Britton Christian Church

“…I have resolved that my mouth will not sin.” (Psalm 17:3 NIV)

How many times has my mouth gotten me into trouble? How many times have my words left the sour taste of regret lingering for hours, if not days? If I had a dime for every time, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg would be asking me for a loan. The variety of ways that my mouth has led me astray from God’s desire for me are legion. In a moment of anger I have said things that have harmed instead of healed. In a mindless moment I’ve said things that later left me wondering, “Why did I say that?” Arrogantly, I have made myself out to be something more than I am by the words I’ve spoken. Selfishly I’ve put others down to try and make me look better. The list goes on and on and on. My words have bullied, berated, broken, belittled, and bloodied when they could have, no, when they should have, blessed.

In James 3, I’ve read about the corrupting potential of the tongue. From living life I know his words to be true. Yet, the Psalmist says, “…I’ve resolved that my mouth will not sin.” I looked up the Hebrew word for “resolved.” It means, “to plan,” or “to carry out a purpose.” The same word is used for those who devise evil schemes and carry them out. The ball is my court. Will I “plan” to use my words to bless and encourage today? Will I make my purpose, for this day, to uplift and comfort by what I say to those with whom I will interact? I know from experience that if fail to plan then I will most assuredly plan to fail. Before I ever leave the house I must find a quiet place to get alone with the Father and set the plan in place. I want my words to comfort and not harm. I want my mouth to uplift and inspire, not belittle or berate. My prayer today, Lord, is that You will help me come up with a plan and empower me to live it out, throughout the day, so that others might be blessed and You might be honored by the words of my mouth.

6 I will sing to the LORD because he is good to me. (Psalm 13:6 NLT)

Sometimes I read a verse in the Bible that stops me in my tracks and forces me to think. I may have planned to have read on, but the verse changes my plans. And so it is this morning. I hit the wall at Psalm 13:6. I had to stop. “I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.” David doesn’t say, “He has been good to me.” He wouldn’t have disagreed with that statement at all. God had been good to David. David writes in “real time,” present tense, when he writes, “the Lord is good to me.”

God has been good to me also. I could fill a library with all of the ways God has been good to me throughout my life. My problem is that when I go through the storms of life I suffer from amnesia. I forget about His faithfulness in days gone by and I focus on the problem in front of me instead of the One leading me.

David’s testimony reminds me that God is good to me. Right now. In this moment. With my troubles before me–He is good to me. He has blessed me to live today. He has given me a family who cares about me. He is my Counselor who is always there to reassure me that “He will never leave me.” (John 14:16) He tells me to “be strong and courageous.” (Joshua 1:9) He forgives me when I stumble and blow it and then reminds me that I am the “apple of His eye.” (Deuteronomy 32:10) God is good to me. My prayer today, Lord, is that You will constantly remind me of how good You are to me…every moment of every day.

2 I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. (Psalm 9:2 NIV)

Most everyone I know wants to be “happy.” “Happy” is defined as “free of problems, feeling good about life, having a good time, and wearing a perpetual smile.” I think most of us know that in this broken world in which we live to experience unending happiness is outside of the realm of possibility. Yet, “happiness” continues to be the goal of many, if not most people.

Life as we know it is an almost continuous string of troubles, disappointments, sorrow, loss, and pain. We have our moments of calm, flashes of unbridled fun, but they are soon replaced by another challenge. I’ve discovered something in the Psalms that gives me hope, a goal greater than happiness, and it is joy. In Psalm 9, I find David writing about his enemies, the wicked in the land, and rogue nations that have rebelled against God. With all of that going on around him, David sings, “I will be filled with joy because of you. I will sing praises to your name, O Most High.”

There is a connection between being filled with joy and singing to the Lord. I see it in Psalm 5:11-12; 9:2; 32:11; 67:4; 90:14; 92:4. In Psalm 7, before I ever get to the first verse, I read, “A psalm of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning Cush of the tribe of Benjamin.”

