Vow of Love

Psalm 61: 7 – 8

I will live enthroned with you forever! Guard me, God, with your unending, unfailing love. let me live my days walking in grace and truth before you. And my praises will fill the heavens forever, fulfilling my vow to make every day a love gift to you!

Wow, what a vow! I never thought of that one, did you? Make every day a love offering to the Lord. No wonder David had the relationship with the Father that he did. No wonder he could hear the voice of God. He prayed earnestly, expecting God to take care of his every need but he gave back to God as well.

Psalm 103: 1 reads, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.” Have you ever wondered how to do that, how to bless the Lord? I have. I mean, He has everything. He can make anything He wants, except for the one thing He wants most of all. He longs for the love of His children. He just wants us to love Him. The things we can give Him are the things of the heart. You can spend time with Him. He values that highly. You can sing to Him, extol upon His goodness, even praise Him. When you pour out your heart to Him or just desire to spend time in His presence, it blesses Him.

I think we should all take a vow to love the Lord, our God, with every fiber of our being and to express that love as fully as possible. In today’s fast paced lifestyle, we don’t always stop and consider what would bless the Father. Well, it turns out that you are the love gift He most desires. Give Him you. Vow to make every day a love offering to the Lord.

Bless the Lord

Matthew 8: 2 – 4

A leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Tell me, what jumps out to you from this passage? There are many messages easily gleaned from these verses. As I read it recently, I was captivated by the last sentence. The facts are seen in the first two verses: evidence of faith, a request for healing, healing, and compassion. Jesus’ verbal response to the former leper is intriguing, though. The first message is this distinguishing between telling and doing. Jesus says, go do something. That actually is important because a leper would have been considered unclean and prohibited from going into the temple. However, the even more interesting part of Jesus’ statement is the directive to present the prescribed offering.

I am reminded of the story of Abram (Abraham) and Melchizedek from Genesis 14. Abram had just returned from battle when Melchizedek went out to meet him. Melchizedek brought wine, bread and a blessing. This is the blessing Melchizedek spoke over Abram, “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand,” (Genesis 14: 19 – 20). The narrative reveals that subsequently, Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all. That’s the tithe and this occurrence happened many years before the law. Therefore, Abram did not give a tithe out of any obligation imposed by the law. This all happened before Moses lived so you have to think it happens before Jewish custom as well because the tribes of Israel did not yet exist. Why then did Abram give a tenth of all and does this inform our lives in any way?

People really get hung up on the tithe and I just thank the Lord that my teachers led me to tithe early in my Christian life. Folks get all twisted here about Old Testament, New Testament, the law, grace, etc. There is no need for this theological maelstrom. You can figure this out for yourself. Clearly there is something going on here. The similarity between the telling of Abram’s story and the recounting of the leper’s experience with Jesus is revealing. First God blessed. Then man blessed God. Abram didn’t tithe in order to get God to do anything. God had already done everything. He gave the enemy into Abram’s hand and then sent His high priest with bread, wine and a blessing. Abram’s offering was a response, not initiative.

The same is true in the case of the leper but in this instance, Jesus had to teach the man as to a proper response. He said, go show yourself and present the prescribed offering. Other translations use the word gift instead of offering which I believe casts a different light on the matter. It makes me think of a gift of thanksgiving. God has done something wonderful. Does it not seem reasonable to express our faith, gratitude and thanksgiving in a tangible way?

Here is what I trip over – Why in the world do we resist giving to God? Was Abram concerned with how Melchizedek would use the tithe? He was not even asked to give, he just did, willingly and with a good heart. What makes Abram different from us? How is it that he could so easily give Melchizedek a tenth of the spoils without grumbling or worry? What is hard about it for us? Did Abram look at Melchizedek and judge the man or did he make his offering to God?

Jesus directed the leper to go give to God as an appropriate response to the gift of healing. Have we come so far in our societies that this is a foreign concept? Have we become cultures of takers rather than givers such that the thought of doing something nice for those who bless us is unique? Tips have become mandatory in many establishments rather than a deliberate blessing for someone who has treated us well? And, if so, is that something that has tainted our giving impetus. Or is it more basic than any of these sociological questions? Are we just self-gratifying pleasure seekers for whom the next toy is more important than thanksgiving for all the blessings our Father daily bestows upon us?

This passage makes me want to bless my Father. He will never be impressed with the pittance I lay upon the altar, but I pray that the condition of my heart and the appreciation and love with which I give, will bless Him. How much joy do you think you may find in a love offering from you to the lover of your heart? “Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name,” (Psalm 103: 1).

