When You Know Your God

I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies. ---Psalm 18:1-3

I have spent two weeks sharing the character of God for a reason. I watch people in the congregations on Sunday just standing there, not engaging in the worship of their God and I wonder…why? I know they believe in God and will say they love Him, but there is no reflection in their face or behavior. So, I ask myself, why? It is really simple. They don’t know their God. They are there because their religion says they should be there. Or, they feel they need to be there, but don’t know how to enter in to worship.

God commanded His people (and that would be us, also) to know their God. That word, “know” in the Old Testament means “yada” which means to intimately delight in someone as a husband knows his wife. That is how we are to know our God, to intimately delight in Him. It is very easy to worship and praise God when we think of His characteristics and how He has demonstrated Himself in our own personal life.

I remember as business owners we had customers who had bought merchandise from us with the understanding that they would pay their bill within 30 days. The 30 days went by, then 60 then 90. We would call and write to these customers, but in the meantime our bills were coming due. I lost a lot of good sleep time thinking, agonizing and getting angry, agitated and almost bitter towards those individuals who were “stealing from us.”

Then I learned that I was absorbing all the concern when God was waiting for me to turn my concerns over to Him. You see, we had dedicated our business to our Lord. We had made Him a partner in our business. So, I turned all these matters over to him. I have to tell you, it was hard. But somehow, God provided enough work that we were able to pay for the merchandise that the customers didn’t pay for. We were able to continue to pay our employees, the insurance and the bank.

While going through this process, I also learned to praise God when I didn’t feel like it. “How do you do that?” you may ask. Well, I would reflect to the times in the past that God had walked with me through the hard times. I would think about His promises that He would not let me fail, that I would be the “head and not the tail, the lender and not the borrower.” I would let the encouraging words of the songs I was singing lift up my spirit-man even though my head was swirling with negative thoughts. By the end of worship, I would be shouting and praising God because He is faithful.

I have learned that when you lay your problems, your issues, your life before God, your job is then to TRUST Him to take over. Many times those customers did pay their bills, many times they never did get paid and we wrote them off as “bad debt” to the IRS. God will show you creative ways to prosper (move ahead in life), He will be your Rock, your Fortress, and your Deliverer. Just trust (have total confidence) in Him, then watch God and His hosts go to work for you.

Confession: There is no God like You, O Lord. It is in You that I will trust. My life is in your hands. I will praise you when I don’t feel like it because I will recall when you did see me through, and I will praise You because I am excited about the future with You beside me.