Tag Archives: Psalm 27

Choosing our Affection

Our Affections Affect Us (Whether We Realize it or Not)

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Jimmy

Jimmy looked at his watch again as he anxiously waited outside the director’s office. In a few moments he would find out who was going to be the manager of the new IT department. Did he get the job or did Kevin?  Becoming a manager was real important to him, not only because it would make him feel successful, but he desperately needed the extra money.  He’d maxed out his credit cards due to unexpected repairs and unwise financial choices.

“I’m sorry, Jimmy,” his director said. “We believe Kevin has demonstrated what we need for this position. Keep working hard and you can apply for future opportunities.”

The news crushed  Jimmy. His anger quickly escalated. “I think you’re making a mistake,” he barked. “Kevin….

Jimmy went on to untruly attack Kevin’s character, putting into jeopardy his own hope for future promotions.

Jimmy’s affection to appear successful and to have more money influenced him into making very poor choices.

Our English word ‘affection’ is derived from the Latin ‘afficere’, which means to influence. The definition of ‘affection’ is a fond feeling, a liking or caring about someone or something.

What We Value, Strongly Affects Our Choices

Take a look around you? Check your heart. What do you care about? Is it possessions, achievements, happiness, relationships? Chances are there’s a mixture.

We care about people, so we choose to be kind.

We want to be successful, so we work diligently.

We favor order over kayos, so we choose to maintain our possessions and to take care of important responsibilities.

These are positive examples, but like Jimmy, we can harm ourselves and others by valuing something too much.

Personally, I’ve cared way too much for smooth circumstances over the years. Looking back, I see how this affection, adversely affected my life and those around me. I sometimes choose to move quickly through difficult trials, denying their gravity. I wanted to get back to feeling ‘okay’.  However, what I didn’t realize was how this quick dismissal of hard circumstances left emotional pain unattended, both in me and in others.

One true Affection will Always Affect Our Lives in Positive Ways. 

What I’m realizing is that there is one true affection which will always affects our lives in positive ways. It can become the great filter for everything which passes through our lives.

Jesus told Martha that her sister, Mary, had chosen the one thing which was necessary.[1]

In Psalm 27, David asked one thing as a life’s request:  to dwell close to God, to behold his beauty and feast upon his nearness.[2]

One Thing – Loving and worshipping God.

Jesus confirmed this longing when he said,  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”  Matthew 22:37-38

In telling us this, Jesus gave us a primary affection to govern all lesser affections.

One Great, Primary Affection

Loving God with all our heart.

Our love for God begins deep within, from our hearts, ‘the spring of our life.’[3]  But any love we have for God must stem from His love for us. We love because he first love.[4]

Loving God with all our soul.

Our soul – our mind, will, and emotions. Our thoughts and feelings can deceive us. God’s great love for us can be hidden. We must choose the truth of what God says about us, over and above our feelings and our thoughts.

Loving God with all our might.

Loving God with all our might means more than just loving him with all  our strength. It means loving him with all we have at our disposal – “with everything we have available for honoring God — which includes our spouse, our children, our house or dorm room, our pets and wardrobe and tools and cell phones and movies and music and computers and time.” [5]

Loving God Overflows into What We Do

When Jesus added, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets,”[6] we see the first influence of our affection for God.

If we love God, we will love people. And if we love people, all  lesser affections will play out in loving ways.

Kevin

Kevin heard about Jimmy’s outburst in the director’s office. He felt really hurt. He considered Jimmy a friend.

Kevin crafted an e-mail to Jimmy defending himself and telling him how hurtful his words were. He read through it and changed it several times. However, he didn’t send it.

Kevin was trying to live his live through the filter of his affection for the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted every word and action to reflect his love for God and his love for the people in his life.

He choose to not be offended by what Jimmy had done. He agonized with God about how hurt he was.

Later, Kevin was able to see Jimmy’s pain in not getting the job. He asked God to show him what loving Jimmy would look like.

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for clearly giving us a great affection which influences every part of our lives. Like Kevin, teach us to allow our choices to flow out of our love for you.

Please help us know your love for us. Destroy anything that blocks it. May we walk around completed surrendered to your extravagant love.

Please teach us how to love you with all our hearts, all our souls and all our might.

Amen.

[1] Luke 10:41-42

[2] Psalm 27:4

[3] Proverbs 4:23

[4] I John 4:19

[5] Loving God with Your Everything  by Jason DeRouchie,  www.desiringgod.org/articles/love-god-with-your-everything

[6] Matthew 22:40

The Lord is my Light, The Lord is Near

Son Shine

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A few Sundays ago, at the beach, a few of us woke up early to see the sunrise. I was a bit demotivated at first, especially since we were on vacation, but my son in law convinced us it would be well worth it.

“I walked out onto a sandbar about a quarter of a mile,” he said, speaking of his adventure the previous morning.

So, when my phone chimed around 6 am, I quietly dressed and headed down to our rendezvous spot. A faint tinge of light was beginning to illuminate the eastern sky as we walked the block and a half down to the beach. When we reached the sand, we slipped off our shoes and headed east.

An orange band hugged the horizon, topped by a pale yellow patch, slowing replacing the night’s darkness, already taking on a light blue hue.

