Saturday, April 25, 2015

Are you messed up? Me too.

"Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God. Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me. 
I will not accept a bull from your house or goats from your folds. 
For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.  Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."  - Psalm 50:7-15

God is not against us doing "good" deeds (verse 8), but He does not need us to do anything for Him or for us to give Him anything. It is already all His! (Verse 12)

What God desires from us is a thankful heart. He wants us to "call upon Him in the day of trouble"- in our weaknesses, temptations, discouragements, when we fall and when we feel overwhelmed. Why? Because He will deliver us and we will glorify Him because of His mercy!

Whenever I get into trouble, my initial reaction is to think that I have completely blown it and have let God down. I think, "Well He cannot use me now; I have failed. I am a hopeless case!" It is true... I am a hopeless case! "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24-25) But thanks be to God that Christ has come to set me free from... me!

Just because I am a Christian though does not mean that I have "arrived" yet. I am messed up. But the good news is that even when I do not measure up, God can still be glorified through me. Only, I must continually run to Christ - every day, every moment - let Him deliver me, and praise Him! The beauty of the Gospel is that Christ came to save and sanctify messed up people! Amazing? Yes! In fact, it is mind boggling. It is deep. It surpasses all my understanding. But it is real. It is true. And it is available to each and every one of us. Do you believe it?


"The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me..."  - Psalm 50:23