Brown's Daily Word 1-3-18

Praise the Lord for this amazing new year filled with His promises, and paved with His grace and mercy.  In the world of concerns and crises, confusion and calamities, Jesus is the Christ in every crisis. It is a great blessing to know Him as the One who reigns and rules, and He has the last word in the affairs of the human race and the world.  We can take refuge in Him in all seasons and circumstances.  In Him we discover ourselves.   In the words of the Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, “Now, with God's help, I shall become myself.”  In Him alone we discover our divine and destined identity.  Because of Him and in and through Him we are surrounded with boundless and countless blessings interrupted by many battles. In Him we see the light.  In His service we find freedom and everlasting Joy.  He reminds us to "Be still and know that He is God”.  He is the ground of our being. In Him we live, move, and have our being It is cold here yet sunny and brilliant.  I took a walk yesterday in the evening.  Praise the Lord that daylight is lengthening day by day.  "Spring is not far away."   

Our daughter is flying to Manila, Philippines this week on assignment.  It is much warmer there.  I was looking at Psalm 86 and I was struck with verse11: “Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”  Translators are divided on how to translate this phrase.  The NASB says, "Unite my heart to fear your name."  The CEB gives a more general sense, "Make my heart focused only on honoring your name.”  The ERV paraphrases, saying, “Help me make worshiping your name the most important thing in my life."  Eugene Peterson (MSG) gives us this colorful rendering: “Put me together, one heart and mind;
then, undivided, I’ll worship in joyful fear.”  I like that.   

“Unite my heart to fear your name.”  This speaks of my need.  "Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”  This addresses my desire.  I need the Lord to unite my heart somehow so that I might worship Him with nothing held back. That is the situation many of us face right now. Our hearts are fragmented because we are pulled in so many directions at once.  

   Daniel,  purposed in his heart to be of one heart and mind for his God.  “But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank” (Daniel 1:8).  The King James Version says he “purposed in his heart.”  You can only “purpose in your heart” when you have an undivided heart.

As a result of their commitment, Daniel and friends ate water and cereal for ten days.  They ended up looking healthier and stronger than those who ate at the king’s table.  As a result, they were recognized and rewarded by the king himself (Daniel 1:17-21).

 

We all face sickness, family crisis, medical issues, financial troubles, marital problems, struggles with our children, disappointments, setbacks, career issues, and periods of doubt and anger and spiritual struggle.  We live in a very fallen world.  We need Jesus every hour and every moment.  

 

I found the following prayer on the web:

"Lord Jesus, 

Unite my heart to fear your name.

I am so scattered, Lord.
Pulled in so many directions.
So easily distracted.

How quickly I forget who you are.
How quickly I forget your goodness to me.

Unite my heart, Lord.
Put it back together again.

Refocus my thoughts.
Clarify my purpose.

Grant that I should want you more than anything else.
Thank you for your many gifts, freely given.
Forgive me for loving your gifts more than I love you.

In confessing this I ask for forgiveness in Jesus’ name.

Here is my heart, Lord.
Come in and rearrange things.
Make me new from the inside out.

Thank you for loving me even when I seem to lose my way.

I love you, Lord. Do your work in me.
Unite my heart to fear your name.

Amen."  

We find the following words in one of the beloved hymns of the church:

“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.”  

If the first two lines describe our need, then the last two lines describe our prayer.  May God take our scattered hearts and unite them, seal them by his grace, that we might serve him with joy on earth as one day we will serve him in heaven.

https://youtu.be/bfveawSAHJA

Brown

Brown