The Father’s Will

“And this is the Father’s will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”  John 6:39-40

Many have asked, “What is God’s will?” or “What is God’s will for my life?” Jesus gives us the answer for that in the words He speaks above.

One, it was the Father’s will to send His Son Jesus and to give Him those who would follow Him… I pray that includes you.

Two, it is the Father’s will that of all that the Father has given Him, including His own life, nothing would be lost.

Three, that those who see the Son of God believing on Him would have everlasting life.

Four, that all those who believe on Him would be resurrected and live with Him through eternity.

These four things are seen in the two verses above. It is the Father’s will that you would call on the name of the One who died for your sins, our sins; was buried, and He rose again the third day. Because He lives we live.

LORD God of My Salvation

“O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee: Let my prayer come before Thee: incline Thine ear unto my cry; For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.” Psalm 88:1-3 (KJV)

For the commentary today I will let  a scholar from the past speak:

I. A man of prayer, one that gave himself to prayer at all times, but especially now that he was in affliction; for is any afflicted? let him pray. It is his comfort that he had prayed; it is his complaint that, notwithstanding his prayer, he was still in affliction. He was, 1. Very earnest in prayer: “I have cried unto thee (Psa_88:1), and have stretched out my hands unto thee (Psa_88:9), as one that would take hold on thee, and even catch at the mercy, with a holy fear of coming short and missing of it.” 2. He was very frequent and constant in prayer: I have called upon thee daily (Psa_88:9), nay, day and night, Psa_88:1. For thus men ought always to pray, and not to faint; God’s own elect cry day and night to him, not only morning and evening, beginning every day and every night with prayer, but spending the day and night in prayer. This is indeed praying always; and then we shall speed in prayer, when we continue instant in prayer. 3. He directed his prayer to God, and from him expected and desired an answer (Psa_88:2): “Let my prayer come before thee, to be accepted of thee, not before men, to be seen of them, as the Pharisees’ prayers.” He does not desire that men should hear them, but, “Lord, incline thy ear unto my cry, for to that I refer myself; give what answer to it thou pleasest.”
II. He was a man of sorrows, and therefore some make him, in this psalm, a type of Christ, whose complaints on the cross, and sometimes before, were much to the same purport with this psalm. He cries out (Psa_88:3): My soul is full of troubles; so Christ said, Now is my soul troubled; and, in his agony, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death, like the psalmist’s here, for he says, My life draws nigh unto the grave. Heman was a very wise man, and a very good man, a man of God, and a singer too, and one may therefore suppose him to have been a man of a cheerful spirit, and yet now a man of sorrowful spirit, troubled in mind, and upon the brink of despair. Inward trouble is the sorest trouble, and that which, sometimes, the best of God’s saints and servants have been severely exercised with. The spirit of man, of the greatest of men, will not always sustain his infirmity, but will droop and sink under it; who then can bear a wounded spirit?
From the Matthew Henry Commentary

May your heart hear God as He speaks with you, and draws you to Himself.

Light, Salvation and Strength

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Psalm 27:1 (KJV)

For many years this verse of Psalm 27 has been a great encouragement, and light for my path.  When the LORD is  your light there is no darkness He does not overcome; and when He is your strength there is no power in heaven or on earth or under the earth that He cannot deal with in quick order.

In recent days and months I have found myself quoting this verse; and O what joy He brings to my heart knowing that He is the One I love and fear, because He is not only my Lord and Saviour, but also my Creator.

Someone once said,  “When we fear GOD; we need fear nothing else.”   I say a hearty “Amen” to that.

Here is praying that all who come here may have a Christ filled Christmas.

Words for Christian Living – Fear

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.  Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.”  Psalm 27:1-3 (KJV)

What place does fear have in the life of a Christian and/or Christian living?  One place;  Fearing God is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10).  Someone has said, “If we fear God we need fear nothing else”.

The Psalmist tells us that the LORD is his light and salvation.  If that be so, then whom does the Psalmist need to fear; or who does any Child of God need fear; or what do we need to fear?

We can be troubled on every side.  Health, wealth (or lack of wealth worry about paying the rent, house payment, bills), personal attacks from others, even looming death may be one of the things that strike fear into our hearts.  There is no benefit from this worry.  Worry is nothing more or less than fear.  God is our strength.

We need to hear the words of Jesus and trust Him…

“Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, ‘What shall we eat? or, ‘What shall we drink? or, ‘Wherewithal shall we be clothed?’ (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”  Matthew 6:30-34 (KJV)