Good morning,
I Love you, Lord
There is nothing that teaches us about love quite like trouble. Our Enemy does his best to get us to believe that if God really loves us he would give us what we believe is best for us. As sinful people we long to be loved and respected for who we are and feel afraid and resentful when our family or teachers or employers insist that doing things their way is an indication of a loving and helpful person. When our creator and sustainer, Jesus, came to live with us many years ago, he learned first hand how sin had changed the values of life for anyone who lived in a human body with a strong sin nature. Jesus himself was constantly being attacked for not coming under the religious leaders authority, and when he chose his disciples he was constantly aware of the tension between them and the pain they felt when they were being persecuted for not following the proud and powerful people around them. Just before Jesus went to the cross to die for us all, he reminded his disciples about a very important principal that they would need to accept if they were ever going to be able to return God’s perfect love. He said, 'A slave is not greater than the master.' Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you.(John 15:20)
What we need to learn, and all of God’s faithful servants have learned through the ages, is that persecution and trouble are what will teach us about God’s love for us in a very effective way. King David lived a life that was full of pain, but as he grew older he became a man who loved his Lord with deep intensity. When we are God’s children we learn that every circumstance in life is an opportunity for us to see and feel God’s loving power and protection in what feels like overwhelming circumstances. David wrote, I love you, LORD; you are my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.(Ps.81:1,2) Each of the challenges that he had faced in life taught him more about the love and power and protection that God planned as proof of his perfect love. Then because of David’s confident love for his God, and his dependence on God when facing hard times, what he has written has been been a wonderful model for us to follow. Now it’s our turn to prosper under persecution and pain so that our generation will be able to see genuine models of the work of God in our ordinary lives. Dear Lord, help us to prosper under persecution by the power of the Holy Spirit as you and all your family have done before us.
Psalms 18:1 I love you, LORD; you are my strength. 2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior;
my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.
Roy Wisner
