Sunday February 9, 2020
Getting old has one big advantage.
I have a history, my story, that proves the Lord has been with me throughout every circumstance. Every day he alone has carried me. I have a lot of life wrapped up in his arms and he has always been faithful.
I don’t love all of the things that have happened in my life but I have felt the Lord’s hand over me through it all. Even through the darkest times I knew he was there.
I read Psalm 16:5-6 today. It says “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed I have a beautiful inheritance.” (ESV)
These verses made me think of how hard I work to attain things. I trade my time for money so I can trade my money for stuff. Here David is renewing his commitment, maybe more so – declaring to the Lord – that God is the only possession that matters.
David has chosen the unseen rather than the seen. He understands and accepts that the Lord holds his lot in life and is content with it.
chosen
I lie to myself and others if I say I have chosen the Lord but then live in denial of it.
What does my denial look like?
Discontentment.
When I grumble and complain, cry and battle against life I am declaring to all those around me that God hasn’t done a good enough job with my lot in life. I could do better.
David says…the Lord is my chosen portion and cup. There’s an implication that he could have chosen something else but didn’t.
I have a choice as well and I choose the Lord. I choose the path that he has for me willingly and without reservation. I cast my lot in with the Lord because I know he will never fail me.
lines
There are boundaries in my life. There are limits to who I will meet, how far my scope of influence will go.
David isn’t fighting against that, he’s embracing the fact that in his sovereignty, the Lord has established the parameters of his life, his influence, his military might because all of those things will tell the story God wants told.
The lines have fallen in pleasant places.
The events of my life have unfolded exactly as they were meant to. Even when hard to understand, I trust the ultimate truth that God uses the entirety of my story to bring me closer to himself and to bring others to him as a result of it as well.
inheritance
The biggest travesty in Christianity today is the false teaching regarding how rich God wants me to be. If I agree with prosperity teaching then I have traded truth for lies.
My inheritance in the Lord is far greater than anything mere money can purchase. Money only has the capacity to purchase ashes and dust. Everything will fade away.
Sure I can use my money to support and help the work of the Lord all over the world, but the bottom line is that having more money doesn’t help me deepen my relationship with the Lord. In fact the more money I have, the harder it becomes.
The only thing that will last is a deepening relationship with the Lord and a communion with him that becomes more and more intimate each moment I spend with him.
My beautiful inheritance is waiting for me in the arms of my Savior.
We celebrated Communion last week. The body and the blood of Christ. The portion and cup. The coming together of God and man via Jesus. God’s ultimate desire to be in eternal relationship with us started out with a plan to make that possible.
An allotment of events and times and places and words and people and murder and resurrection and forgiveness right from Adam all the way to the cross. Specifically so that God and humanity were no longer separated by a chasm of sin.
Thank you Lord for my life. Thank you for all of it, the good as well as the challenging. Help me to see the events in my life as having come from your hand as part of your divine plan. I am grateful to be part of what you are doing in the world right at this moment. Help me not to get discouraged, instead remind me daily that you know how things will unfold and your plan is always going to be good.
reflect…
- What lens are you using to look at your life? Are you accepting what the Lord has given you?
- When you look back over your life, how have you seen the Lord’s hand?
- Your life is part of God’s divinely orchestrated plan, does that encourage you?