jasper

In John 3:16, we read "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son....." This is the basis of our faith. Its not because I love God that HE loves me... but while we were yet sinners Chrsit died for us.. that clealry shows that God does truly loves us... Praise God!! And because HE chose us (because of His love for us), we have the privilage of being called the children of God. 1 John 3:1 says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God... " In our family, what binds us togther is that we are united in love. The moment we feel that our family does not love us, we feel insecure living with them and we dont want to stay there any more.. we move to where we can find real love... because nobody can live without being loved by atleast one person. And in that moment of despair and loneliness of not being loved, we can hear and feel the love of God when He says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you". SO the love of God is not just the basis of our faith alone, but of our whole life. We belong to God and this realization will come only to a person who has trusted in God and given God the control of His life. When you have kept your faith in God and have let him lead the way, you start realizing how blessed you are to be called the child of God and become welcome to His family.

During this spiritual struggle of the psalmist, he feels "thirsty for God"(42:2), downcast within his soul and he is trying to console himself saying that GOd had been his help in the past and will he definitely answer him. He continually repeats the phrase, "Why art thou down cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God...." He combats his spitiual depression by remembering the times when the Lord had helped him and the psalmists hope is fully pinned on God because he had experienced the hand of God in his life. In 42:4 he describes how much he enjoyed praising God in the house of God. In 42:6 he says, "I will remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar". Have I felt this way? yes, many times in my life I have faced situations where I felt God had abandoned me, but I claimed the Bible promises that I knew and would tell myself that "My God still lives.. He is seeing me now.. I know He will provide a way out of it... I trust u Lord". I would ask myself What Wud Jesus Do(WWJD) at this point and deal with it with prayer and trust in God. And let me tell you, brothers and sisters, He has NEVER let me down.. there has been times when the outcome was not as I expected it to be.. but later realized that it was God's will that way for me.. Praise God!!

This psalm of David clearly shows how much he longed to be with the Lord. In verse 4 he says, there is only one thing he desires and that is to "dwell in the house of the Lord". but he does not stop it there but goes on to say that he wants to dwell there all the days of his life. In Psalm 84:10 we read, "For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." So David always yearned to be in the presence of the Lord and in His holy temple as much as he could be there. To "dwell in the house of the Lord" means being in the presence of God. In todays world, this means spending time with God personally and with your family and also with your church. When ever we get the time, we should long to be in God's presence . We dwell in the house of the Lord in order to "Seek His face" . Even though we can never see God face to face, seeking to be with Him in His presence and talking to Him is what the Lord requires of us and waiting on Him to answer us according to His will in His time. David provides hope in verse 14 where he says we must wait on the Lord. In Isaiah 40:31 we read that they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they sahll run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. Can you see the sequence, first we fly, then we run and then we walk and all these times we will never fall. That's the blessedness of a man who waits on the Lord. If we become impatient and start doing things our way, we fail to perfect God's will in our lives, So dear brothers and sisters in Christ, lets learn to wait on the Lord.