Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you.
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. (New Revised Standard Version)
Today, take some meditative time to connect with the Lord. Allow yourself some space and grace to meaningfully get in touch with God and your own deep spirituality.
Make yourself comfortable… either sit down, stand outdoors, or recline in your favorite easy chair…. whatever posture helps you relax and relate to God.
Take several deep breaths in and out…
Give yourself permission right now to focus on your relationship with the Lord…
Make God and you a priority…
There is nowhere else you need to be…
You are deserving of this time…
If you get distracted by a thought or sound, simply acknowledge that it occurred and release it. Do not allow it to take you away from this time. For the next several minutes, focus on you and your God….
Imagine you are a kernel of corn, snuggled in the ground…
Although you are small, the Lord has given you everything you need within yourself to become a tall stalk with many ears of corn…
Breathe in, feeling your lungs expand as you inhale… and as you breathe out and exhale, stretch your arms slowly over your head, as if you are breaking the ground…
Slowly bring your arms down…
Lift your face toward heaven…
Imagine feeling the warmth of the sun and the light of God upon you… basking in the Lord’s grace for you…
Feel the refreshment of a gentle rain from heaven falling on you… giving you God’s steadfast love…
Sense your created self and all the potential within coming out… growing… lifting toward the immense sky of the Lord’s favor…
See yourself standing as a nine-foot tall stalk with multiple ears of corn…
Bask in the reality that you are a gift to a hungry world… that you are blessed to be on this earth, and to be a blessing to many… know that you are enough and express your gratitude to God using the following practice:
Look around you. Identify and name:
5 things you see…
4 things you feel…
3 things you hear…
2 things you smell…
1 thing you taste…
Express your thanks to the Lord for each of those things you identified.
End your time by slowly saying out loud with flavor:
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God, I will extol you.
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
Then the Lord told Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. When he feels the force of my strong hand, he will let the people go. In fact, he will force them to leave his land!”
And God said to Moses, “I am Yahweh— ‘the Lord.’I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty’—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them. And I reaffirmed my covenant with them. Under its terms, I promised to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as foreigners. You can be sure that I have heard the groans of the people of Israel, who are now slaves to the Egyptians. And I am well aware of my covenant with them.
“Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment.I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord!’”
So, Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go back to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and tell him to let the people of Israel leave his country.”
“But Lord!” Moses objected. “My own people won’t listen to me anymore. How can I expect Pharaoh to listen? I’m such a clumsy speaker!”
But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them orders for the Israelites and for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The Lord commanded Moses and Aaron to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. (New Living Translation)
We can become our own worst enemy.
In Lodi, California, in March of 2006, a city dump truck backed into a car belonging to a man named Curtis Gokey. The car was damaged badly. So, Gokey sued the city of Lodi for $3,600. There is, however, a catch to the story: Curtis Gokey was driving the city dump truck that crunched his personal car. And he admitted it was his fault. The city dropped the lawsuit, stating that Gokey could not sue himself.
Like Curtis Gokey, we are often our own worst enemies. We might get down on ourselves or on God. There are times when it’s easy for us to either justify ourselves or blame ourselves, while wondering why God and/or others keep doing things we don’t like.
When life is not going so well, it’s possible to slide into a private belief system that thinks God is not good for his promises (James 1:16-17). At worst, one can start to think that God is the problem and the source of the trouble.
To be self-deceived is to go astray and slowly drift from the truth…. It can happen to anybody. The first step is having expectations that go unmet. An expected answer to prayer goes unanswered. Somebody lashes out and there seems to be no protection from it. Some anticipated blessing does not come to pass….
Moses was downright confused. He was confident and convinced God had called him to free the Israelites from their cruel bondage in Egypt. But nothing was going right. And the people were upset with Moses for making things worse, not better.
Trusting God and not becoming discouraged when we don’t understand everything that’s happening can be a big challenge. We might wonder if we really have what it takes to do anything well. We may wonder if God is even listening, or if God is paying any attention, at all, to our terrible plight….
“Why, God, did you let my son or daughter die? How in the hell am I supposed to keep going!?”
“Why, God, did you give me a gaslighting boss to deal with? I get tongue-tied around her. How is she ever going to listen to me?”
“Why won’t people get vaccinated for COVID-19? How am I supposed to talk to the anti-vaxers?”
“Why, God, is everything changing? How am I going to speak up?”
Questioning can help us make sense of our situations. However, questioning may also cause us to doubt that God is there and will act on our behalf. In such times, it might be tempting to blame God for a broken relationship, a terrible event, a dysfunctional family, or an adverse situation.
Yet, God has chosen to give us birth through the word of truth (not a word of deception and lies) so that we might have new life with fresh eyes of faith to see our situations as God sees them (James 1:18). That is what wisdom is – the ability to see all of life from God’s perspective.
If any of us lacks wisdom, we should ask God, who gives generously without finding fault, and it will be given to us (James 1:5). This is a promise from a good God who knows how to give good gifts.
