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It
is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good
to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the
evening, accompanied by the harp and lute and the harmony of the lyre. You
thrill me, LORD, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what
you have done. O LORD, what great miracles you do! And how deep are your
thoughts. Only an ignorant person would not know this! Only a fool would not
understand it.
(Psalm 92:1-6 NLV). From time to time I am invited to give a devotional talk to various groups. Typically these groups are of different traditions. As I read this morning’s verses, I remembered one particular group, a local Lion’s Club, in which I used Psalm 92 as the basis for my thoughts. My appeal to them that evening was to consider measuring their happiness by a very different standard than one we are normally accustomed to. Instead of bottom lines, positive cash flow, net assets, hours spent in the office, why not evaluate the health of their business and their personal lives by how much time they gave to themselves personally, to their families, and most important, to their God? As I shared my thoughts, I could see in their faces a polite agreement to hear me out, but a silent message that said all too clearly that no matter what, time will always mean money. For
centuries Western civilization has lived the philosophy that we are a self-made
people. We work hard, play by the rules, minimize our mistakes, and maximize our
opportunities, always living by a tenuous promise that we're certain someday to
have it all. Psalm 92, David's psalm for the Sabbath, refocuses and prioritizes
our lives from the horizontal to the vertical plane; to the spiritual dimension
where great are His works, not ours, and profound are His thoughts, not ours.
Every seven days the Sabbath challenges us to self-examination of time and
priorities and life direction. Even
though most of us do not formally worship on the Sabbath, it ought to give us an
opportunity to examine our “windows.” Before you this week are six 24-hour
"windows" of opportunity. For those six days you will work, study,
play, achieve, and probably accumulate a little. At the end of those six days
God has set a seventh day that calls you to a higher place. A place of refuge
and communion where He alone, not we ourselves, is Lord. A place in time where
we recognize that we are not the owners of ourselves, or our time, or our
fortunes. They all are His. "Fools"
do not understand how this works, but through the experience of this kind of
worship we may understand and know that all we have is His, and all we have,
including how we spend our time, must glorify Him! Remember to pray for our country and all those involved in Iraqi Freedom. |
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