2-7-2012
Rev. Greg Pep
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection.
I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me.
My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness. (Psalm 57:1-3 NLT)
Regardless of What is happening in the world or our personal lives today, God has a purpose for our lives. Don't worry about the fact that currently there are approx. 7 billion people on the planet leaving one to think who am I in God's sight? Each of us are created unique not only in our outward appearances but more complex in our individual DNA makeup. Man did not create us nor did we come into being through a evolutionary chain of events. God's hand designed us to be who we are and with individual purposes.
Perhaps it seems as though we are engaged in a boxing match, Whether it's a fight against finance, health, relationships or loss, it may seem as if no one is in our corner to coach us, dress our wounds or encourage us. This can severely handicap our ability to press on in our fight against even a lesser opponent that we are up against. Purpose! What purpose is there in getting pummeled? Who's in my corner? I feel weak and humiliated! My whole existence feels smothered, I'm faint and my knee's are weak and my mind is perplexed. How can I have any purpose? I feel so insignificant as if I don't belong in this ring. It's at this point of the fight that no matter what kind of "fog" we feel we're in we have to stop and cry out until it resonates, this verse;
The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of (our) lives. (Psalm 37:23 NLT)
Yes! God delights in us, God is in our corner! He not only knows those minute details of our lives that seem so mundane and details that no one could ever understand and how these details either make or break us. God delights in them and simply wants us to relinquish them to His control and then and only then will our fight change from a losing battle to a victorious one!
Though they stumble, they will never fall,for the LORD holds (us) by the hand. (Psalm 37:24 NLT)
What a glorious promise! God, our creator, at the point of our surrendering to Him through our stumbling, HOLDS OUR HAND through our struggles! Why? Because he has a purpose for us individually. That purpose is not for defeat! We are to "stand firm" and utter the words of the "ruddy" little David, "who is this uncircumcised Philistine, who Defies the army of the Living God!? What is this problem? Who is this person, that defies who God created me to be!?
God has a purpose for me and it's to use the struggles in my life to be a beacon of hope to those around me when they see despite my circumstances Christ in me, the hope of Glory! When they see me stumble but God pick me up, when they see me seemingly beaten but yet not quit. When they see me victorious and yet stay humble, they will know that God holds my hand and will do the same for them and together we will bask in the Sun of Righteousness.
A MAN LOVED BY NO ONE
When it's all said and done
I want to be on the side of the Son.
Basking in His Glory,
Man's greatest love story.
That is the man loved by no-one
Who gave everything to love me.
