Morning Light – September 7th, 2016: Grab Hold of God’s Lifeline

Morning Light – September 7th, 2016
ml_2016Today: [Psalm 119 Conclusion] Grab Hold of God’s Lifeline. In the conclusion of Psalm 119 we see how every verse is a layer-upon-layer admonition and encouragement regarding the place of the word of God in our lives. Today Christians are looking everywhere except the word of God for their answers. They are reading books, looking to outside resources, desperate to find something that will make a difference – to calm their fears and give them hope. We must choose not to overlook the great resource of the word of God that will put us over and cause us to walk as more than conquerors if we will just dare to fall in love with it once again.
[Psa 119:152-176 KJV] 152 Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever. 153 RESH. Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forget thy law. 154 Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word. 155 Salvation [is] far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes. 156 Great [are] thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments. 157 Many [are] my persecutors and mine enemies; [yet] do I not decline from thy testimonies. 158 I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word. 159 Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness. 160 Thy word [is] true [from] the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments [endureth] for ever. 161 SCHIN. Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. 162 I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.
We now come to the conclusion of our study of Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is unique because it is the longest chapter in the bible, located very near the middle chapter of the bible which is only 16 words and the shortest. Every verse in Psalm 119 mentions the scriptures, the word of God or the testimonies of God. It is arranged acrostically according to the Hebrew alphabet and is thought to have been written by king David himself toward the end of his life.
In verse 162 above David considers and esteems the word of God as the great spoil, or treasure of his life. He has been exposed to the word of God in the scriptures and the word of the Lord in the mouth of Samuel – whose prophesies never fell to the ground. Both the written word of God and subjective prophetic word of God were very formative in every aspect of David’s personal history. He venerated the scriptures and he esteemed the prophets. His honor of the prophets was so great that two of his children were named after Nathan and the prophet Gad respectively.
What is the place of God’s word in your life? EW Kenyon wrote that God’s word on your lips brings the living Christ on the scene in your life situation. According to Kenyon’s devotional observation when you take God’s word on your lips you are holding it up to the Father in a mirror. He said it – you are asking Him to do perform it in your behalf even as He has promised. In verse 154 the writer asks God to quicken him “according to thy word…” In other words he wasn’t asking for something outside the parameters of God’s word.
Sometimes we pray coping prayers. God’s word promises that we will be more than conquerors but we are praying just to survive. Like the Syrophenecian woman we err by asking for mere crumbs of the Master’s table, or a little cabin in the corner of glory land. Remember that you are a son. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. God’s word does not offer us and anemic “barely-get-along” promise. Many people pray and do not receive answers because their prayers don’t represent their hopes but rather are an expression of their fears and insecurity.
Hebrews tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. If your prayers do not reflect your hopes they fall inert at your feet. Then we wonder why it seems that God does not answer. We must have the boldness and the courage to pray out our hopes. We must get rid of what I call “coping prayers”. I remember praying prayers that I would just survive a certain situation. I just wanted to find myself at the end of a difficult time intact. I wasn’t praying for the mountain to be removed. I wasn’t praying for a total rout of the enemy. I just wanted to crawl out of the opposite end of my difficulty still breathing.
You can understand the desperation of such a prayer if you have every been under pressure yourself. You can have empathy but we should also look to the word of God and even in a desperate and pathetic situation be teachable. It is difficult to learn anything when you are feeling sorry for yourself. Self-pity is a cousin of outright rebellion. Refuse to wallow in self-pity. Hold yourself in a place of accountability to the totality of God’s promise and pray those prayers whose answer is so impossible that only God can bring them about.
163 I hate and abhor lying: [but] thy law do I love. 164 Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. 165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. 166 LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments. 167 My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly. 168 I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways [are] before thee. 169 TAU. Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD: give me understanding according to thy word. 170 Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word. 171 My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes. 172 My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments [are] righteousness. 173 Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts. 174 I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law [is] my delight. 175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me. 176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.
Verse 165 is a great verse of discernment. Great peace have they who love thy law – they shall in no wise be offended. Are you easily offended? Are you harboring wounds and offenses down in your heart because of the mistreatment at the hands of others. The next time you choose to become offended and angry at others go to verse 165 and let it discern you. If you are offended the observation of this verse is that you have fallen out of love with the word of God.
We can preach messages on forgiveness, and letting go and receive all forms of personal ministry and inner healing – but the answer of God’s word is very simple and very clear. We need to fall in love once again with God’s word. God’s word and giving yourself over to God’s word may not seem like an answer to what you are going through. Of course it would not seem like a solution for you because if it did you would not be struggling with wounding and offense. This is the great challenge to people dealing with difficulties in life. Someone comes along who is walking in a level of dominion greater than yours and their example doesn’t seem to apply to your situation. Of course it would not. If it did your life and testimony would look like the one that they are experiencing. You have to be teachable. You have to be willing to selling yourself into an application and implementation of a strategy that your head and heart in an uninformed state will object to at every step of the way.
God’s word is the life line that the Father throws out to us in our ignorance and our pain. Through the word of God the Father is saying to us “I know you are hurting and I know you don’t know what to do next ….” He is calling you to align with His word even though it seems like the furthest thing applicable to your life and the least resource that could make any difference. There are people out there that you are exposed to who have walked the path that would lead to total transformation in your life. The writer of Hebrews wrote to a people under maximum pressure who were flailing about with great desperation for relief and deliverance. His counsel to them was this:
[Heb 13:7 KJV] 7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of [their] conversation.
Latch on to the testimony of the word of God. Know that things can be different for you than you have been going through. Set aside your own skepticism and doubt. Refuse to sanctuary yourself in the mind-set of the scoffer or the skeptic. Become one who accepts the word of God in simplicity and can be led by those who have been down your path and found the direction in life through the word of God and abandonment to its precepts and found life and life more abundantly.

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