Psalm 30:3 “O LORD, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit.”

[You can heal when all hope is lost, you can restore when no possibility remains, you can give life when death is imminent. I praise you for your grace in preserving with us when we deserve destruction. And you can take us to be with you when the right time comes.

To know you is to have a rich life, a full life, eternal life; to trust you is freedom from worry, fear and anxiety; to rest in you brings true, lasting and powerful peace.

I give you glory for your goodness to me, Lord, for the certainty of your activity in my life, and for the joy of a future with you. I am so blessed, so filled with your goodness, so gifted with joy and knowledge and experience with you, so privileged to be able to join you through prayer in what you are doing.

To know you, Father God, King of Glory, Lord of the Universe, to be your child, to be given a place at your table, in your family, in your Kingdom, to have instant access to your heart and attention, to be called to join you in your work—these are great and powerful privileges, undeserved, totally from grace, wonderfully bestowed, gratefully received.

Lord Jesus, may you be exalted in my life today; Heavenly Father, may you be pleased with my life today; Holy Spirit, may you be honored through obedience in my life today.

I praise you that as I commit my way to you and trust also in you, you will bring the best to pass, you will bring forth the righteousness you’ve given me as the light and my judgment in your forgiveness as the noon day sun (Ps. 37).

I praise you that you give us your Shield of Victory, that you support us with your Powerful Right Arm, that you stoop down from your Throne to make us great as your children (Ps. 18).

To you be glory and honor and praise, O Lord God, the Triune One, the Perfect One, the Powerful One, the Most High Ruler of all. To you I bow down today, for you I rise up to live in obedience so that you may be honored. Give me the direction and wisdom you know I need for this day, O Lord, and I praise you now for what you will do.

More thoughts on  “I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths….”

You are worthy of praise for bringing us out from the shadow of sin into the light of your love,

into the warmth of your delight, the acceptance of your grace and the wonder of your goodness.

You brought us out into a spacious place because you delighted in us, even before we believed in you;

you did this because of your great love that works against all reason, against all odds, against all human idea of justice.

You are worthy of exaltation, Jesus, for you are the LORD Yahweh, the King of glory, the Savior of the world, the Shepherd of the redeemed and Leader of all who will follow.

Help us this day, this week, this month, this year, Lord, to live in the light of your goodness, to be your disciples by denying our natural selfishness so we can live in otherness.

And by obeying your Word, taking up our cross daily and following you with all our hearts. May we run with endurance the race you have set before us, looking to you so that you may finish our faith and glorify yourself in the process.

Update, they let me out of the hospital today and I am home, hopefully healed. No surgery, thank God!

Being in the hospital overnight is always an exhausting experience, but there are opportunities to share nuggets of truth, to encourage someone and pass on one of my books. God always has multiple purposes in what He does or allows.

My natural inclination is to have what is comfortable and convenient. But God is more interested in giving us challenges for growth, chances to witness and conditions conducive spread of the gospel. When we focus on our own discomfort and disappointment, our discouragement, we miss seeing the big picture. As someone said, the only way we can get that bigger picture is through revelation, which means the Word. “My ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than yours.

Personally  I find it hard not to focus on the little picture, just one tree in the forest, so to speak, rather than seeing whole sweeping panorama of the forest and beyond. To put it another way, I prefer to be distracted by my pain rather than the possibilities. But God is patient and persistent in leading us onward and upward, further into His Kingdom, on to greater vistas of His greatness, glory and goodness.

As it says in Psalm 34, “Fear the Lord, you his saints for there is no lack for those who fear Him.” Fearing God means trusting Him, caring more of what He thinks than of what I or others think. It is ever a challenge to be looking up rather than down. May we all practice living in the revelation of God, seeing the whole forest and following Him wherever He leads.

Some thoughts for Thanksgiving.

What is the purpose of our life?

To glorify God, to honor Him.

And how do we do that?

By Faith (without faith we cannot please God).

Practically speaking what does that mean?

Psalm 50:23 “He who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving…”that is,  giving thanks for what we don’t like,

“Honors me…” There it is, giving thanks when we’d rather complain gives great honor to God,

For this kind of thanksgiving is purely by faith,

trusting God that He has a plan which includes this point I don’t like.

But, because we know His character (Wise, Loving, Gracious, All-knowing and Almighty, to name a few)

we can offer thanks to Him in any circumstance.

“and opens the way that I may show Him the salvation of the Lord!”

We give God honor, He gives us help, in everyday things as well as eternity.

So, Thanksgiving is a good time to give thanks, both

For all the good things in our lives

And for the things we prefer not to have, but came with God’s purpose.

These are practices we are called to continue all through the year. So,, “Just make up your mind and do it!”

“I will bless the Lord at all time, His praise shall be continually in my mouth, my soul shall make her boast in Him….” Psalm 34:1-2