None of us are above falling into misinterpretations that lead to the self-deceptions of questioning God’s goodness and our own God-given personhood. We need to be vigilant in watching for the false stories we might tell ourselves such as:
“This wouldn’t have happened, if I just would’ve been better.”
“There’s nothing I can do about it.”
“I’m just a big screw-up. I can’t do anything right.”
“God messed-up when he made me.”
“I don’t know what to say. I’m not good with words.”
We are all to take charge of our lives through having a robust theology of God that discerns the Lord is always good, all the time, without exception; and that we are called by a good God to do good work.
The good news is that a good God has taken care of the sin issue once for all through the cross of Christ. The Lord has brought us the good gifts of forgiveness and grace. God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us and guide us into all truth so that we will have wisdom and humility to live the Christian life as it is meant to be lived.
For the Christian, the key to it all is faith – genuine authentic faith that places head, heart, and hands completely in Jesus Christ so that we have right belief, right motives, and right actions all rightly working together in a full-orbed Christianity that glorifies the triune God, encourages Christ’s church, and blesses God’s big world.
Don’t be your own worst enemy by sabotaging your thoughts with the double-mindedness of wondering about the true nature of God.
Explore the depths of God in Christ and discover the goodness that can result even in life’s most difficult experiences.
Lord God almighty, Creator of heaven and earth:
When evil darkens our world, give us light.
When despair numbs our souls, give us hope.
When we stumble and fall, lift us up.
When doubts assail us, give us faith.
When nothing seems sure, give us trust.
When ideals fade, give us vision.
When we lose our way, be our guide!
That we may find serenity in Your presence, and purpose in doing Your will.
Through Jesus Christ, our Savior, Lord, Brother, and Friend. Amen.
Listen, Israel! Today you will cross the Jordan River to enter and take possession of nations larger and more powerful than you, along with huge cities with fortifications that reach to the sky. These people are large and tall—they are the Anakim. You know and have heard what people say: “Who can stand up to the Anakim?” Know right now that the Lord your God, who is crossing over before you, is an all-consuming fire! He will wipe them out! He will subdue them before you! Then you will take possession of their land, eliminating them quickly, exactly as the Lord told you.
Once the Lord your God has driven them out before you, don’t think to yourself, It’s because I’m righteous that the Lord brought me in to possess this land. It is instead because of these nations’ wickedness that the Lord is removing them before you. You aren’t entering and taking possession of their land because you are righteous or because your heart is especially virtuous; rather, it is because these nations are wicked—that’s why the Lord your God is removing them before you, and because he wishes to establish the promise he made to your ancestors: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (Common English Bible)
When my kids were small, I dealt with the issue of sharing, as every parent has to do. Once, two of my girls were fighting over a doll. As I entered the room, one of them quickly said, “She has my doll!” So, I sat her down with me and calmly asked, “Whose doll is it?” “It’s mine!” my daughter cried.
I asked again, “Whose doll is it?” Again, the answer came, “It’s my doll!” I asked yet a third time, “Whose doll is it?” Because this was not our first rodeo together about fighting over dolls and toys, my daughter bowed her head, gave a big sigh, and quietly said, “It’s God’s doll.”
“Yes, it’s God’s doll,” I said. “God is just letting you borrow it for a while and expects you to take good care of it and share his stuff with others.”
Kids often need a reality check of where things come from and who really owns it all. Many times, adults need the very same reality check.
We big people grow up and tend to think we are bigger than we really are. Over the years, we gain misguided notions of our possessions and accomplishments. We believe we did it all through our own skills and character.
Maybe you recognize some of these common notions about our life, work, and ministry:
“I worked a long time for my money. I’m not giving it to so-and-so.”
“My church has a lot of people because we preach the Bible, not like other churches.”
“The government takes too much of my hard earned money.”
“Here, you can have this couch. I was going to throw it away, anyway. My couch is a nice new one.”
“I made a lot of sacrifices for my job. I’m not letting anyone steal my position from me.”
“I raised my kids and they’re all doing very well in life. They wouldn’t have made it without me.”
“Hey, that’s my yard. Your dog can’t be on it.”
“This is my time.”
“It’s my car. Don’t touch it.”
“My way or the highway.”
Those are actual statements Christians have said to me over the years. In their extreme individualism, they believed they were the masters of their own goodness and achievements. In other words, they gave themselves more credit than they really deserved.
A person is proud and selfish not for pursuing their own good but for neglecting their neighbor’s.
It’s far too easy to chalk-up our positions, titles, degrees, jobs, and the good things which come with them as of our own doing. We then believe we are the true owners of all our stuff. Some can even take the next step of believing that if others would just do what I do and think the way I think, then all would be well in the world.
That’s pretty much how Lucifer thought about things. And even after getting cast from heaven, he still exists with the delusion that he didn’t deserve it, as if he were above ever getting treated any other way than like God does.
