Fills My Mouth with Good Things

Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not all His benefits...who fills my mouth with good things so that my youth is restored like the eagles. 

Psalm 103:1-5  God also declares He has forgiven all our iniquities, healed all our diseases, redeemed our lives from hell, and crowned us with His steadfast love and mercy.  However, the next "benefit" is different in that it requires our participation.  He may "fill our mouths" but it is up to us to speak these good things. This is much like the expression, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

2 Corinthians 4:13 states that since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke" we also believe and therefore speak.  We believe Jesus has overcome sin, sickness, the devil, and death.  Then we bring this overcoming power into our lives by saying it with our mouths.  It is one thing to hear the Word of God, but another to make it ours by declaring this truth

Consider what words you usually declare.  If there was a recording of all your words from the past 24 hours, would it sound positive like hope and joy or would it be doubt and fear and defeat?  Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, according to Jesus in Luke 6:45, so our words reveal what is in our hearts.  Have you ever noticed what comes out of your mouth in emergency situations?  It is often something we didn’t even realize was in our heart.  Yet God has given us a new heart and now renews our mind with His truth and ways so we can become His mouthpiece on the earth. 

As we declare His truth, we allow the Holy Spirit to confirm our words with His power.  Our youth or life is renewed like the eagles.  Just as an eagle soars and is lifted up effortlessly by the wind, so our bodies are renewed by the breath of God.  

Beyond our personal benefit, God's plan is also for "His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven," which is how Jesus told us to pray.  Peter goes so far (1 Peter 4:11) as to say that we who speak are the oracle or mouthpiece of God.  Just as God spoke creation into existence with words, "Let there be light" and so forth, this same principle of power is declared in our spoken words, according to Proverbs 18:21, "Life and death are in the power of the tongue."  Amos 3:8 exhorts all those who hear God to speak what we hear, "The Lord has spoken, who can but prophesy?"  Prophecy is hearing from God and then speaking the message our loud to establish it on the earth. 

The bottom line is "It is finished."  Jesus, through His death and resurrection, has finished or completed the work of restoring all that mankind has lost through sin and now reigns as King.  We agree with God's Word and use His kingly authority to overcome anything and everything that does not submit to His rule.  Therefore, Romans 5:17 can boldly say "all those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ."

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and speak the good things from God's Word to renew your youth like the eagles!   

He Provides, We Choose

Hear this admonishment from 2 Thessalonians 3:5, "Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ."  God has provided and demonstrated His infinite love for us, and then even directs our hearts to receive and cherish His affection, but we still have the free will to choose.  We can accept it or reject it.  By accepting His infinite love, the power is released to transform us by overcoming all our other thoughts and fears.  

The second part of that challenge, "the patience of Christ," reminds us how He faithfully waits for us to come to the end of ourselves and turn to Him.  Jesus explained this truth as the father in the prodigal son parable who waited and watched for the wayward son to return. Love is patient.  When the love of God controls us, we have that power to sow our words and actions and to wait for the precious fruit to grow.  Do not be weary in well doing for in due time we shall surely reap. 

God has ways of reminding us that He loves us just for who we are and is pleased with every little thing we do to share His love with others.  Last night we had the opportunity to join several hundred people celebrate God's work of bringing the Gospel to over 200 million people through Every Home Crusade.  Most of us weren't on the front lines, just merely small supporters of the ministry.  Yet God's presence assured us that each one was a part of what He is doing to reach the world and let "every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."  Sometimes we forget that in spite of our daily troubles and human weaknesses, God still uses us to accomplish His purposes. 

My word today for you is to take a moment just to stop and let His love and presence fill your heart.  Then patiently choose to do the things and meet the needs He allows you to see.  Even the proverbial "glass of water to a small child" shall have eternal rewards.  As Psalm 58 concludes, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely He is God who judges in the earth."

We pray that you don't lose heart in your present struggles but continue to pray and do what is in your power to share this all-important Gospel of Jesus' love for every person on earth.  God has provided His love, we choose to receive it and let it control us.  May God plant this fervent desire to spread the love and truth of Jesus into the hearts of each one of us and give us opportunity to speak and to be His light in the darkness.   

Root Up All the Wicked in the Land

"Morning by morning I will root up all the wicked in the land, that I may eliminate all the evildoers from the city of the Lord." (Psalm 101, AMP)  This may sound like a necessary prayer to deal with the evils of our society today, but that is not its primary application.  We know that the Old Testament presents things externally, while the New Testament calls us to adapt these truths internally.  The wicked in the land are the things in our hearts that defile the city of God that we are. 

God has made provision through the blood of Jesus to not only forgive sin, but also to cleanse all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7-9)  Notice He covers our sins, not our excuses.  The key is that we acknowledge sin to be sin, a deliberate wrong choice of flesh over God's way.  Paul made a bold statement that he wasn't subject to be judged by others, but then he acknowledged that he couldn't judge himself. Only God knows the heart.  Search me, O God, and see if there be any wicked way in me. (Ps 139) 

Yet God delights in showing mercy.  The Word overwhelmingly declares He is merciful, gracious, and slow to anger.  There is no condemnation in Jesus Christ.  Just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, God comes to our hearts longing to set us free and make us whole.  Ephesians 5:13 points out that in His mercy He exposes darkness to light so He can make it light.  As he exposes our hearts, we humble ourselves before Him and allow Him to change us.  Paul encourages us in showing that godly sorrow produces repentance, zeal, and a fresh eagerness to please God. 

The Holy Spirit is our sanctifier.  To sanctify means to set apart for God's use.  Since our body is meant to be the very dwelling place of God, the temple of God, it follows that our reasonable service is to present our bodies to Him for His purpose.  God calls us in 2 Corinthians 6:17 to "Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.  Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.  I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters."  

Scripture tells us that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him.  We likewise can let the Spirit search our hearts, even if it hurts to admit our failures, so that we can experience the joy of His presence and the peace of being right with Him.  Jesus promised the Holy Spirit is here to help us, and according to Romans 8, by His Spirit we can put to death the flesh.  Our flesh is not boss, and He helps us pick up our cross and die to ourselves. Perhaps 2 Corinthians 4:10 says it best, "always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body."