July 22, 2006 - Psalms 31-32 and Acts 23:16-35
Everyone lives with adversity. Some people try to deal with it themselves, and some people learn to trust the Lord to deliver them from their troubles. The only way to handle adversity correctly is to turn to the Lord for deliverance. That is what we read about in these passages today.
Psalm 31 tells us that David trusted the Lord in his times of trouble. David had come to understand something that is very important. God knows what we are feeling and thinking as we go through times of trouble. (v.7) He says, "You have known my soul in adversity." The soul is the mind, the will, and the emotions. Therefore, God is fully aware of what we are experiencing when we face a trial or we have trouble. That is comforting, but it also is the best reason to let Him handle it. He is going to handle it in the right way, so that all of our concerns are met. If we try to do it, we will mess it up and even make things worse.
In Psalm 32 we read about the confession and forgiveness of sin. Do you realize that sin causes most of our problems? Therefore, if we will confess our sins, and allow God to forgive them, we will be allowing God to deal with our biggest problems. The only way our sins could be forgiven was for Jesus to die on the cross and to pay the penalty we owed, which was death. Once we trust Him, we can have our sins forgiven. Then, when we sin after being saved, we need to confess that we have done wrong and repent. (I John 1:9) Once we have done that, He takes away that sin so it does not effect our relationship with Him any more. Please, keep in mind that sin is our biggest problem. We can't ignore it. We must confess it, and allow Jesus to deal with it completely.
Acts 23 ends with a story of Paul's deliverance from trouble. Remember the men who were set on killing him? The plot was thwarted because Paul's nephew heard about it and told Paul. Then, he told the commander who whisked him away to safety. God used the nephew and the Roman army to save Paul. That was the deluxe deliverance from the problem. If Paul would have tried to fight it himself, it would not have come close to being this effective. The same is true for us today. God's way of caring for us in our troubles is much better than anything we can even imagine.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 33-34 and Acts 24.
Psalm 31 tells us that David trusted the Lord in his times of trouble. David had come to understand something that is very important. God knows what we are feeling and thinking as we go through times of trouble. (v.7) He says, "You have known my soul in adversity." The soul is the mind, the will, and the emotions. Therefore, God is fully aware of what we are experiencing when we face a trial or we have trouble. That is comforting, but it also is the best reason to let Him handle it. He is going to handle it in the right way, so that all of our concerns are met. If we try to do it, we will mess it up and even make things worse.
In Psalm 32 we read about the confession and forgiveness of sin. Do you realize that sin causes most of our problems? Therefore, if we will confess our sins, and allow God to forgive them, we will be allowing God to deal with our biggest problems. The only way our sins could be forgiven was for Jesus to die on the cross and to pay the penalty we owed, which was death. Once we trust Him, we can have our sins forgiven. Then, when we sin after being saved, we need to confess that we have done wrong and repent. (I John 1:9) Once we have done that, He takes away that sin so it does not effect our relationship with Him any more. Please, keep in mind that sin is our biggest problem. We can't ignore it. We must confess it, and allow Jesus to deal with it completely.
Acts 23 ends with a story of Paul's deliverance from trouble. Remember the men who were set on killing him? The plot was thwarted because Paul's nephew heard about it and told Paul. Then, he told the commander who whisked him away to safety. God used the nephew and the Roman army to save Paul. That was the deluxe deliverance from the problem. If Paul would have tried to fight it himself, it would not have come close to being this effective. The same is true for us today. God's way of caring for us in our troubles is much better than anything we can even imagine.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 33-34 and Acts 24.