After walking a few hundred yards we turned right ninety degrees and waded toward the middle of the ocean. Walking on a sand bar, we kept going until looking back, the houses on the beach were distant silhouettes. It was breath taking. My son-in-law was not exaggerating. It was truly magical.

When the first rays of the sun broke through, we were all captivated by God’s splendor.

Several weeks have passed since our early morning adventure and I determined last night to greet the sun again. I’m several hours from the ocean, but live half a mile from a large lake. Using my StarTracker app, I determined where the sun would rise over the lake and was waiting in my convertible with coffee and journal in hand. As the sun rose, I wanted to praise the Lord for His new day sun.

But I saw no sun. The sky brightened, but only with lighter shades of grey. The eastern sky was covered with clouds. I would see no sunrise, but was determined to still praise my God for His beauties.

When I returned home, I pulled out a camping chair and enjoyed the crispness of the morning air. Sipping on my coffee it occurred to me that even though I saw no sun, the Son still shines.

Sometimes my days can seem totally grey. Hard times can block the light of my Lord’s nearness. What a great reminder!

God’s light always shines, even when I can’t see it.

“I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 4:18

His word lights my way.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105

With God, there is no darkness. “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” I John 1:5

I have been called out into the Lord’s wonderful light. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a Holy Nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellences of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”  I Peter 2:19

When I was a young believer, we would sing a Song about the Lord being our Light, based on the following verses from Psalm 27:

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the defense of my life;
Whom shall I dread?

When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh,
My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.

Though a host encamp against me,
My heart will not fear;
Though war arise against me,
In spite of this I shall be confident.

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple.

Prayer: Lord, thank you. You’ve shown me, even on this cloudy day, Your light shines brightly. You are Light. In You I have no fear. Bring light into every crevice of my heart. Light my way I pray, that I might follow Your path for my life. Please give me the peace of your presence, even when all around me is dark and evil. Though I walk in the shadows, I will not fear for you are always with me.

One Thing! Lord, you are my Light.  May my one overwhelming desire be to remain in Your presence and gaze upon Your beauties, even in the midst of my cloudy days.

Amen.

The Nearness of God

Hello Silence my New Friend

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New Time Travel Novel by the Author

Fighting for Silence

On a recent trip to the beach, I was alone for two and a half hours. Letting my Waze app chart my course to avoid traffic,  I enjoyed some rural scenery and small towns I’d never seen before. I fought the urge to turn on the radio or listen to a book on Audible and chose silence instead. I’m so glad I did.

In a devotional I recently completed, I was challenged to have a couple of minutes of silence before and after my times with God. It was extremely hard at first. I kept wanting to reach for my phone to check a text, mark a to-do or research an idea which popped into my head. Over time, I realized that God’s still small voice will fill the silence, but I have to wait on Him.

The Presence of God

As I drove through the low country of South Carolina, passing through Lynchburg and Lake City, people started coming to mind. Being concerned for their well-being, I began to present them one by one before the Lord.  This connection with God’s heart gave me a sense of his nearness.

Speaking about the nearness of God, David wrote of gazing upon his beauty in the temple. Asaph wrote that the nearness of God was his good and that apart from God he had nothing. Exodus compares the presence of God to bread. In the New Testament, we read of Rushing wind and Rivers of Living water when describing the Holy Spirit, God’s presence with us.

Love

What I was experiencing, started with love. All the lies which often block the knowledge of God’s love for me were held aside so that  I knew it in deeper measures. He loved me before I was born with a  timeless love which I can not change.

Peace

There was also extreme peace, a peace rooted in the Prince of Peace and not in any present circumstance. I understood what Jesus meant when he told us he himself is our peace and that we can’t expect it from the world.

Hope

There was hope, a firm hope anchored in Christ; a realization that regardless of what the future holds on this side of the grave, I know how my story ends. An eternity of experiencing even a greater measure of God’s presence awaits me.

Joy

And joy. There was no progression in the love, peace and hope I was experiencing. An awareness of God’s nearness came upon me quickly, as the sun emerges from a cloud.  However, it seemed to me that joy was the culmination of the other three. Could I experience this kind of internal glee if I didn’t have love, peace and hope? My heart said no.

More than Feelings

As I drove past a white country church against the graying sky , it occurred to me that what I was experiencing was more than feelings. Sure I felt good.  But I could’t imagine any great circumstantial news giving me any greater joy.

Nor could I imagine really hard news stealing the reality of his love, peace, hope and joy. At least, those were my thoughts at the moment. God is love. He is peace. He is hope. And in his presence is fullness of joy.

Lasting Impressions

Looking back on my solitary ride to Georgetown, South Carolina, I’ve emerged with a couple of huge realizations.

  • I would not have experienced the presence of God at the level I did if I hadn’t  chosen silence.
  • I don’t have to be alone on a rural road to experience God’s love, peace, hope and joy.

Since my trip, I’ve had similar awareness of God’s presence in the midst of life’s conversations and activities. And he’s just as present with me right this moment as when I passed that country church.

For me, choosing times of silence has become a necessity. I must preserve and fight for times of waiting on God. If not, I tend to carry on life without him.

And that’s never a good thing.