SCRIPTURE: Psalm 69
Have you ever been ridiculed for your commitment to God and Jesus?
I have not, except one incident from my childhood, teased by my friend for going to church.
David is zealously committed to God, yet people (even family and friends) laugh at him.
When he struggles, they mock him, ‘let your God help you’, they laugh.
His passion for God (symbolized by the temple) consumes him, actually it is destroying him (Psalm 69:9).
Jesus can relate; He is mocked, arrested and crucified because of His zeal for God.
To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:16-17)
This Psalm contains the raw honesty of a struggling believer, pleading for God to help him.
It is the same honesty that Jesus voiced on the cross when He was mocked and crucified:
‘He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him… Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). ((Matthew 27:43-45)
Though I am not personally being ridiculed, I can be inspired by David’s and Jesus’ example to be passionate about God.
Not obnoxious but gracious, not arrogant but a servant, for the love of God and Jesus and all people.
If I am to be mocked, let it be for being outrageously and passionately loving, kind, just and generous, like God and for God!
If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. (1 Peter 4:14-16)
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, thank You for being passionate for me; help me to be passionate for you, no matter what people say or do!
Jesus follower
trying to find His way
Observations/Application
Our hope is in our Lord God and I need to be His champion. Yet there are times of loneliness and despair for it seems that the events are not going God’s way. It seems that at times i am a fish going against the flow. Even family distance themselves from me or just put up with me.
But at all times I lift all things to You in prayer. Help me stand and not shrink from my responsibilities to stand up for Jesus. Help me this day to have a song upon my heart and sing Your praises. Help me in my service to You and may all who seek You find You.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Praise Him. Praise Him. All You people praise Him.
Prayer
May the activities of this day Lord be a sacrifice of praise. Lead me and guide me along the Way as I journey in Your presence throughout this day.
We bring the sacrifice of praise
Unto the house of the Lord.
We bring the sacrifice of praise
Unto the house of the Lord.
And we offer up to You
The sacrifices of thanksgiving;
And we offer up to You
The sacrifices of joy.