Sunday, November 23, 2014

JOY, JOY, JOY - DOWN IN YOUR HEART! (Psalm 20:4-5)

4 He grant you according to your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your purpose.
5 We will rejoice in your salvation,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.  (Psalm 20:4-5)

This is a really tricky thing. We know, both from Scripture and personal experience that the heart is a deceitful, deceptive and even evil thing, "who can know it"? We hear people telling us all the time to "follow our hearts". This is a usually recipe ingredient for disaster because if we follow our hearts, into some gray areas, WITHOUT following what you and I know is right, according to the Will, Word and Wishes of God - we will end up in a very bad place. How many more times do we have to learn the lessons of history.

We live in a culture, society and system which is led by emotions over rational reasoning and while some of this is good, if based on Timeless Truths, most of it can lead to some horrible stuff. How many apparently solid marriages are broken up because a husband or wife "fall out of love" and it is usually when one person falls for somebody more tempting and alluring. Then, this person proceeds to justify it as "God wants me to be happy" - all emotion-based, all led by the heart. Recently a number of well-known 'christian' singers-songwriters have declared their same-sex status and are living in sin with their partners, but have become belligerent (without anyone asking) in their justification of their human desires, vis-à-vis the Lord and His Word. Both are wrong, and both types of conduct are outside the Will and Purposes of God.

Verse 4 above exhorts us to line up our hearts AND our minds with the Will, Plan and Purposes of God. There is a reason Jesus said the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. When you truly love somebody, you commit all to them and even more so when this somebody is the One Who holds your life in His Hands, Who created you and Who sustains you ONLY by His Good graces. There is nothing good to endear us to Him except our obedience.  But the Good News if we pick up our Cross daily, die to our fleshly and sinful lusts and desires and if we seek Him daily and His righteousness, our spirit and soul will line up SO perfectly with His Will, Word, Plan and Purposes for our lives, that we can never stop our cup from overflowing with blessings from above.

When this happens, we can not stop rejoicing! We then develop a joy, joy, joy, joy down in our real hearts, which are in sync with God's, that is there to stay! This is confirmed in Verse 5 as we rejoice in not just the fact of our salvation and future eternal home with the Lord, but we have a magnetic pull whose powerful attraction to the LIGHT Of CHRIST so permeates every fiber of our being, that we cannot wait a moment to be near it! This is the TRUE JOY of being a Biblical Christian.  The difference between rejoicing and happiness is similar to the chasm between God and those who have rejected Him. This perishing world seeks after lust, power, fake peace treaties, pomp circumstance and phony show (to fulfill their human happiness) but those whose full gaze are fixed on JEHOVAH NISSI - The God Who is our Standard, will rise on that Day, and will have both the Joy and Peace that passes ALL understanding, even in today's evil, dark and perilous times.

Father God, we love You, and praise You for Your Mercy, Love, Grace and Long- suffering. We don't deserve a thing You give us, in fact we deserve hell and all the punishment set up for those who reject You. But by Your Mercy and Compassion, You saw our sad estate and sent Your Son the Savior - Jesus - to empty Himself and die for us on the Cross, paying the price for the evil desires of our heart, that we may be reconciled unto Thee. Father today, we commit our heart's desires to You and pray for the wisdom, the obedience, the perseverance and the commitment to be solidified in us that what we want in every aspect and facet of our lives will line up with the Plans and Purposes You have had for us since the foundations of the World.  As You told Jeremiah, You knew Him before You formed him in the womb and You know us well too, Father. You know our failures, lusts, weaknesses and even strengths.  Do away with the first two, turn our weaknesses into strengths and our strengths into eyes FIXED on Jerusalem that we may see the spiritual Holy City and the Kingdom Work You have called us to and thus, answer all the prayers and petitions we make, as we are no aligned more perfectly with what You, in Your perfect wisdom, have in store for us. We love, adore, praise and magnify Your Holy Name, through Christ the King, amen.

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