A Desire for The Lord's Guidance

I wrote this Psalm in my morning journal many years ago. After spending a few hours reading
the Word in the morning, the Holy Spirit will sometimes move me to write something
that is beyond my own expectation. The Psalm below was one for those moments.

by Chuck Ness

My Father my Lord, show me the way to Your paradise, guide my steps so that I may not fall into the quagmire of sin. Show me my faults Lord, so that I may correct them and be restored into Your imperial court. Instruct me in the ways of Your will O' Lord, so that I may not be defiled or corrupted by my own selfishness.

When I walked in the dark I found myself lost in the alley of despair, not realizing that my way was one of ruin and constant failure. I now follow You, my Creator, my Savior, the Infinite One who breathes the life I inhale.

Lord, my soul continually craves for the manna from Your plantation of plenty, while my heart thirsts for the pure water from Your Rock of Salvation. I shall sit back in Your chariot of fire and accept Your tutelage while You chauffeur me on my way to paradise.

O'Lord, Your way is straight and the guidance You give me is exceedingly perfect. I shall praise Your name daily as I thank You for keeping me safe while you continually wash away the filth that I allowed myself to be corrupted with along the way.

Amen

Christ Prays For Us In The Dark [Psalm 86]

We stand on the shoulders of giants, who walked and taught long before the ancestors we can name ever existed.  We must remember that many men throughout history have walked with God through Christ, and even if we never heard of them, we must give them respect for they too read and contemplated the same Scriptures as we do today. In this case I tip my hat to one, Peter Lombard, who wrote the words I added to the image, in 1611. 

Psalm 86
Prayer for Mercy, with Meditation
on the Excellencies of the LORD

Old Journal Entry, & A Psalm From 5/16/05

By Chuck Ness

Often times I find myself going through old journals I wrote to learn how my walk with Christ has progressed. I like to read about the good times, and bad times I wrote about. I especially like to look back to see how I fared in moments when everything seemed to be going wrong in my life. You know, those times when I was depressed, or confused. I read the prayers I wrote, and look to see how long it took for me to get passed those moments of despair.

It's a practice I learned many years ago, from other Christians whom I looked up to. I learned they journaled so they can track their progress in their walk with Christ. I especially learned, when you go back and read about your struggles, that you get strength and encouragement from the times you successfully handled a difficult moment in the past. I also see how there are times when I struggled with the same issue time and time again.

Proverbs 21:4 Sometimes God Suspends Freewill

The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD,
Like the rivers of water;
He turns it wherever He wishes.
(Proverbs 21:4)

When you wonder why a World does things that are clearly out of the norm for that individual, sometimes it can be by Devine intervention from God. I'm not saying that the evil things some World leaders have done are by God's will, but the good things that an evil leader may have done that are moral, ethical, and logical can be attributed to God. Mind you, its not because their heart has all of a sudden become pure or they had an Epiphany, but rather it's because God turned them from that which they wanted to do, to doing His will instead. I'm sure that like us, they too wonder why they did those things that are not what they intended.

See, while we do have free will, God does reserve the right to remove our free will from time to time in order to have a good thing accomplished for other reasons. Case in point would be when Balaam was hired by Balak, the King of Moab, to curse the Israelites. Instead he blessed them, because God would not allow him to curse His people. (Numbers 22–24).
Another instance was when Joseph's brothers planned on killing him. God knew they would, long before they were even born. So God arranged for some Ishmaelite traders to come by at that exact location so that Joseph was instead sold to them for twenty shekels of silver. The trader in turn sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. (Genesis 37:12-36)

See, God needed the get Jacob and his family down to Egypt so they would be isolated from intermarrying with the people of Canaan as Esau had. This way they would grow into a great nation set aside by Him as He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God knows all, and He knew that the Egyptians would not mix with Shepherds because they considered them to be unclean. (Genesis 46:34) What did Joseph tell his brothers?

“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. (Genesis 50:20)

Then there's time when God moved the Persian King Cyrus to read the parchments left behind by the prophet isaiah. In them he read that God had spoken to Isaiah in a vision: (Isaiah ch 45)

"My will is, that Cyrus, whom I have appointed to be King over many and great nations, send back my people to their own land, and build my temple."

History is replete with moments of God suspending ones free will in order to accomplish a goal He desires. Many may scoff at this, but look back at history and you will find records of times when very evil men did some quite remarkably good things. Men like Nebuchadnezzar, Hitler, Stalin, Al Capone, and even the serial killer, Ted Bundy, who all did things that only God could have moved them to do. That's why we as Christians are told to pray for His intervention in times of need?

Like when a loved one is injured, or maybe they have been told they have cancer. How about those times we wanted a job, or maybe for Him to give us that extra boost of energy to accomplish a task.  If we believed that God never helped us, then instead we would just allow a Dr to do the best they can, thus leaving our loved ones to suffer in times of tragedy.

No, instead we pray for God to help. Oh I should also remind everyone to always add , " Thy will, not my will." In doing so, we pray that our will and His will are in alignment. Can you think of a time in your life when God suspended your will in order to keep you on the right track. A time your were denied something you dearly desired and thought you deserved. Just to realize that in retrospect, that it was the best thing that could have happened?

The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD,
Like the rivers of water;
He turns it wherever He wishes.
(Proverbs 21:4)

I pray that those who have ears to hear will hear His voice and call upon the name of the lord Jesus Christ. Amen