Daily Devo 7/8/10

Psalm 100
1Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. 2Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before Him with joyful singing. 3Know that the LORD Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. 5For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.

How do you acknowledge God?
Too often, I believe that Christians only come to God when we need something. We consider Him to be the “all-powerful genie” who can grant us wishes when we have need or change the situation when we are in trouble. We only go to Him when we want something.

That is a far cry from this passage. A wanting soul looking for relief or privilege does not come before God joyfully or with singing, but with trepidation and entitlement. There is very little service, especially with gladness. The attitude is more like that of a person who goes to see his long lost rich uncle whom he hasn’t called upon or checked upon in years only to ask him for money! God certainly tells us to come to Him and ask for things and we should, seeing that He is the God who has the power to grant it and the sovereignty to control all circumstances. But how do we go about it and how often?

I think it is clear from the passage, that the psalmist had a deeper relationship with the Lord than that of asker and granter of wishes. He was overjoyed to go to God, so much so that it caused Him to sing and shout joyfully!

But why?

He had an understanding of who God is.
First, David understood that God was the creator. Man didn’t make himself. Man did not arrive by accident. Man did not exist because God set a plan in motion. God personally fashioned the first man, from the dust and subsequently all humans came from that man through God’s divine plan.

Second, he uses the sheep/shepherd analogy again. God’s people are taken care of like a shepherd cares for his sheep. Notice to that the sheep of God are in His pasture. Not only does the shepherd care for the sheep, but he cares for the area in which the sheep live.

Lastly, the psalmist knew that God is good and merciful and faithful. Do we really believe that God is good? Sometimes it can be so easy to question God’s goodness when “bad” things happen.

Our problem is twofold: 1. We cannot see beyond our own tiny perspective of space and time (whereas God sees the bigger picture and controls the outcome) and 2. We don’t want to trust God with our lives and their outcomes as much as we would like to trust ourselves.

How puny a view we take of God? To think that we, as powerless finite creations could do better than an infinite, all-powerful, merciful God who loves us and wants our best is ludicrous at best. This is where the idea of trusting the flesh seems fairly ridiculous in that context.

So what should be the outcome?

Thanksgiving!

I have never known a truly thankful person to act entitled. Thankfulness appreciates what someone has done for you and chooses to approach that with the utmost joy and gladness.

But again, it all starts with what you know about God.