The resources God has given us to live a thriving life are His Word, Spirit, and People.
Read God’s Word:
Psalms 26, 40-41, 58
Act 2: God’s Covenant People
Scene 5: Kings and Prophets: God shapes a kingdom people
Background Information: Psalms 26, 40-41, 58
David says that he loves the house of God because he loves to be in God’s presence. David lived in community. He loved to worship with others. In fact, his Psalms were used not merely for his own private devotions, but for public worship. They were used then, as now, to teach truth about God and how his people are to live in relationship with him. Was David a hypocrite for saying that he hates hypocrites? It is not hypocrisy to sin. It is hypocrisy to sin and claim you are not a sinner. This was not David. So David could ask God for mercy, even as his enemies came against him and his friends turned on him. He admits that he has sinned against God, and that much of his trouble started with his own sin. He was sinner and he admits as much. And as a sinner, he asks for mercy, not justice, and God grants him mercy. David rejoices that his sins were forgiven by God. He raises another important question in his Psalms. How can he say that God does not delight in sacrifices when God set up an enormous sacrificial system? David knew that he was not forgiven because of dead animals, but because he turned to God in his heart, and God forgave him. David understood, to some degree, that the sacrifices were not the point; the human heart is. To merely shuffle through the motions of rituals meant nothing to God. This will be a common theme for the prophets. God has always wanted a man or a woman whose heart was fully his. The sacrifices, like the law, were “shadows” that pointed forward to the final sacrifice of Jesus (Hebrews 10:5-10). In Christ we are being transformed in our hearts into the image of Christ. When David was fleeing from his own son Absalom, he was developing war strategies, mustering troops for battle, and writing Psalms as he poured out his heart to God. You don’t have to write poetry, but in your own busy and sometimes confusing life, you must pour out your heart to God. You must not merely “fight the fight,” you must continually cry out to God from your heart. He is pleased with the heart that is fully, though imperfectly, his.
Pray:
Praise God for…
Thank God for…
Confess your sins to God
Ask God give strength and endurance to teachers as the finish up the school year. Pray that would have finish well and invest faithfully into the lives of their students.
Ask God for… (what else concerns you?)
Reflect:
Write down one passage of scripture that stood out to you today.
Write down why this passage stood out to you.
Engage Community:
Text or call someone now and tell them…
– What you are praying for.
– What stood out from God’s word today.