{"id":17945,"date":"2014-02-19T00:59:06","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T05:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=17945"},"modified":"2014-02-19T00:58:27","modified_gmt":"2014-02-19T05:58:27","slug":"17945","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/02\/19\/17945\/","title":{"rendered":"I Love the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thinking of personal testimonies, I want us to look at Psalm 116 as a personal testimony. \u00a0We do know that this man faced great peril and was delivered by the Lord. \u00a0This is a very personal psalm, with the writer making reference to himself 37 times in 19 verses. \u00a0Only in verses 5, 15, and 19, is there is not at least one personal pronoun used.<\/p>\n

The exciting thing is that we can relate<\/strong> to this man’s testimony. \u00a0As 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 \u201cI<\/em>\u201d, let’s you and I use the personal pronoun as well. \u00a0In this passage let’s consider:<\/p>\n

I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; <\/span>
\n He heard my cry for mercy. <\/span>
\nBecause He turned His ear to me, <\/span>
\n I will call on Him as long as I live. <\/span>
\nPsalms 116:1 and 2<\/span><\/p>\n

Many Psalms begin with praise. \u00a0This Psalm alludes to praise, but is actually a statement of the Psalmists devotion, \u201cI LOVE THE LORD!\u201d<\/p>\n

If someone were to ask us, “Do you love the Lord?” our natural inclination is to say “YES.” \u00a0In this statement of devotion it is something that the Psalmist should, also, have thought about before making the statement. \u00a0(I imagine that he did.) \u00a0You and I should think about this statement, “I LOVE THE LORD!” \u00a0It’s very easy to say ‘I LOVE THE LORD’ and a lot more difficult to actually practice that love!<\/p>\n

And He said to him, \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
\nand with all your soul, and with all your mind.
\nThis is the great and first commandment.
\nAnd a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
\nMatthew 22:37-39<\/p>\n

Next the Psalmist says, I love the Lord BECAUSE… \u201dHe turned His ear to me, I will call on Him…\u201d I think we can sum up our love for the Lord with 1 John 4:19, “We love Him, because He first loved us.” \u00a0The Psalmist’s expression of love is because the Lord heard and answered his prayer. \u00a0(Re-read Verses 1-2).<\/p>\n

The Psalmist was in grave trouble and the Lord came down and heard (so to speak). \u00a0How many times has God done the same for us? \u00a0When we’ve been in great need and cried out, He has been there for us!<\/p>\n

Notice something else here. \u00a0The Psalmist says, “Because He has turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.” \u00a0That should be our attitude as well\u2014because the Lord has answered our prayers, we should continue to pray. \u00a0He has shown Himself to be my God. \u00a0I should treat Him as such and continue to call on Him.<\/p>\n

The decision we can make today is to love the Lord. \u00a0The psalmist gives a specific reason for loving the Lord. \u00a0His reason was that God had heard his prayer. \u00a0There are many more reasons for deciding to love the Lord. \u00a0Some 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).<\/p>\n

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Lord God, thank You for ever-present help in times of my need. \u00a0Thank You for answered prayers whenever I call unto You. \u00a0You are a wonderful God. \u00a0May Your name be glorified in all the earth! \u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name I pray. \u00a0Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thinking of personal testimonies, I want us to look at Psalm 116 as a personal testimony. \u00a0We do know that this man faced great peril and was delivered by the Lord. \u00a0This is a very personal psalm, with the writer making reference to himself 37 times in 19 verses. \u00a0Only in verses 5, 15, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[5556,5325,46,3905,3188,1287,425,5498,5554,1364,5525,5555,5553],"class_list":["post-17945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-1-corinthians-619-20","tag-1-john-410","tag-1-john-419","tag-2-corinthians-521","tag-ann-mwafulirwa","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-i-love-the-lord","tag-john-1027-30","tag-matthew-2237-39","tag-psalm-116","tag-psalm-121","tag-psalms-1161-2","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s39pHp-17945","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17945"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17954,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17945\/revisions\/17954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}