The reality, however, is that everything and everyone belongs to God. The Lord is the rightful ruler of the universe, and we are not. Every good and perfect thing we have in this life is a gift from a gracious heavenly Father.
Stupidity doesn’t come from a lack of brains or smarts; it’s a result of pride taking over one’s thinking.
Indifference doesn’t have its source in a lack of caring; it comes from believing certain people don’t deserve to have my attention, my stuff, or my time.
Arrogance isn’t an inbred personality trait; it’s the logical end of the successful person’s life who is convinced that everyone ought to adopt their particular set of societal mores, cultural values, political views, and personal disciplines.
Conversely, a person in humble circumstances with little to their name is not necessarily lazy or unwilling to work. And when they have giants in their lives, they can trust the God who specializes in taking down the stupid, the indifferent, and the arrogant.
All things are a gift from the Lord, even the difficult people and hard circumstances we face. They are really opportunities for God to show up and give us precisely what we need.
Everything is a trust from God that we are to steward well, whether it is people, things, or money. They are given to us, not because of any superior spirituality on our part or righteous ingenuity, but because God simply gives it. We have what we have because of God, period.
The appropriate way of stewarding our resources, as well as expressing thanks to God, is through sharing our stuff, our money, our time, and our love with others.
Whose life is it?
We do not presume to come to your Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your abundant and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table; but you are the same Lord whose character is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat and drink that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.
I will praise you, my God and King, and always honor your name. I will praise you each day and always honor your name. You are wonderful, Lord, and you deserve all praise, because you are much greater than anyone can understand.
Each generation will announce to the next your wonderful and powerful deeds. I will keep thinking about your marvelous glory and your mighty miracles. Everyone will talk about your fearsome deeds, and I will tell all nations how great you are. They will celebrate and sing about your matchless mercy and your power to save.
You are merciful, Lord! You are kind and patient and always loving. You are good to everyone, and you take care of all your creation.
All creation will thank you, and your loyal people will praise you. They will tell about your marvelous kingdom and your power. Then everyone will know about the mighty things you do and your glorious kingdom. Your kingdom will never end, and you will rule forever.
Our Lord, you keep your word and do everything you say. When someone stumbles or falls, you give a helping hand. Everyone depends on you, and when the time is right, you provide them with food. By your own hand you satisfy the desires of all who live.
Our Lord, everything you do is kind and thoughtful, and you are near to everyone whose prayers are sincere. You satisfy the desires of all your worshipers, and you come to save them when they ask for help. You take care of everyone who loves you, but you destroy the wicked.
I will praise you, Lord, and everyone will respect your holy name forever. (Contemporary English Version)
These days, everywhere I go there is high anxiety, even downright fear. In my city, the highest murder rate in its history marked the past year. In the hospital for which I am the chaplain, the coronavirus with all its deathly strains is bringing grief and bereavement to many families. Within many churches, their future viability is in question, and parishioners wonder about the future.
When there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel, with apprehension and stress as the very air we breathe, there is an angle to the whole situation the psalmist wants us to consider. We are to give weight and consideration to some solid robust theology.
Everyone has a theology. All persons have some sort of understanding of a god, G-d, or no god at all. In the hard circumstances of life, it might seem as if our theology isn’t serving us well. We may feel as if G-d is aloof, distant, or just plain disinterested. So, let’s pay attention to the psalmist. Notice his theology….
The Lord saves… is merciful… powerful… kind… patient… loving… and good. G-d keeps divine promises… helps… gives… provides… protects… and is near to those who humbly seek the divine. In short, the Lord cares for all creation and all creatures, including you and me, and tackles injustice like a hefty linebacker on a string-bean running back.
Yes, G-d deserves all praise, glory, and honor because standing behind all the anxiety of the age is a very large deity who acts with good purpose.
Let this psalm (and the entire psalter) buoy you up with good solid theology because the Lord is righteous in all dealings and is present to all who call for help. G-d hears. G-d responds. Perhaps neither according to our idea of timeliness nor to our expectation. Yet, deliverance is at hand, even if it comes in a form different than we were anticipating.
I am taking time to read today’s psalm several times over, to let it awash my soul with significant doses of truth and mercy. There are simply times when all of us need to remember and be reminded that there is a G-d in heaven who is willing and able, as well as a friend close at hand.
True human satisfaction does not come through personal ingenuity or accumulation of more knowledge or more stuff. Rather, our deepest desires and needs are fulfilled in the G-d who cares.
Anxiety, stress, fear, and apprehension don’t simply melt away. We, like the psalmist, need to practice the active verbs within the text: I will praise you… I will always honor your name… I will keep thinking about your marvelous glory and miracles… I will tell all nations how great you are… because the Lord saves and satisfies.
May that be your experience today, and every day.
Mighty G-d, you are both far and near, totally above us, yet close at hand. Preserve me with your mighty power so that I might not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity. But in all I do direct me to the fulfilling of your purposes through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 