One way that we have been maintaining our Fellowship as the Body of Christ is a weekly zoom prayer meeting. The focus of our time together is
prayer (which kind of makes sense since it is a prayer meeting) but we usually
spend a few minutes looking at a prayer found in the Bible or another Bible
passage.
One week we discussed the first 7 verses from Psalm 37..
Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
2 for like the grass they will soon
wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.
3 Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteous
reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
The introduction to some of
the Psalms tell us what was happening when they were written. While Psalm 37 does not do this, we do learn
that it was written by David. Now, David
lived over 4000 years ago but it sounds like he experienced some of the same
things that we see today (that is no surprise, while technology advances, the
effects of sin pretty much stay the same).
I imagine many of us can
still relate to these words. It can
certainly seem frustrating when we see those who are evil appearing to avoid
any consequences and in fact even succeed and prosper when they carry out
schemes and activities that are evil in the eyes of the Lord.
What is the correct way to
respond? Well, “trust in the Lord and do
good!” “Commit your way to the
Lord!” “Take delight in the Lord and He
will give you the desires of your heart” (this might very well mean that He
first CHANGES the desires of your
heart…but He will make sure you have what you need at any rate). Remember that being a follower of Jesus means
that we are in it for the long haul!
And while it sometimes
appears that those who ignore God do so without suffering consequences,
judgment is certainly coming…”like the grass they will soon wither”…we should
“be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him”
The tricky thing there is
that we are always to be shining His light, sharing the Good news
of His love and grace in the hopes that folks will respond and accept His offer
of salvation. In other words, we look
forward to a time when there will be no more sin or evil but we sure hope that folks will choose to join us to share that blessed time.
As we agreed at the zoom meeting that day, this is certainly something that we can not do on our own. We need to pray about it.…that we may not lose heart even if it seems like ungodliness is making advances, that we keep our eyes and our faith on the Lord, that we will allow Him to control the desires of our hearts and that we reach and share His good news of redemption and new life even as we look forward to a time and place when there will be no evil and no suffering,
In the meantime, I hope everyone is able to stay safe as we go through our days.
Blessings to all,
Pastor Ray.
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