December 23, 2024

As Long As I Live

February 20, 2014 by

SeekingHimLogo

I love the Lord, because He has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because He inclined His ear to me,
therefore I will call on Him as long as I live.
Psalms 116:1-2

From generation to generation, God has sustained His people.  He has carried them through the difficulties they have had to endure.  In these verses, we see where it begins.  ‘I love the LORD;’ perhaps we need to say that more.  If we do love Him, let’s proclaim it!  The psalmist goes on to say why He loves God… “because He has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy, because He inclined His ear to me.”  If you have walked with the Lord for any length of time, you know these two verses to be true.  Our hearts should burst with love for Him because He’s been attentive to our pleas for mercy and has helped us.  And you know full well that once you’ve tasted how wonderful life is with Him, you desire to call on Him all the days of your life!  And in doing so, He will be your strength for you!

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
Psalm 34:8

I do not deserve what God has given me.  He has lavished love, mercy, and grace on me!  And the more He does, the more I find myself loving Him more!

Because the Lord sent Jesus to die on the Cross in my place and has forgiven me of my sins, I now have a relationship with Him that will last for an eternity. And no matter what I have to endure on this earth, I know Jesus walks beside me.  No one can separate me from His love.  If you know and love Him, the same can be said for you.

Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written, ‘For Your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, not angels nor rulers,
nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39

Friends, pray.  Call on Him as long as you live!  Love Him!  Have a deep and personal relationship with the Almighty God!  He loves you and cares for you!

Dear Lord,
I love you, and I thank You for hearing my voice when I cry out to You—the first time I knew I desperately needed You and every time since then.  Every time, You have been there to help me, forgive me, comfort me, understand me, and restore me.  You are my precious and wonderful God! Thank You for hearing my pleas of mercy and for always being there!  I will call on You as long as I live!  In Jesus’ precious Name I pray, Amen.

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I Love the Lord

February 19, 2014 by

SeekingHimLogo

Thinking of personal testimonies, I want us to look at Psalm 116 as a personal testimony.  We do know that this man faced great peril and was delivered by the Lord.  This is a very personal psalm, with the writer making reference to himself 37 times in 19 verses.  Only in verses 5, 15, and 19, is there is not at least one personal pronoun used.

The exciting thing is that we can relate to this man’s testimony.  As we study this passage we find that what was true of this man should be true for us as well. Because the Psalmist used the personal pronoun “I”, let’s you and I use the personal pronoun as well.  In this passage let’s consider:

I love the Lord, for He heard my voice;
He heard my cry for mercy.
Because He turned His ear to me,
I will call on Him as long as I live.
Psalms 116:1 and 2

Many Psalms begin with praise.  This Psalm alludes to praise, but is actually a statement of the Psalmists devotion, “I LOVE THE LORD!”

If someone were to ask us, “Do you love the Lord?” our natural inclination is to say “YES.”  In this statement of devotion it is something that the Psalmist should, also, have thought about before making the statement.  (I imagine that he did.)  You and I should think about this statement, “I LOVE THE LORD!”  It’s very easy to say ‘I LOVE THE LORD’ and a lot more difficult to actually practice that love!

And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:37-39

Next the Psalmist says, I love the Lord BECAUSE… ”He turned His ear to me, I will call on Him…” I think we can sum up our love for the Lord with 1 John 4:19, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”  The Psalmist’s expression of love is because the Lord heard and answered his prayer.  (Re-read Verses 1-2).

The Psalmist was in grave trouble and the Lord came down and heard (so to speak).  How many times has God done the same for us?  When we’ve been in great need and cried out, He has been there for us!

Notice something else here.  The Psalmist says, “Because He has turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.”  That should be our attitude as well—because the Lord has answered our prayers, we should continue to pray.  He has shown Himself to be my God.  I should treat Him as such and continue to call on Him.

The decision we can make today is to love the Lord.  The psalmist gives a specific reason for loving the Lord.  His reason was that God had heard his prayer.  There are many more reasons for deciding to love the Lord.  Some of the reasons we should love the Lord are because He loves us (1 John 4:10, 19), He died for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), He keeps us (John 10:27-30), He helps and protects us (Psalm 121), and He indwells us (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

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Lord God, thank You for ever-present help in times of my need.  Thank You for answered prayers whenever I call unto You.  You are a wonderful God.  May Your name be glorified in all the earth!  In Jesus’ name I pray.  Amen.

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