I’ve got to learn to sing. I don’t mean find a voice coach and take singing lessons. I mean that I’ve got to learn to sing in the midst of my trials, to hum along with the cadence of Heaven’s joyous praises regardless of what is going on in my life. My prayer today, Lord, is that You would put a song in my heart and empower me to sing so that Your joy might displace the disappointment and sorrow that comes frequently in this life.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24 NIV)

The last few verses of 1 Corinthians 9 have always been a favorite of mine. Paul is writing about the discipline and tenacity of athletes, but what he is really thinking about is the “race of faith.” We are not out for a casual stroll through life–we are in a race. We should not be content with merely making it to the end, or crossing the finish line, we should run to win. You may not be a runner at all, but remember, Paul is not talking about “running” at all. He is talking about “living.” We should live each day with focus and discipline. We should live each day with a heart full of passion and wonder. We should live each day with purpose–the purpose of living for the glory of our King. My prayer for each of us today is that the Lord would give us a burning passion to “run” this day like no other.

In His Steps,
Mike

6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:6-7 NIV)

The very last letter the Apostle Paul wrote was his 2nd letter to Timothy. His life had been filled with twists and turns. He had seen God do marvelous things. He had suffered physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He had witnessed lives changed through His sharing of the Good News about Jesus. It had been an incredible journey.

As he sat down to write Timothy, Paul knew the end was in sight. He writes, “the time has come for my departure.” Paul had experienced many “beginnings” and “endings” throughout his life, but this would be the final curtain call. And so it is with me, and with you. Opportunities come and opportunities go. The pages turn on the calendar and one day they will run out.

It is more than “healthy” to have a firm grip on our humanity, to realize our mortality, to come to terms with the fact that our life is speeding by with a flash. The Psalmist wrote, “You have given me only a short life; my lifetime is like nothing to you. Everyone’s life is only a breath.” (Psalm 39:5 NCV) The more I come to terms with the fact that there are only a limited number of pages on my personal calendar the more focused I can be on what truly matters in life…today.

Paul got to the end of his life and said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” What a blessing to know that you’ve left it all out on the field, you held nothing back. I want to experience that feeling in my walk with the Lord. I know that to do that I must seek to live each day with that goal before me. I can’t say, “I’m going to ‘fight the good fight’ in 2012.” I must fight the good fight today. Leave it all out on the field today. Hold nothing back today. Lord, let me live today.

13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14 NIV)

The end of 2011 is upon us. How did it go? Any mountaintop moments come to mind? Has the Lord led you through any valleys? Or maybe you are going through a dark night of the soul as you read this. Did you have any hopes, goals, and aspirations that you set your sights on at the beginning of the year that just didn’t pan out? I sure did.

I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to get mired in the failures of yesterday instead of focusing on the possibilities of today. Don’t get me wrong, I have my moments when, like a little kid, I dream big dreams. There are those times that I stand on my tip toes, look out into the future, and I paint a picture of what could be with bold, bright colors. Then… You know what “then” means don’t you? “Then” for me means that in the middle of dreaming big, planning with passion, and painting with the vibrant colors of the rainbow–I fall back into reality. That little man in my head says to me, “You’ve already tried that and it didn’t work? You’re 50 years old–you can’t do that! Why even try when you know you are going to fail…just like you did last time.” “Then” is a killer of dreams for me.

I don’t want to spend 2012 living with what comes after the “then” of my dreams and goals. I want to “forget what lies behind and strain toward what is ahead.” I want “to press on towards the goal for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

As I read God’s Word I find failure on each and every page. Abraham and Sarah failed, but they pressed on. David failed, but he pressed on. Peter failed, but he pressed on. The question is, “What will you and I do as we stand on the verge of a New Year? Will we refuse to run the race because we’ve failed so many times in the past or will we take our place on the starting line and run like we’ve never run before? Press on.