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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
As we begin a new week together today, may I offer you the second step I’ve discovered in transition out of the darkness and despair of stormy times. Times like we’ve been living in for several Coronavirus months, and into a new future with Jesus? I’m using the word RESTORE as a guide on this pathway.
All last week we spent looking at the first step which is REMEMBER. Throughout the Bible God calls His people to REMEMBER before they move forward. I gave you these 5 powerful truths about what we gain by God honoring REMEMBERING:
<> Perspective: I see today more clearly as I look at today through the lenses of what I learned yesterday.
<> Process: As I remember, I see who I am becoming as time marches on through my life journey.
<> Wisdom: The lessons I learned in my past, inform the decisions I need to make today.
<> Bridge: I will live today wisely because, when I reach tomorrow and look back, today will be yesterday.
<> Worship: Seeing God in my yesterday’s should draw me to Worship Him today!
Now with REMEMBERING motivating us to move forward, we naturally ask these important questions: Does God really understand me and my life situations? Can I be sure He really cares about me and is concerned for me, when I find myself in difficult, dark times, when I really need His help? Will He lead me forward tenderly, taking into account the pain that I have felt?
Psalm 139 is one of many Scriptures which answer those fair questions. YES…we can move forward with God fully confident that He actually knows each of us BETTER than we know ourselves, and He even loves us MORE than we love ourselves! Do you believe that? Open your Bible with me and let’s see the proof of that in Psalm 139…
“O LORD, You have searched me and You know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; You even perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue, You know it completely, O LORD.” (Ps. 139:1-4)
Now friends, using these four short verses like a CT Scan… what doesn’t God know about you and me? EMPATHY begins right there. God Knows It All! Absolutely everything there is to know about us, He knows! Empathy begins with knowledge, with understanding the truth.
David continues…“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.” (Ps. 139:7-10)
When David wrote this 3000 years ago there was no such thing as extreme mountain climbing, and now scores of people have made it to the top of Mount Everest, with oxygen tanks. And of course there was no such thing as submarines or deep sea exploration. Space travel could not have been imagined 3000 years ago, not even airplanes which take us around the world. Do you see my friends how these three verses come alive in the 21st century, accentuating the Omnipresence of Almighty God? There is no place you can go to discover God is NOT there!
And then of course is the profound issue of how you and I even exist! “For You, O God, created my inmost being, You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made… My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together… You saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book, before one of them came to be.” (Ps. 139:13-16)
My friends, you’ve heard these verses many times, but I wonder what happens in your mind and heart when you read them and apply them to YOU, and the miracle of YOUR pregnancy? Are you as overwhelmed as I am by that remarkable, hourly miracle of God developing a person inside a woman, cell by cell? Fingers, toes, eyes and ears, liver, kidney, heart, mind… are you absolutely overwhelmed when you consider how much effort and attention to detail God expended when He made YOU!?
So what is your response to Psalm 139 my friends? Mine is: “Search me O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps. 139:23,24)
Do you see what a powerful step OUT of the darkness and despair Psalm 139 is? Our great, almighty, loving, creator God is EMPATHETIC. Because He designed and created us, IN HIS IMAGE, He loves us deeply, He watches over us every moment of our lives, day and night, and He longs for us to respond in love, with deep gratitude, for the gift of life that He has given us.
Do you understand the difference between SYMPATHY and EMPATHY? When we see an orphan on the street, we probably feel compassion, maybe sympathy. But if you are adopted, especially older than about age 4, you have EMPATHY when you see an orphan. You understand, you feel it deeply.
When we hear a person say they’ve just received a diagnosis of cancer, you perhaps feel compassion, maybe even sympathy. But if, like me, you are a cancer survivor, you feel EMPATHY!
This week we’re going to look deeply into why and how we can be encouraged as we take a second step out of despairing times with God, because God has EMPATHY toward us, the human beings He has created and loves. And that EMPATHY begins with the powerful truth of Psalm 139! He created you, He knows you better than you know you. God understands you better than you understand yourself, and He is ALWAYS, fully aware of ALL that is going on in your life.
So let’s park right here for today, and just allow your heart to overflow in thanksgiving to God as you ponder the power of Psalm 139, and God’s EMPATHY toward you!
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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