Months ago I was given the book, Live Love Lead by Brian Houston. My friend and future son-in-law, Kyle Johnson dropped it in my lap as a gift from his mother whom I have never met. They attend Hillsong that Brian Houston had founded and which is now a worldwide movement.
I said all that to say, “We need reminders of what God has done and will do in our lives.”
[We] were created, gifted, and graced for God’s eternal purpose,
a divinely implanted purpose, So what’s yours?
(Quoted from Live Love Lead by Brian Houston pg. 246)
That was my reminder, like a loving brick upside my head. Up until then, Brian Houston’s book had been tickling me in places I’d rather not be tickled while in my misery. After years of ministry within and without the church, as a pastor and short term missionary, my life due to circumstance has been reduced from wide-open full throttle to, if not homebound then at least on a thirty-mile leash.
I’ve traded my pulpit for a dishwasher and washer-dryer combo. My outreach is done holding the hand of my four-year-old son, Tobias, who I wake up looking forward to running with, but often feel more like his valet. When I turn sixty-years-old he’ll already be five. The abler he becomes, the more _________ I become. (I refuse to fill in that blank)
People try to remind me every day that what I am doing is securing a future for Tobias. I smile and say, “You’re right.” I believe it, but I want bigger, if such a thing exists.
Today I was reminded of more than that. I was reminded of a Psalm I prayed through, believed, and held onto for many past years, but recently my hold on it had become rather limp.
Psalm 37:3-8
(3) Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
(4) Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
(5) Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
(6) He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.
(7) Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
(8) Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret— it only causes harm
(3) Trust in the Lord, and do good;
It sounds like a command, but this is more of a promise. Following a semicolon which is always a promise of more, it reads in the King James Version:
so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
So as a promise, I take it to mean: if I put my trust in the Lord (and if He is not trustworthy, then nothing and no one is) and live out my day to day life trusting Him for each next step, I will be fed by his faithfulness.
That is very good news indeed.
(4) Delight yourself also in the Lord…
If I choose to make Him my delight instead of cast blame, bitterness, or ignore Him altogether,
He will give me the desires of my heart. Now it does say heart, not mind or other body parts. The heart has always been God’s big interest. The New Testament Gospel accounts record more than forty instances of Jesus speaking about the heart.
Jesus tells us that’s where good and evil come from, and that is where our true treasure abides, and he also tells us:
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. (John 14:1)
Way back hundreds of years before in the Psalms, God was telling us the heart was the key to our good fortune (the eternal kind). I have the audacity to believe that if I take my delight in God, He will effect my future hopes and dreams. And, wouldn’t you know it, that’s what the next verse says.
(5) Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
The word commit I’ve learned by study and experience means to roll together our purposes with His. If I enjoy writing, I should twist this up together with His purposes.
And, there it is again, the trust factor. Trust in the biblical sense is more than belief He exists. It means to rely on Him and cling to Him which comes with a promise.
He shall bring it to pass. IT being your hopes and dreams. But, wait there’s more.
(6) He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.
Forgive me if I over simply this beautifully worded verse. I take this, and keep it for myself, to mean that if you hold to the previous instructions and admonitions, to the best of your ability, He will make sure that the world around you sees that your dreams have been fulfilled.
In other words, those dreams will remain not only inside your head and heart, but the world will see and know what the Lord has done for you.
And while you are waiting for that to come:
(7) Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
This may be the hardest part of the entire verse. But waiting in God’s language is not a hopeful anticipation of something that might come.
God’s sense of waiting is like waiting for a reliable bus to come. You KNOW it will come at the appointed time.
And while you are waiting for it to come, Do not fret. Don’t begin to run to and fro with panic and worry that it might not come, especially as you watch people get theirs who don’t care a whit about God.
And the next verse is a lot like this one.
(8) Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret— it only causes harm.
Does that last instruction need any explanation? I thought not.
So, now that I have been reminded, I have reminded you and in so doing I have fulfilled part of these instructions.
May you be filled with all of God’s peace and grace as you go about your days.
