Are You a New Creature this Morning

Hey Gang:  I sense as I read Psalm 40 that David had come to the realization that human strength was not worth a bag of beans; only God sustains his servants.  Can you visualize David with outstretched arms in worship and praise before the Lord saying, “He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.”  Psa. 40:2”  James wrote, “Count it all Joy when you are going through the valley…”  

I don’t know about you but I tend not to set my feet a dancing when the alligators have assembled and are nipping at my heels. 

But this I have learned, it is at tough times when we learn that God is our sustainer. Notice in verse one, (40:1) Isaiah gives us the key to becoming a sustainer: “I waited patiently for the Lord.”  Again, I confess that is not my way.  I want, what I want, when I want it,  and get the ‘heebeegeebees’ when I hear such words as, ‘not now’, ‘wait’, ‘perhaps tomorrow’, etc. etc.

As I look back on my more productive days, I remember times when I ask God for things that I later understood would have been detrimental to me.   In the early days of the village development I prayed that God would open the door to our gaining access to an airport that had closed its doors.  As I look back, I realize that God blessed my sox off by saying, “You must be kidding”.

Peter referred to those who were committed to be ‘living sacrifices’ for the Lord as ‘living stones’. “You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ,” (I Peter 2:5).

It means we must die to self and put God first in all we do and say. John wrote, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains by itself alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to eternal life.” (John 12:24-25).

Most recognize the familiar words of Paul in his letter to the Corinthians “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Sooooo, dear people, keep in mind, a ‘living sacrifice’ is to have the same commitment Isaiah had when God was looking for someone to stand in the gap, “Here am I Lord, send me.” That is a scary commitment to those who lack the faith to trust that all things will be better under God’s control than when we lean “ON OUR OWN UNDERSTANDING!”

Blessings,

Gramps