The Vineyard
Dear Friends:
Today David seemed to be speaking to directly to me when he spoke in Psalm 55:22, “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”
The great thing to remember about verses like this, is that when I read them and chose to pray and believe that are as true for me as they were for David, or Paul or John, I must also consider the condition of the heart those that wrote those words. When David wrote these words he believed them because he was living a life that was pleasing to God, and he was humbly seeking God’s favor.
I have seen that it is when I am obedient and humbly seeking Him that my faith increases, and conversely when I am avoiding Him or I am prideful my faith is diminished. There is a correlation between my confidence in His provision when I am obeying Him, and how my obeying Him increases my faith—-one leads to the other!
It’s not God is unable to give me all that I want or that He is conserving His resources. His pantry is inexhaustible! Yet I often pray about things cautiously, as if I might be taxing His ability to provide. If I am seeking to live a righteous life and humbly admit to Him my needs, He will sustain me every single time—my cup will overflow.
But let me confess that though I profess this to be true, and though I have experienced this to be true, I also suffer from doubts about what will happen “this time” around. I know that it sounds absurd, but the enemy is ever trying to convince me that this time God might not be in the mood to help me, or perhaps that I have committed some “forgotten” sin that He intends to bring to light by allowing me to be defeated or humiliated, or that He wants to “make me tough” by letting me endure incredible heartache and loss, etc. You get the idea: Satan wants me to believe that God cannot be trusted to look after me all the time. That is the big lie that I fight. But I have found it helpful to ignore the taunts of the enemy and remind him (Satan) that he is where he is because he misjudged God.
My Father is able to care for me; He has called me His own; He sent His Son to secure my redemption (and many others) who would call Him Lord and Savior. If I am shaken it’s not God’s doing—-it’s because of my short memory. He has always been there for me.
Dean Barley
The Vineyard
Dean@VineyardCamp.com
336 351 2070
919 360 8493 (Mobile)
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