God Will Gather Me Up

"Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me." Psalm 27:10 NIV

Living this life is about rejection. It just is. People around us may make the best decisions they possibly can in their relationships with us and we will still receive and feel rejection. In fact, our society has moved, rather quickly, into a narcissistic view of life. It’s all about how I feel, how I perceive what happened. Rather than taking the high road and thinking the best of others, we automatically become offended and angry about how we were treated. We look for acceptance and civility from others, but often find that they are so caught up in their own narcissism that they didn’t even notice that they hurt us.

"Though my father and mother forsake me . . ."

This is a very strong phrase. Parental responsibility and relationship with children is at the core of growing up as a human being. Humans weren’t created to be birthed and then go out on their own. Regardless of when a society deems that a child becomes an adult, there is a period of at least more than one decade where children are supposed to be physically, financially, and emotionally dependent upon their parents. It’s very likely that one of the reasons that so many young adults feel emotionally unstable is because their parents, in some way or another, abandoned them as young children. Oh the parents may have provided a roof over their heads and technology to amuse them, but without meaningful adult interaction and relationship, children can grow up feeling lost and alone. These children often don’t even realize that the reason they are always depressed or angry is because they lacked a meaningful relationship with their parents during those crucial growing up years.

"Though my father and mother forsake me . . ."

Forsake is such a strong word, both in the Hebrew and in English. It means to renounce and leave utterly, to cause to remain behind (not temporarily, but permanently). The psalmist was describing a situation where he felt completely devoid of important and meaningful relationships, those relationships upon which we build our self worth. All of that was gone.

But one thing remained.

Even though . . . the Lord! ". . . the Lord will receive me."

Asaph (receive) actually means to gather up (Strong’s H622). The sense is that "even if others completely throw me away and abandon me forever, the Lord Himself will gather me up to Himself." For those of us who struggle with these kind of abandonment issues, this is such a strong promise. Though others reject us, deny us, refuse to embrace us, the Lord Himself---the King of Glory---will reach down and gather us into His arms, into relationship with Him. And because He is everywhere, in every time, in every place, we will never be alone, never be without Him there.

How blessed to be a child of God. Where earthly parents and human relationships are guaranteed to fail us, God never will. He will gather us up into relationship with Him and . . . eventually into Heaven with Him.

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord" (v. 14). He’s worth waiting for.

© 2017 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Living a Blameless Life

"I lead a blameless life; deliver me and be merciful to me." (Psalm 26:11 NIV)

There’s a distinct dichotomy in this verse and, I believe, a two-fold meaning.

The first is that how God sees us and how we see ourselves are two totally different perspectives. There’s the perspective from God’s view, the "who He sees us as," and then there’s the perspective of "who we really want to be (but know that we aren’t)." We see those two perspectives in verses 1-3 and 4-7.

How God sees us: "Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered. Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for I have always been mindful of Your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on Your faithfulness." (v. 1-3) For those of us who are believers, because the Lord has wiped away our sin, He sees us as blameless. He sees us as faithful. He sees us as always trusting Him. He sees us as righteous, holy, and complete. Isn’t that amazing . . . and wonderful? And it isn’t because of anything we’ve done, but because of everything He’s done!

How we would really like to be (but aren’t): "I do not sit with the deceitful, nor do I associate with hypocrites. I abhor the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked. I wash my hands in innocence, and go about Your altar, Lord, proclaiming aloud Your praise and telling of all Your wonderful deeds." (v. 4-7) These descriptions are who we should aspire to be as believers. We should refuse to be deceitful, hypocritical, evil or wicked. We should spend our days praising Him and telling everyone of His wonderful deeds. It is a lifestyle to aspire to and something we should work at being everyday.

The second dichotomy in v. 11 is this: No one is perfect; we all need salvation even if we live "blameless" lives. The verse says "I am blameless" (meaning without sin) and then pleads with God to deliver and be merciful (meaning I need a Savior). Even at our best we need a Savior. Even when we think we aren’t sinning, we need a Savior. We want to be blameless, but only are because of the blood of Jesus Christ.

This psalm ends with "My feet stand on level ground." The perfect life. I know that everyone of us has experienced those times when we’ve had to walk gingerly along because the surface on which we walked was uneven. We were unsteady because the ground wasn’t level. When we stand on level ground, when we trust the Lord to guide our paths, we don’t need to be hesitant in our lives. We can walk firmly and boldly ahead, knowing that God has prepared the way for us. We needn’t fear anything because He is with us and will guide us in all our decisions.

We can become that which we want to be through His power and because of His love and mercy.

© 2017 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Dealing with Emotional Pain (Psalm 25:17-18)

"Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish. Look on my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins." (NIV)

We don’t realize how it is almost always our own sins that create the anguish and distress in our lives. We want to make our circumstances and even other people the cause of our problems. But the blunt truth is, our sins cause most, if not all, of the emotional pain that we feel.

How much do we focus on our sins and asking God to forgive us?

If we were honest, the vast majority of us really like the Lord’s Prayer and want to simply say, "Lord, forgive me of my sins" and be done with it. The fact is, sins need to be dealt with immediately, specifically, and ruthlessly.

Immediately; If we are truly wanting to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, we need to understand that His power cannot function in the presence of a sinful life. The Lord Jesus Himself talked about those people who thought they were saved and weren’t:

"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in Your name and in Your name drive our demons and in Your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’" (Matthew 7:21-23 NIV).

"Evidence" of spiritual activity isn’t the evidence of a holy and righteous life. It isn’t the evidence of the forgiveness of sins. The evidence that someone is actually following the Lord, is actually living as a Christian, is a life that is striving above all else to be holy, acceptable, and pleasing to God. It is someone who is do conscious of their sinfulness that they must deal with their sin immediately upon realizing that they have sinned. They see their sin (Psalm 51:3) and live with a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). They desire to atone and to be redeemed (the definition of "contrite").

Specifically: It is so easy to close over sins if we simply categorize them as "sins" and refuse to see that a specific behavior is the problem. A sin, done over and over again, becomes habit and habits are what condemn us.

"Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:7-9 NIV)

We deceive ourselves when we refuse to deal specifically with sins that happen over and over again. If we find pleasure in what we do, it is very likely either a sinful or leaning toward being sinful. Pleasure and joy are two very different things. We are told to have the joy of the Lord, but we are told that pleasure in the flesh leads to death. We need to understand specifically what we are doing that pleasures us so that we can stop doing it and ask forgiveness.

Ruthlessly: To be ruthless is to be merciless (refuse to give any leeway), to be relentless (refuse to stop), and to be unyielding (refuse to compromise). We need to recognize the sin in our lives as sin, plain and simple. We need to refuse to give any leeway or any compromise when it comes to recognizing that something is a sin. We need to call a sin a sin and deal with it accordingly. We need to refuse to stop rooting out the sin in our lives, but to do it as relentlessly as possible. We need to ignore the pain in our flesh that will come from refusing to give into its constant pleading and pummel our flesh into submission to the will of God. It will be a battle, but we are empowered to win through the Holy Spirit once we start! But we need to start.

The psalmist cried out to the Lord about the troubles of his heart, about his anguish, afflictions, and distress. All things that we ordinarily would chalk up to horrible circumstances and experiences in our lives. But what does the psalmist attribute them to? To all of his sins! If we want to find victory over the troubles in our lives, we need to stop looking outward and begin immediately to look inward and to deal with the sins that we have embraced on a daily basis. Only then can we be assured of finding peace and joy . . . for peace and joy come only when we stand in full communion before the Throne of our Savior.

© 2017 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.