Tag: God
Your Morning Incense
“Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning…”
~ Exodus 30:7 (NKJV)
Under the Old Covenant, the Lord anticipated the sweet incense of the morning offering and worship of His people. He desired them to come before Him early and often. And their worship every morning was a blessing to Him. God anticipates your morning incense as well. He looks forward to each new day with His beloved people. May you not disappoint. Every morning with the rise of the sun, may the Lord find the sweet incense of your worship, prayers and praise. May we, like Aaron, come early and often before the Lord.
~ apl
On Full Display
“The heavens declare the glory of God, the earth shows forth His handiwork”
~ Psalm 19:1
What this verse is trying to teach is about the goodness of God towards us through giving humanity this beautiful creation to enjoy. How in creation, we see the indelible mark of a wonderful, kind, and artistic Creator. The Bible says here the heavens declare the glory of God. In other words, in creation, in the heavens, in the sky, sun, moon, stars and so on, God has revealed His own glory. If you want to see God’s glory, just look up. It’s on display in a magisterial way. God’s glory is not hidden away in some deep dark corner. His glory and grandeur are on full display as Creation itself declares the Lord’s infinite glory.
~ apl
Whose Will?
Everything Good
The Church Defined
“The Church of Christ is the multitude of all those who believe in Christ for the remission of sins, and who are thankful for that mercy and who love the law of God purely, and who hate the sin in this world and long for the life to come.”
~ William Tyndale (1494-1536)
Trembling Before God
The Blesser Himself
By Love
Lord, because you have made me, I owe you the whole of my love; because you have redeemed me, I owe you the whole of myself; because you have promised so much, I owe you my whole being. Moreover, I owe you as much more love than myself as you are greater than I, for whom you gave yourself and to whom you promised yourself. I pray you, Lord, make me taste by love what I taste by knowledge; let me know by love what I know by understanding. I owe you more than my whole self, but I have no more, and by myself I cannot render the whole of it to you. Draw me to you, Lord, in the fullness of your love. I am wholly yours by creation; make me all yours, too, in love.
~ Prayer of St. Anselm (1033-1109)
Godly Fear
“My heart is severely pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.”
~ Psalm 55:5 (NKJV)
In this Psalm, King David was dealing with two kinds of fears – external fears and internal fears. He feared the loss of the kingdom. He was being overthrown by his own son (see 2 Samuel 15:7-15). The nation was in tumult and confusion. He feared what would become of his throne and the future of Israel itself. He had all these external, or outward fears that had washed over him and consumed him.
Likewise, King David was dealing with heavy and severe inward fear as well. The Bible says David’s heart was severely pained with him. And I can imagine – not only was there a mutiny in the land of Israel, but it was at the hand of his most loved and cherished son. David was struggling with the fear of death – ‘the terror of death has fallen upon me’. David was on the run for his life from his own child. In this prayer, he simply confesses it has overwhelmed him.
Fear, both outward and inward, are not something reserved for people of old. God’s people deal with the reality of fear everyday. What do you fear? Do you fear illness? Failure? Change? Death? Whatever form it takes, our fears can, at times, overwhelm us.
Yet, when we truly put God first and fear Him the most, all other worldly fears melt away. Psalm 56:4 reads, “In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” Fear of the Lord. This fear, cast out the others. The more we come to worship, trust, love and serve and Him, the smaller our other fears will seem. David took his concerns to God in prayer and his God sustained and strengthen him to cast away his every fear.
~ apl
A Prayer Life 