I’ve asked Tony DeKoter, principle at Quisqueya Christian School in Port Au Prince, Haiti, to share his reflections on the readings for this week. Tony and Mary have been serving in Haiti for three years, you can read more at their blog, Hope For Haiti.
Psalm 32
What powerful words at the beginning of this Psalm: Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. This spells relief. This is God’s miracle of life eternal. Forgiveness of sins. A new beginning. He will instruct me and teach me in the way I should go. He will counsel me and watch over me. Happy is he who experiences the forgiveness of His God and Father. Remember the prodigal son?If I go my own way, walking in my own misery, it is just like working and walking in this Haitian heat that I am experiencing each and every day. It just zaps everything out of you. One just wilts away. That’s what happens when I do not approach the throne of grace. I need to confess my sins to the Lord God Almighty and keep growing in His protective hand. Because of His grace I am surrounded by people who sing songs of praise celebrating His deliverance. I too need to bring my songs to Him each and every day. Rejoice in the Lord. Let my song burst forth for all what the Lord my God has done for me. Salvation!
To be like Jesus is my goal. A Jesus follower. A disciple of Christ – Christian by name. This growing in Christlikeness takes a lifetime. GodStrong!
Teach me Thy way, O Lord, teach me Thy way!
Thy guiding grace afford, teach me Thy way!
Help me to walk aright, more by faith, less by sight;
Lead me with heav’nly light, teach me Thy way!
When I am sad at heart, teach me Thy way!
When earthly joys depart, teach me Thy way!
In hours of loneliness, in times of dire distress,
In failure or success, teach me Thy way!
When doubts and fears arise, teach me Thy way!
When storms o’erspread the skies, teach me Thy way!
Shine through the cloud and rain, through sorrow, toil and pain;
Make Thou my pathway plain, teach me Thy way!
Long as my life shall last, teach me Thy way!
Where’er my lot be cast, teach me Thy way!
Until the race is run, until the journey’s done,
Until the crown is won, teach me Thy way!
Hi Tony and Norm! Thank you for your insight. I have a question for Tony. You write a song at the end of your comments. Do they just pop in your head when you are reading the scripture? One time one of the songs you wrote stuck in my head all week and then I asked to sing it at church on Sunday. You must be very musical.
honesty IS the best policy
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 32
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long… Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”– and you forgave the guilt of my sin. [Psalm 32:3,5] God sees into my heart, He knows what is really going on. That He still loves me, and sent Jesus to die for me, shows that He is merciful, and wants to help me find forgiveness and freedom. So there is no sense in hiding my sin, my weakness, my folly. When we deny or ignore it, it burdens us. But when we admit it, we find forgiveness and freedom. As hard as it sounds, the best thing to do is to be totally honest with God; He knows it all anyway.
Jesus compared a pharisee and a tax collector in one of His stories. The point of the story is that God prefers honest, sincere repentance than presumed piety and goodness. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, `God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. [Luke 18:13-14]
Why do we pretend to be better than we are? One reason is the shame associated with failure, no one likes to look bad in front of others. But remember, everyone has this problem; we are all acting as if we are better than we are – including ministers, priests, atheists, teachers, politicians, movie stars and other ordinary people. We may fool others for a time, but we can’t fool God – and we can’t fool ourselves for long either. Eventually the truth of who we are on the inside will start to come out. Keeping silent does not help.
Start with being honest with God. But go beyond that, be quick to admit that you don’t know, or that you struggle, or that temptation is real for you as well. You don’t have to expose all the details (often inappropriate and unhelpful), but you do need to deal with it. Better this way than trying to hide it, then having it come out anyway (caught in an affair, losing everything to gambling, etc.) God will deal with our stuff one way or another; its better to deal with it honestly, with Him, than to try and hide it from Him and others… it just won’t work.
PRAYER:
Lord, I know I can’t fool You, and I haven’t been fooling myself; help me to take my inner struggles and sins more seriously, to deal with them openly and honestly with You. I want to experience Your forgiveness and freedom!