Jesus bore His cross out of love for us…
Good morning Jeanette,
I thought I would share a part of my devotions with you this morning.
I was reading from Psalm 145, and in verses 17-20 (Expanded Bible) it says,
17 ·Everything the Lord does is right [The Lord is righteous in all his ways].
He is loyal ·to all he has made [or in all his deeds].
18 The Lord is ·close [near] to everyone who ·prays to [calls on] him,
to all who ·truly pray to him [call on him in truth/faithfulness].
19 He ·gives those who respect him what they want [accomplishes the desire of all who fear him; Prov. 1:7].
He listens when they cry, and he ·saves them [gives them victory].
20 The Lord ·protects [guards; keeps] everyone who loves him,
but he will destroy the wicked.
____
It appears that David always prayed for God’s strength when he felt overwhelmed, as we also must do at those times when life seems harder than we can bear.
In Psalm 139 we read that David recognized that the days of his life were all written in God’s book, before he was even born.
That God has predestined each of us with a Destiny and a Future!
It says,
“My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they ALL were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (Psalm 139:15, 16).
Here David emphasizes the pronoun “You” as if to say “You, God, and You alone.”
“Made in secret” suggests a hidden and safe place, concealed from intruders and evil.
Just as an artist takes a canvas into a locked studio, so God took you into His hidden chamber where you were “skillfully wrought.”
Just think, God did this for each of us!
Moses used the same word to describe the needlework of the tabernacle’s inner curtains—stitched together by skillful hands for the highest purpose (see Exodus 26:1; 36:8; 38:9).
The Master Weaver selected your temperament threads, your character texture, the yarn of your personality—all before you were born.
God did not drop you into the world utterly defenseless and empty-handed.
You arrived fully equipped.
“The days fashioned . . .”
Day of birth and day of death.
Days of difficulty and victory.
What motivates you, what exhausts you . . . God authored—and authors—it all.
Other translations employ equally intriguing verbs:
“You . . . knit me together” (v. 13 NLT).
“I was woven together in the dark of the womb” (v. 15 NLT).
“I was . . . intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors]” (v. 15 AMP).
We each are uniquely and wonderfully made, to the point there are no two of us that existed that are exactly the same, in all of history or anytime in the future.
Some psalms directed people to praise God, but in Psalm 145, we are directed to God. to praise Him in ALL things and in every situation.
It begins and ends with hallelujah, the Hebrew word for “Praise the Lord.”
In Matthew 15:31 we read, “The multitude, marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing”
We can only imagine the throngs of people pushing and shoving. Wanting to get close to Jesus.
Not to request anything or demand anything, but just to say “thank you.” . . .
However they did it, they did it. And Jesus was touched, so touched that He insisted they stay for a meal before they left. . . .
Worship is the “thank you” that refuses to be silenced.
Worship is a voluntary act of gratitude offered by the saved to the Savior, by the healed to the Healer, and by the delivered to the Deliverer.
Let us think about these words and meditate on them today, because in spite of what we may be going through, in our life, God is worthy of all of our praise and adoration; and it is in this very praise and adoration that we charge the gates of hell, to gain the victory that we seek, and we thereby put the enemy on the defensive!
As your prayer partner, Jeanette, and as your friend and soul mate, I promise I will always stand with you, by your side in this battle, to pray for you and to lift you up; to encourage you, when you’re feeling down, and to support you in every way I can, even to lay my life down for you if I have to…, and for me to do so I count as an absolute privilege, because I love you.
Shalom shalom🙏♥️🙏
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