Hang On!

Devastation is a word I’ve heard a lot of people use as they turned the corner into this year. It may even be an appropriate word to use for many of us. It means two things:

{a} to cause severe or widespread damage to something

{b}to shock or upset somebody greatly.

When we turned the corner of this year it was very apparent that we left behind a very difficult year. Many of you lost a lot. Wealth, health, and hope limped away slipping just out of reach.

We are not the first of the generations to know such difficulties. And in fact, what we are experiencing pails in comparison to many other events in human history. Psalm 79 for instances is a complaint, no actually a review of factual events in prayer offered to Jehovah concerning the devastation of the holy city and her people in 587 B.C. Consider for a moment the fact that politically, socially, economically, and spiritually Jerusalem was ruined. No family was left untouched by the violence of God’s enemies. And to make matters worse there was not one temple left in which to offer sacrifice and prayer to the Father for intervention. Devastation may be too tame a word.

So what is the answer in times of devastation or near devastation? The whole of this Psalm teaches us – hang on! Hang on! Hang on to what? No, not what! Hang on to God.

Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake. (79.9)

There is the key to hanging on. The key to restoration and recovery is found in that one sweet line “for the glory of your name.” We seek restoration not on the basis of us but on the basis of HIM. To be restored and recovered is for His glory not ours.

I’ve been studying the terms of blessings in the Scriptures for practical and instructive reasons. Every time I turned the corner and discover God’s blessings for us I find they are attached to His glory. Could it be that we miss out on the blessings because we have forgotten to focus our energy for his glory?

The pathway to renewed blessings is through living for the Glory of God. Are you devastated? Cry out to him. Cry out for his glory. He will meet you – the sweet connection of a living soul and a living God. He will reach down and kiss you. He will exchange for you all your weakness for all His strength. He offers to you all that will carry you all that will assist you, and all that will encourage you in every moment.

Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake…Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise. (79:9, 13)

Always Enthusiastic,
Rusty Newman