This is How He Loves Me

[18] Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
[19] that he may deliver their soul from death
and keep them alive in famine.
[20] Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
[21] For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
[22] Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.

(Psalm 33:18-22 ESV)

When I feel overwhelmed or suffocated or trapped by all the circumstances of life, I can say,

"Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city."

(Psalm 31:21 ESV)

When I don't know "Why?", when I don't know what to do next, I can look to Christ, for "the LORD my God lightens my darkness"(Psalm 18:28b ESV).

'"For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.'

(Isaiah 54:10 ESV)

His "love never fails"(1 Corinthians 13: 8).

Even when I fall away, He will be there. He keeps all His promises.

"If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself."

(2 Timothy 2:13 ESV)

"For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness." [my emphasis]

(Psalm 26:3 ESV)

He loves me better than I even know. More than I can guess.


This is my God, and this is how He loves me.

The Desires of your Heart

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Ps 37:4

Many people, including myself, have taken this, and other similar scriptures as a promise that God will fulfill us by granting us the things we want. We want so many things, and so often our wants are quite legitimate biblically-speaking: godly children, a Christian spouse, a job where we can work as God intends us, etc. We seem to take such verses as Ps 37:4 as promises from God that if we do what he wants, He’ll give us what we want. However, I was reading through verses on the heart, and when I got to this one, I was suddenly struck by a new reading of this verse—at least, it was suddenly new to me. Thinking back to all the reading I have done, the sermons I heard, etc., it is not really a new concept at all, but I felt it was important to reorient this verse in my own heart, and hope that it will help shed new light in other people’s hearts as well.

Too often we try to use scripture against God. We take verses promising that obedience will be rewarded, and try to use obedience to get what we want. This is obviously a works-oriented approach to Christianity, and one that it is all to easy to slip into. If God demands obedience, and promises to reward our obedience, it becomes very easy for our sinful humanity to begin demanding His reward on our own terms. When we do not seem to get our “deserved” reward for our obedience to God’s will, we get angry or hurt, and begin to believe the same lie that Satan used to tempt Eve: we think that God is holding out on us. We cry, “I’m doing everything He asked (to the best of my ability): why doesn’t He give me what I want?”

Why doesn’t He give me what I want? “What I want” is not important; what God wants is. God does not have an immense tally sheet in heaven where He checks off our obedience against our disobedience and if obedience wins we get rewarded. One sin, no matter how “small,” is enough to send us to Hell. One sin blots out any of the good we may think we can do. Our obedience is not the measuring line by which we are rewarded, because God demands perfect obedience and we, no matter how we try, cannot ever do His will perfectly. Christ’s obedience is the measuring line—and it is Christ’s desires that are fulfilled.

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” This is where the eyes of my heart were suddenly opened. This text is not an equation where “Delighting myself in the Lord” = “Getting what my heart desires.” No, it promises something far better. In this text, God promises to give us the desires of our hearts. He is not promising to give us want we want, but rather promising to give us desires that come from Him. His desires. Not our Wants, the things we think we “need” or the things we lust after, but His desires. “Delighting in the Lord” = Being Gifted with the desires of God. 

Our little Wants become even smaller as we immerse ourselves, delight ourselves, in the Lord. And as our Wants shrink, He gives us holy Desires to take their place. We must not keep a death-grip on our Wants, or try to manipulate God into giving us what we think we need; instead, we must, by the Holy Spirit’s power, surrender our small Wants and pray to be drawn by God and given His desires.

Jesu, joy of man’s desiring,

Holy Wisdom, Love most bright;

Drawn by Thee, our souls, aspiring,

Soar to uncreated light.

Word of God, our flesh that fashion’d,

With the fire of life impassion’d,

Striving still to truth unknown,

Soaring, dying, round Thy throne.

Through the way where hope is guiding,

Hark, what peaceful music rings!

Where the flock, in Thee confiding,

Drink of joy from deathless springs.

Theirs is beauty’s fairest pleasure;

Theirs is wisdom’s holiest treasure.

Thou dost ever lead Thine own

In the love of joys unknown.

Traditional Hymn

Heart Boundaries

It is important for us as single people to set boundaries on our emotions, as the writer of Proverbs says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23). We must guard our hearts carefully or we will end up giving bits of them away.

Our emotions belong first and foremost to God, then to ourselves, family and friends. We give them. They are not taken from us and we are not owed anything for giving them–we give them as a gift. We do not need to feel obligated to give them out willy-nilly. We must not prostitute our emotions. It may seem crude to put it that way, but so often (in my case anyway) we waste our affection on “puppy-love” relationships and infatuations that go nowhere. And when these infatuations finally die off, we find ourselves looking for another place to dump our affections, only to discover we are again wasting our time, our love. We have invested a part of our hearts in the “relationship”, reciprocated or not, and we can’t get it back.

We are not heart whole anymore. Every time our “crush” dies, part of our heart dies with it. We have emotional hang ups that can last our life time.

It is right to desire a relationship with a “Significant Other,” God created us with longings for a soul mate(“It is not good that the man should be alone” Gen 2:18), but it is not right to begrudge others their relationships and the affection that that involves. As a single person, we must give our whole heart to God. Our affection is not to be engaged elsewhere–especially not brooding and being discontent with the situation God has set us in.

Our job as a single person is to keep our emotions unattached until God brings us into contact with our future spouse. This, of course, depends on His will regarding our lives: if we are meant to be single, we will be. We cannot try and “help” God to find us a soul mate. We need to take our lesson from Abraham, and not try and fulfill God’s promises for Him (ie. Hagar and Ishmael).

We must wait in God, place our trust in Him. This does not mean we are waiting for something, such as proof that our waiting for a Significant Other will pay out in the end. We must wait and trust that He will do what is best for us–not that He will do what we think is best for us.

Oswald Chambers said (My Utmost for His Highest), that the first type (waiting for a sign) of “[w]aiting for God is incarnate unbelief, it means that I have no faith in Him; I wait for Him to do something in me that I may trust in that…. It is a question of faith in God–the rarest thing; we have faith only in our feelings.”

This is such a common trap. We cannot rely upon our feelings–they are much too fleeting. We cannot place our hope in another mere human. We need Someone more to have real faith in or we are lost. We will drown in the surf of our surging emotions if we do not have a Rock to cling to in their midst.

But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 
Matt 14:30-31

And yet God works in us, despite our questioning and doubts. We must be careful that we are not only buoyed up by our feelings, but by true faith and trust in Christ.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised).Hebrews 10:23 

Music is Water for the Soul

Music is water for the soul. The many drops of sound all running together to create a harmonious stream pour over the frazzled or gasping psyche and smooth away all the edges that threaten to tear an emotional hole in the fabric of our being.

Sometimes it is a glacial mountain stream, sometimes a reflecting pond, sometimes the drifting arctic snow, sometimes the wild untamed surf of an ocean. Sometimes it is a bath or a steaming hot shower. Occasionally it is a mud puddle to splash into with both feet.

Always it comes with its own liquid grace.

http://piccsy.com/2011/09/water-music/

There is music for every mood, for every emotion, for every soul. Music for pain, for joy, for love, for loneliness, for grief, for exultation, for praise, for heartache, for pensive regret, for soul-wearying exhaustion, for exhilaration, for the dull, plodding everyday and for the once-in-a-lifetime, wish-upon-a-star occasions.

It shapes itself to you. What you need, it will be.

Find the right music and you can change your mood, your mental equilibrium, perhaps even your life.