Making A Bigger Mess?

Today's Reading: Psalm 94

O LORD, the God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth!  Arise, O judge of the earth.  Give the proud what they deserve.  How long, O LORD?  How long will the wicked be allowed to gloat?  How long will they speak with arrogance?  How long will these evil people boast?  They crush your people, LORD, hurting those you claim as your own.  They kill widows and foreigners and murder orphans.  "The LORD isn't looking," they say, "and besides, the God of Israel doesn't care."
Think again, you fools!  When will you finally catch on?  Is he deaf--the one who made your ears?  Is he blind--the one who formed your eyes?  He punishes the nations--won't he also punish you?  He knows everything--doesn't he also know what you are doing?  The LORD knows people's thoughts; he knows they are worthless!
Joyful are those you discipline, LORD, those you teach with your instructions.  You give them relief from troubled times until a pit is dug to capture the wicked.  The LORD will not reject his people; he will not abandon his special possession.  Judgement will again be founded on justice, and those with virtuous hearts will pursue it. 
Who will protect me from the wicked?  Who will stand up for me against evildoers?  Unless the LORD had helped me, I would soon have settled in the silence of the grave.  I cried out, "I am slipping!" but your unfailing love, O LORD, supported me.  When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.
Can unjust leaders claim that God is on their side--leaders whose decrees permit injustice?  They gang up against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.  But the LORD is my fortress; my God is the mighty rock where I hide.  God will turn the sins of evil people back on them.  He will destroy them for their sins.  The LORD our God will destroy them.

     Verses 1-7 are explaining setting the scene: the wicked seem to ahve the upper hand.  They are prospering while the innocent, the widows, orphans and foreigners, are paying the price for their prosperity.  The wicked are taking pleasure from others' pain.  They believe God isn't looking and doesn't care.
     Verses 8-11 are the writer's response to these outrageous claims.  He answers in this way: Is he deaf--the one who made your ears?  Is he blind--the one who formed your eyes?  He punishes the nations--won't he also punish you? He knows everything--doesn't he know what you are doing?  The LORD knows people's thoughts; he knows they are worthless!
     Verses 12-15 are God's promise to protect those who seek his teaching.  Judgement will again be founded in justice and those with virtuous hearts will pursue it.
     In verses 16-19, the writer admits even he felt the pain and injustice of the wicked.  He admits openly that if it had not been fro the LORD's help he would have died.  But the LORD comforted him.  He says it this way in verse 19: When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.
     How often does your mind fill with doubts? Doubts about your job, money, whether or not your doing the right thing, raising your kids the right way.  The list goes on and on.  Well, that is where I have been this week.  Like my Granny says, I've been "running around like a chicken with its head cut off."  I've been going through the motions of the day with no true sense of direction because like the writer of this psalm, my mind has been filled with doubts.  I will be honest and say while I was running around in this state of mind I never once thought to come to the one place where I knew it could be fixed--GOD.  I was too busy trying to fix it myself, too busy playing Mrs. Fix-It and all I wound up doing was making a bigger mess.
     So if you are in this state of running around today, STOP!  Know that with God there is hope and renewed strength, you just have to come to him before you make the mess worse.

Power Verse:
Isaiah 40:31
But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles.  They will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint.

     Will you soar or tumble to the ground?  The choice is yours.

Thought for the Day:
Just as you learn who your children are as well as their unique traits as they grow so too God longs for you to seek Him and learn who He is and in the process love Him for His uniqueness.  He longs for a relationship with you.

If you don't know the LORD today, now is the perfect time to introduce yourself to Him and start that relationship.  He is waiting with open arms.  Here's how:
1. Know that God loves you.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  --John 3:16
The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.  My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.  --John 10:10
2. Admit to God that you are a sinner and that you are turning from your sins.
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.  --Romans 3:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.   --Romans 6:23
And just as each person is destined to die once and aft that comes to judgement. --Hebrews 9:27
3. Believe in Jesus by thanking Him for dying on the cross and rising from the dead for you sins.
I have one message for Jews and Gentiles alike--the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus. --Acts 20:21
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one can come to the Father except through me.  --John 14: 6
4. Commit yoru life to Jesus by asking Him to come into your life as your Savior and Lord through prayer.  After you have received Jesus Christ into your life, tell a Christian friend and follow Christ in believer's baptism and church membership.
"Look! I stand at the door and knock.  If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends." --Romans 3:20