Psalms and Joy

We can read the word of God but how often do we ponder it deeply in meditation? Biblical meditation is not about emptying your mind but instead interacting with and understanding something deeply. We need God's help in a world that never stops moving and where we intake information at higher speed than ever. Being connected to God through His Word in meditation promises to grow us and root us deeply in Him. \r\n

Our natural way to address our sin is to deny its sinfulness in many different ways and to hide from it. But God is calling us to come to Him and address the sin in confession, repentance, and ask for His great compassion to blot out our transgressions. The church is for people who know they are sinners not for those who think they have no sin to confess.

Envy is all about getting other people to see how great we are or viewing ourselves as greater than other people. Instead of grabbing at what we want from God, God instead, hands us something we don't deserve. This is the grace of God and it is a real joy; it comes with a unique role that God has given us to tell others about how great He is.

Our adoration of God is hindered by the focus of our own hearts. When we are distracted by our pride, our cynicism, or our fears of this world, we are creating barriers that keep us from seeing who God is and living a life of adoration towards Him. As we learn to adore God for who He is, we will be continually freed to pray through life with clarified emotional and relational freedom.

What is this pain of God's hiddenness? Is it God abandoning us to leave us on our own through troubling times? No! Those are the lies of Satan who actively tries to accuse us and put lies about God on our mind. In fact, this is a pain that every believer may go through in their life and often it is caused by our own choices. We have two ways we can respond to this. One is that we must talk to God very openly about this pain, and two is we must talk very aggressively to ourselves about how to interpret this pain. Even Jesus had to turn to God in the garden of Gethsemane about his pain. We are no different and God has promised us that when we turn to him in supplication that He will move towards us in love.

When we focus on our fear, the object of our fear begins to grow, and our view of God begins to shrink. When we put our focus on God, He will grow, and our fears will be diminished. Our reverence for God for who He is and His power drives out our fears of the world. We have to practice doing this reactively when situations of fear come up in our life. We must go to scripture to reaffirm in our hearts who God is, His power, and ask for help.

It is easy for us to get an inward focus started when we are confronted with the anxieties and challenges of life. God has given more to free us than anyone else in our lives - He sent His own son to die for our sins so that we could have a relationship with Him. God's provision gives us the capacity to serve others, and we can remember this by turning to Him.

Some people might try to tell you that drawing near to God is an escape from real life, but the truth is drawing near to God is what enables us to face real life. There's a desire in our heart to worship something and when we are absent from God's presence we try to fill that desire with ourselves. When we come before God, we must start by accepting His appointed sacrifice which is Jesus on the cross, who made it possible for us to have a relationship with God. We must praise God for who He is, not simply thanking Him for what He has done recently.