Bless You

Psalm 103: 1

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

When you think of the word “soul” what do you think of? David spoke to his soul telling it to bless the Lord. What did he have in mind? The most common definition these days for soul is your mind, will and emotions. One way to think of your soul would be that which is not your body or your spirit. It includes your personality and your memories. It is shaped by your past experiences. It is the interface through which you connect your internal self to the world. So, when I think of blessing the Lord, especially in directing my soul to bless Him, it boils down to blessing Him in all of my ways. I want every word I speak and every act to bless the Lord. Every thought and plan can be lifted up to the Lord. We always want Him to bless our plans but this verse turns it around. Let our plans bless Him. Let our thoughts bless Him.

David always calls us into deeper relationship with the Father. Here he challenged his soul, and thereby us as well, to bless the Lord with every ounce of his being. It is one thing to say, “All that I am I give to you Father,” but a different thing entirely to make each day an offering to the Lord with every thought you think, word you say or action. Not only is it an offering but David endeavored to bless God with everything within him, actively bless the Lord.

This expands my mind beyond its current boundaries. How about you? Does it challenge you to ponder how you can bless the Lord? How can your soul bless His holy name? I know you want to be a blessing the Lord, as do I. Imagine a whole body of believers who try to bless the Lord every day. I hope you will give David’s words some consideration. I would welcome your revelations. Post your thoughts on our website on the Word of the Day page and perhaps, we, as a body of believers, can help each other become greater blessings to the Lord.

Longing, Yearning and Seeking

Psalm 63: 1

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

Here are the words of someone who loves God, I mean who really, really loves God. Who do you think wrote these words? If you said, “David” you are right. One of the things I love about David is his passion for the Lord. He inspires me but also shames me a little. Another thing I appreciate about him is his willingness to express his love and devotion to the Father. I also am impressed with his ability to express these ardent emotions.

For those of us living in the western world, the expression of emotions is almost a lost art. We have learned to spurn emotions themselves, how much more the expression of them? God, though, is emotional. He is love which is more than an emotion but certainly involves the emotions. He also hates. Did you know that? Run a search on that and you will see. He and David had a love relationship with each other and neither was afraid to admit or express it. David was so demonstrative of his love for God that he made his wife mad. Maybe she was a bit jealous.

I admit that David embarrasses me a little with his confessions of love. Here is today’s verse as it appears in the Amplified version, “O God, You are my God; with deepest longing I will seek You; My soul [my life, my very self] thirsts for You, my flesh longs and sighs for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.” His longing for God is palpable. You can feel the deep yearning in his soul for the touch of God, for God’s presence. I find David’s desperate need for communion challenging but God says of David that he, “is a man after my own heart” (Acts 13: 22). David longed for the Father, trusted Him and sought to follow His ways. Some people talk about David’s sins but until God recognizes me as one after His heart then I will refrain from judging David. In fact, I look forward to meeting him and telling him how much his songs inspired me. Oh that I might be like David and yearn for the Father will all my being as he did; with a desire so strong for fellowship with the Father that he ached in his emotions and even in his body.

We are blessed that David shared his emotions and his relationship with God with us. We, like peeping Tom’s, get to peer inside and gain a new perspective on the depth of relationship we can enjoy with the Father even while we are here in the earth. “Bless the Lord oh my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name” (Psalm 103: 1) and teach me to seek Him as fervently as did David.

Bless the Lord

Psalm 103: 1

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Let us stop and consider what this really means. What does it mean to you? Is this praise? I don’t think we ever can go wrong in offering praise and I believe that praise always blesses the Lord. However, I hear more in this entreaty than praise alone. The psalmist, David, sounds like he is pulling these lyrics and prayer up from his toes. He commands his own soul to bless the Lord and then He seems to rethink that statement. “Not only,” he might say, “do I demand that my soul bless the Lord but I want to bless Him with everything that is within me.”

This is one of those passages of scripture that is better felt than thought about. I say this because this is an emotional outcry from David and I do not believe we can connect with his sentiments or the words without tapping into something deeper in ourselves. This seems David’s course as well. He wanted His celebration of God to include every fiber of his being. He was reaching into his innermost being to express his great love for God. Have you ever felt that way?

I think when we desire to bless God we will tend to offer him praise and songs but I would wish that we would not overlook the full scope of opportunities to bless God. I wonder if there is any better way to bless Him than to simply say, “I love you Father. Thank you for being my Dad.” We can also bless Him by intentionally choosing courses of action that will please Him. I am thinking of the scenario wherein someone has caused hurt or offense in your life and you say to God, “You know what Father, I am going to choose to forgive that person because you want me to.” Surely He is blessed when His children behave in the ways He has directed us. I believe He is blessed when he watches us write our check to a ministry not because of anything we will get out of it but just because we want to be a blessing.

There are a number of ways we can bless our Lord and what David seems to express in this Psalm is a deep desire to avail himself of every single way he could think of to bless the Lord. His desire to bless the Lord may have even morphed into a deep need to be a blessing. Open that tender part of your heart today and try to connect with David’s heartfelt expression. Let everything within you reach towards the Lord and bless His holy name.