Monday, December 10, 2018

May Your Hearts Live

 

[Photo of a Scripture verse]


“I will praise God’s name in song and glorify
him with thanksgiving. This will please the
Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with
its horns and hoofs. The poor will see and
be glad—you who seek God, may your hearts live!”
—Psalm 69:30-32

One of the reasons why we go out into the world as ambassadors of the Great King Jesus is to share with those who do not know Him the glories of our relationship with Him.

In so doing, we recognize that we do not deserve this relationship with God. We had no choice in the matter. Rather, before the foundation of the earth, He chose us to belong to Himself. In due season, He sent the Holy Spirit to speak to our needy hearts and draw us irresistibly into His mercy, grace, and unfathomable love.

The songwriter, Eugene Bartlett, penned these words in 1939, which I’ve shared before on this blog, that captures the truth of this great mystery:

O victory in Jesus,
My Savior, forever.
He sought me and bought me
With His redeeming blood;
He loved me ere I knew Him
And all my love is due Him,
He plunged me to victory,
Beneath the cleansing flood.

The words “He loved me ere I knew Him” talk about the uniqueness of a relationship where our Lover (Jesus) loves us before we even knew about Him. The Apostle Paul, writing in Romans 5:8, explains it this way:

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

So, we have every reason to share joyfully with others what God means to us and what He has done for us. In this way, we give glory to Him and also represent Him well to others. King David expressed it this way in Psalm 69:30-32:

I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox, more than a bull with its horns and hoofs. The poor will see and be glad—you who seek God, may your hearts live!

When God sends the Holy Spirit to one He loves in order to reveal what He has done for them, a longing is placed in that one’s heart. That longing causes the one God has sought to, in return, seek God. We know that God is “seek-able” or, as Isaiah puts it in Isaiah 55:6-7:

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

So, as we begin this new day, let’s not hesitate to glorify God, knowing that such glory will be used by God to make the hearts of those He seeks, and who seek Him in return, to live.

 

Copyright © 2018 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.