"Come let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our
God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as
in the day of Massah in the wilderness" Psalm 95:6-8
The apostle Paul writes, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say,
rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4) The above verse encourages us to worship our LORD, who is our Maker. And most of us would quickly agree,
whether we feel like it or not, that the Lord is worthy of all honor and
praise.
We are the people of His pasture. Colossians 1:13 tells us,
"For He (the Father) delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us
to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness
of sins." And we are His sheep. I have had people tell me that they
didn't like being called sheep, they went on to say how stupid sheep are and how
they get themselves into predicaments all the time. Well, Jesus said, "My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me" (John 10:27).
Jesus, Himself, calls us His sheep; and if we are honest with ourselves, we do
tend to get into predicaments and have to cry out "save us Lord!" and I know I
do alot of things that aren't very bright. These people aren't arguing
with me they are arguing with Jesus.
The Psalm goes on to entreat us not to harden our hearts when we
hear the Lord's voice as at Meribah (which means place of strife) and as in
the day of Massah (meaning temptation). Sometimes during strife we
are prone to harden our hearts because of our pain and at times of temptation we
harden our hearts because we want to give in to our flesh - the Psalm is
exhorting us to not allow our hearts to harden to His voice. And at
times like this, during strife or temptation, we have the promise, "for it is
God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good
pleasure." (Phil. 2:13)
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Your word and for the many promises
throughout it. Help us to focus on You, Lord, and to rightly represent You
in all we do. Holy Spirit help us to maintain softened hearts that are
ready and willing to hear and obey. In Jesus name we thank you for hearing
and answering this prayer we pray. Amen.
Have a most joyous day in our
Lord!
April
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Encouragement From The Heart Website updated March 17,
2000 (note: web address changed).
http://www.geocities.com/correiaville/encourag.html
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Scripture references (unless noted otherwise): The Open Bible, New American
Standard
copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975,
1977
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