be seen in these three things:

1. Where we plant ourselves. Look at verse two. God knows the places we choose to plant our lives. Sit down isn’t the “take a seat” of an appointment. It means abide or inhabit. It gives us a picture of settling into life in a particular place.

Rise up gives us the same idea of deliberate purpose. God knows why we do the things we do in the places we choose to do them. We often treat life like a game when really it is a running commentary on every aim of our hearts. The roots we put down are a strong indicator of what we want our lives to be about.

2. The decisions we make. Now look at verse three. It is impossible to read this passage without being challenged by how active God is in our hearts. His intimate interest in us is hugely humbling. He is searching out the path our lives are on. He scrutinizes us, constantly scouting the track our lives are on so as to prepare, prevent, and protect. Literally, He is winnowing us: separating the good from the bad. It is a bad sign when our pride seeks to prevent Him from purifying our purposes for His pleasure.

3. The words we use. The fourth verse shows just how well God knows us. He knows what we are going to say before we do. I’m not sure that is anything we would necessarily find exciting because of what we know about ourselves. We should find it convicting and transforming. He knows every word we say and the reason we say it.

Journal
· How can God’s searching bless my life?
· Does His intimate knowledge of me give me comfort or concern?

Prayer
Father in heaven, I can only pray Your Words back to You, Lord. You have searched me and known me. You do know my thoughts from afar. You are acquainted with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it already. Help me to live like I know this. Use this knowledge to both convict and comfort me. In Yeshuas name, Amen.

SOLUTION TO FEAR: IS FEAR

Proverbs 14:26 "In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence.”

This is very strange. It says that the solution to fear is fear. The solution to uncertainty is fear. The solution to doubt is fear.

How can this be?

Part of the answer is that the “fear of the LORD” means fearing to dishonor the Lord. Which means fearing to distrust the Lord. Which means fearing to fear anything that the Lord has promised to help you overcome. [pause: think on that]

In other words, the fear of the Lord is the great fear destroyer.

If the Lord says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you” (Isaiah 41:10), then “it is a (more) *fearful thing* to worry about the problem He says He will help you with.

Fearing that problem when He says, “Fear not, I will help you,” is a vote of NO CONFIDENCE against God’s Word, and that is a GREAT dishonor to God. [and evidence of faithlessness].
And a person who fears the Lord trembles to dishonor God like that!

The Lord says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5–6).

If the Lord says that to you, then not to be confident in the Lord’s promised presence and help is prideful. It puts *our* reckoning of the trouble above God’s.

That is why we read the amazing words of the Lord in Isaiah 51:12, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass? Who are you to fear man, when God has promised to help you? So it is pride to fear man. And pride is the exact opposite of the fear of God.

So, yes, the Proverb is true and a great help to us. Fear God! Fear God! Fear dishonoring Him. Fear distrusting Him. Fear putting your assessment of the problem above His. He says He can help. He is smarter. He is stronger. He is
more generous. Trust Him. Fear NOT trusting Him.

Why?

He works for those who wait for Him (Isaiah 64:4). He will solve the problem. He will rescue the family. He will take care of the little ones. He will meet your needs.

Fear distrusting that promise.

EAT. DRINK. GLORY!

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
Is it sin to disobey this biblical commandment?

Yes.

So I draw this somber conclusion: It is sin to eat or drink or do anything not for the glory of God. In other words, sin is not just a list of harmful things (killing, stealing, lying, sexual immorality, etc.).
Sin is leaving God out of account in the ordinary affairs of your life. Sin is anything you do that you don’t do for the glory of God.

“Well, how do you “eat and drink” to the glory of God? Say, a Starbucks Vanilla Soy Latte for breakfast, for instance?

Answer:
1 Timothy 4:3–5:
[Some] forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For *everything* created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

Vanilla lattes were "created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe … the truth.” Therefore, unbelievers cannot use a latte for the purpose God intended—namely, as an *occasion for heartfelt thanksgiving* to God from a *true heart of faith.*

But believers CAN, and this is how they glorify God. Their drinking a latte is “made holy by the word of God and prayer”
(1 Timothy 4:5).

The Word of God teaches us that coffee, and even our strength to drink it, is a free gift of God (1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Peter 4:11). The prayer is our humble response of thanks from the heart. Blessing (to say something good about) HIM.

Believing this truth in the Word and offering thanks in prayer is one way we drink a latte to the glory of God.

So..... Whatever you do.... DO IT ALL....
To the GLORY of GOD!!!

That just feels right!!

Sip. Ahhhhhh. Praise You LORD, for lips to sip and this instrument of taste!!
YOU ARE GOOD!!

LOVE TROUBLE?

Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. (James 1:2–3)

The testing of your faith through trials produces endurance.

What is the opposite of endurance? Well, I suppose the opposite of “endurance” is “petering out.”

When faith doesn’t endure it peters out. So if you don’t want your faith to peter out then you need some trials. Because James says it is trials that “produce endurance.”

This is odd. Most of us would say that faith endures in spite of trials, not because of trials. Most of us think that when trouble comes faith is threatened. We don’t usually attribute the duration of faith to the trouble it meets. But duration is what endurance means. James says, faith lasts, faith endures, because it meets trouble and threat.

This is odd. We might be willing to say that faith becomes deeper or stronger through trials. But that’s not the same as saying that faith endures because of trials.

Would any runner say that his ability to endure to the end of a race is enhanced by the number of people that knock him down?

Perhaps. Suppose there was a runner who loved flowers. Here he is, running along at the head of the pack when all of a sudden he is carried away by the beauty of a rose garden beside the lake. Forgetting the race and the rhythm of the wreath, he starts to leave the road and smell the flowers.

But all of a sudden, out of nowhere, someone (!) knocks him flat on his back. It hurts so bad that his nose for roses is gone. But suddenly he realizes that the race is still on and only those who finish get a prize. And he is up and running.

Don't Peter out!

Trouble, suffering, discomfort and hard things of all kind, are Faith's BEST FRIEND!! Count it PURE JOY when they join the race, to run with you! Endure, persist, and finish to get the PRIZE!!!!!