Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
There are seasons in the lives of all believers when it is not easy to believe that God is good and faithful. Our faith is sorely tried, our eyes shed many tears, and we struggle to find His love in the circumstances of our lives. In those seasons, it’s so important to remember that it was His kindness that brought us to salvation (Rom. 2:4). I do not want to imagine where I would be without the Lord.
I believe the more we remember and reflect on the God’s goodness and faithfulness to us, the deeper our trust in Him and His plan for our lives will grow.
Psalm 105 is a magnificent picture of His eternal goodness and faithfulness. The opening sentence says, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord!” We could do a million messages on being thankful and it would not be enough. Thankfulness is eternal. They are being thankful in heaven right now (Rev. 4:9). We are blessed as a nation to have a national holiday to remind us to be thankful.
Then it says, “Call upon His name;” This is heaven’s prescription for all sorts of human ailments; make your request known with thanksgiving and anxiety, fear, sorrow and so on will be replaced with peace (Phil. 4:6-7). The Lord hears the cry of His people and will deliver them (Ps. 34:17). Never underestimate the power of prayer with thanksgiving.
Next it says, “Talk of all His wondrous works!” This is an exhortation to set your mind on what God is doing or has done rather than what He is not doing. This is Colossians 3:1-3 practically expressed. So many people are defeated in their daily walk with God because they focus on the wrong thing.
We talk about what we think about as words are thoughts that are expressed. A person’s conversation reveals the musings of their heart (Luke 6:45) and we build or tear down our lives with our words.
We are then told to, “Glory in His holy name;” My first thought is how do I do that? And it immediately tells us how; “Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!”
I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit earlier this year and He let me know that He did not appreciate believers thinking it is a burden or issue to seek Him for decisions and directions for their lives. Yet many sincere believers struggle with this very thing.
Seeking Him for guidance and direction for your life should not be burdensome, but a joy and relief, it is an honor to have God’s Spirit right alongside helping you. In fact, it is an insult to the Spirit of grace to not receive with open arms the Helper; Jesus Himself declared that it would be better if He left so we could have Him (John 16:7).
I love how it tells us to “Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore!” For years we heard don’t seek the hand of the Lord, seek only His face. That is such religious baloney. Right here it tells us to seek the Lord and it explains seeking the Lord means seeking His hand (strength) and His face! God wants to reveal His power to us. We need His power. We need face time with Him. We don’t have to choose. We can have both.
The last thing I want to share is it tells us to “Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth.” Jesus testified to the power of remembering when He appealed to His disciples to remember when their hearts were hard and could not connect with spiritual reality (Matt. 8:17-21). A wise prophet once told me, “If the Lord is not moving in your church just remember what He has done. Testify what He has done and He will do it again.”
Many Blessings, BW