(Study 7) Random Encourgements from the Lord today

In my quiet time with the Lord this morning, I knew I did not have my joy. Joy is not my 'closest' friend. Joy still lives with me, but I leave before joy gets up, and I'm home way after joy has gone to bed. Joy is from my time with the Lord. I've let thoughts creep in during my time with Him, and not spent the 'quality' of time with Him that He's asked for, and He's deserved, and I've needed. So this morning, I got real with Him, and talked to Him about this. But in the past, I've been all about His Spirit, and very little about His Word. So as I told Him that this moring, I asked Him would He show me about Himself in His Word to me. I want this in the spirit and in His word too. I want a well-ordered heart as we learned about in Wednesday nights meeting at New Life Church-Heber Spring (my church) this week.

The past few studies, we have been in 2 Peter. So I opened the bible and began near where I've left off in my reading, and one particular scripture caught my eye. But I want you to look at these verses with me in your bible. So I'll wait while you go get yours, so we can look together at how the Lord is wanting to encourage us today. So go get it!

K. You got it? Okay great! Open it up to 2 Peter 2:9 first. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations..." I began to think this through. Since the Lord knows how to deliver us when we're tempted, He knows how, then we need to go to Him while tempted to let Him show us how to move out of the temptation. He knows how. He's the one that delivers. He's the one that has the path out. He's the one with the know how. Makes sense, then, to get 'close' to the one that knows how, huh? It does, doesn't it? It doesn't make a lick of sense, while in the temptation, to talk to friends that have the same issue. It doesn't make sense to just go on through it alone either (tho He's never left us, always with us, we can go thru it without acknowledging Him, therefore never allowing Him to help us. Make sense?). Since the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, then Lord, we need to come to you.

This scripture references Psalm 34:17, so let's turn there. "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Verse 18: "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit". A humble spirit, a spirit that wants His will, contrite, humble.

It refereces verse 6 also. "The poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles". This references verse 4 just above it: " I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears". King David is the writer of this Psalm, and he was speaking of himself in verse 4 and then calling himself the poor man in verse 6. Now we all know King David was not a poor man in money, he was a rich king. But King David was a humble man, of a contrite spirit. He valued God above all things. But even as we are, King David was a human being, no matter how close to God, was lured away from His duties of going to war, and stayed home, and one particular day was gazing out his window and saw a woman bathing and had impure thoughts of her and called for her to come to him. Her Husband was about his duties of war and on the right path, but King David was out of order, out of routine, staying back and shirked his duties, and began sinning with this woman. We know David was not always, then, humble. For sinning is truly rebellion against God. Rebellion is pride, as we saw with Lucifer, the angel of praise in Heaven rise up in pride and take so many other angels with him. It ... is sin, and punishable. And if we are not doing what 'our' routine is, time alone with God and time with Him in His word, then we too open ourselves to being lured away as David was. But .... as he wrote to God in verse 6 "this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles". David knew the Lord knew how to deliver him. And cried out to Him to help Him. The Lord did just that, as He will in our lives. God cannot resist the cries of a righteous person. Remember how we've studied out that it's not our righteousness, but God's Sons' righteousness we accept as ours. We have traded places with Jesus Christ, and live alive unto God as Jesus would. It's the righteousness of Christ that God cannot resist. How do we stay in this righteousness? Through continually accepting what Jesus Christ did for us and walking in obedience to God. God cannot resist a person [man or woman] that walks like this. This .... is humbleness.

Then my eyes fell on Psalm 32:10-11: "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy. (there's my joy!) all ye that are upright in heart". Then on to Psalm 33: "Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright"

"Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings".

"Sing unto Him a new song...". Let's stay here for a moment. Let's examine what our song has been lately. Have we had an encouraging sound coming out? Have we? Have we been uplifting and encouraging for others to hear, for the LORD to hear? Have we? Here the Lord says.....SING......A NEW SONG.

sing.....SING.....sing......SING......sing a new song:

O Lord, we SING.....we sing Lord. We sing of Your mercy. We sing of Your strength. We have none Lord. We have no strength Lord. You ARE our strength.

Sorry, I just had to. I think my JOY is showing! hahahaha.....I just wanted us to sing a new song to the Lord. okay....what else does this Psalm say about all this?

"play skilfully with a loud noise"

"For the word of the Lord is right; and all His works are done in truth".

"He loveth righteousness and judgement: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord".  Again, let's look at this one. Thoughts come to my mind of all that's going on in the world today as I read this. Do we see the Lord's goodness? Or do we see the evil in the world? Are we perpetuating the goodness of the Lord and therefore see the goodness of the Lord as the earth is full of it? If this scripture says the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, then the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. The word of the Lord is right as it says in the verse above. So if we're not seeing the goodness of the Lord that is full in the earth, then perhaps we need to be closer to the Lord, and hang on that vine and become full so we can see the goodness of the Lord and extend it to others. Amen?

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth". Remember that's how He made man a living soul? (Genesis 2:7 "and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul") He scooped up some dust and formed a man, laying him on the ground infront of Him. Lifeless was this dust. No breathing, no sound, like a clay model that a potter forms, lifeless. But He didn't leave him in that condition. He breathed into him. His breath warmed the insides of that man form. His breath swirled inside, making lifelessness breathe. He breathed into his nostrils the first CPR ever recorded. He brought him .... to life.

He made the hosts of the Heavens this way too.....by the breath of His mouth.

"He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses". What comes to mind is the storehouse on farmville in facebook. lol. The Lord has a storehouse. He places things in His storehouse at a mere thought.

"He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap" references Exodus 15:8, so let's go there. The heading of these scriptures in Exodus refer to the story of Him taking the Israelites across the Red Sea, so let's see what the Lord is saying "and with a blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. There's God's farmville storehouse; the heart of the sea. lol. Did you know God had a storehouse in the heart of the sea?

Psalm 33:8: "Let all the earth fear the Lord".....let's talk about this fear. This fear isn't the fear like we'd think about being scared of getting hurt, or fear of the unknown, or someone jumping out and scaring us kind of fear. No this is the fear like when you were in Jr High and your Father tells you to go cut a switch off the tree, that you were going to get a whoopin 'kind of fear'. You knew he loved you, so he wasn't going to kill you. lol. But you had reverence or awe that he had the power, the authority, to whip the hide off your tail. Right? That kind of fear. This is talking about us revering the Lord, knowing He has all power and authority to do what He would like to do, when He liked to do it, and where to put it once He'd done it. But He stays within the bounds of His word that's He's put into place. I love that about Him. He's spoken a promise and He keeps it. We dont hear alot about revering someone these days. This is a mark of character, fearing or reverencing the Lord.

"....let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him"

"For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast'

"The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: He maketh the devices of the people of none effect"

"The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations". I believe right here is a clue of why the bible has come out unscathed through out all these years, why it has lasted and survived all the ages since the scriptures were brought together in one place. Because 'the thoughts of His heart (the bible you hold in your hand right now) the thoughts of His heart to all generations'. Amen?

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance"

"The Lord looketh from Heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men"

"From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth:

He fashioneth their hearts alike; He considereth all their works"

"There is no king saved by the mulitude of a host [an army]: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength"

"A horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength"

"Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that (what?) fear Him (reverence Him), upon them that hope in His mercy"

"To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine"

"Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our help and our shield"

"For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name" MY JOY!

"Let they mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee". Amen!

Please let me know your thoughts. If you'd like to praise the Lord, do so in the comments. Let's all share what we're thinking....