Tag Archives: Psalm 55:22

Confess – Create – Cast

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Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.  James 5:16

 

Create in me a pure heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

 

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. Psalm 55:22

 

Confess sins: Two words that seem rather old-fashioned in today’s self-help and self-sufficient world. But these two words should be part of our daily vocabulary. Why? Because they are the secret to right living (righteousness). We cannot live in harmony with each other or with God unless we are reconciled with them. What kind of prayers are powerful and effective? The ones of a righteous person. Righteousness is not being ‘holier-than-thou.’  Righteous means being humble (reconciled) before God and others.

 

Righteousness involves asking God for a pure heart and a steadfast (right) spirit to live in us. It means being loyal, faithful, committed, dependable, trustworthy.  These are the qualities you seek in your closest friends; they are also the same qualities we need to demonstrate in order for us to be friends. It takes more than singing a song to be friends of God. We need to act like a real friend, one with a steadfast heart.

 

When we confess our sins and continually ask God for a clean heart, we finally find the capacity to truly cast our cares upon the Lord. Oh, we try to cast them on Him even when we remain in our sin. But it is a clean heart, a right conscience that allows us to really let them go.  When we hold onto our sins and our anxieties we are never fully at peace. We say ‘Time heals all wounds’ and ‘this too shall pass.’  But time alone is a lousy healer and ‘this too’ sometimes doesn’t pass, at least in this lifetime. Time allows a wound to scar. Forgiveness allows it to be fully healed.

 

Our health can be shaken, our finances decimated. Relationships are sometimes severed and we can be hard pressed in so very many ways. But God promises “He will never let the righteous be shaken.” How can you have this unshakable life? God says:

  • Confess your sins to each other and to God.
  • Ask God to create in you a pure heart.
  • Cast your cares on God and let HIM sustain you.

 

Enjoy the unshakable peace of God today.

 

 

Great and Powerful

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It is hard to imagine the fear that “the great and powerful Oz” struck in the minds of movie goers in this 1939 film. At first glance it seemed that Oz was indeed great and powerful what with the blazes of fire and clashes of thunder. But our mind easily conforms to movie trickery, and in the end, it was just a little man behind the curtain, wasn’t it? Nothing to fear in reality.

Our fears and anxieties are like that. They prey on our ability to imagine things that aren’t real. As a kid, I was able to imagine all sorts of ‘bogey men.’ As adults, it seems our imaginary monsters have been replaced with grown-up worries, still imaginary, yet frightful. Some are based on very real circumstances: a pile of bills and a small checking account, pain and sorrow that continue without abatement, soured relationships, failing health. But for the follower of Jesus, the question remains: “Whom do I trust?” If we say He is Lord and master of our life, then our problems come under His jurisdiction too. They don’t own us. If they did, THEY would be Lord, right? And we know we cannot serve two masters.

Unlike Dorothy in Oz, we don’t have to fight a wicked witch solely in our own power. And as important as a group of close friends is in our perilous journey, even they are not enough to defeat our foe. But there is within us, the Holy Spirit, all the power we need. The full authority of God the Father, His power and might, His holiness, His glory, His greatness, His unending love and amazing grace all rest within us. If we trust Him with our eternity, cannot we trust Him with our current life? And if we truly trust Him for all things, whom then shall we fear?

Our God is not a little man behind the curtain. He uses no trickery…He is who He says. If we can trust our Great and Powerful God with our eternal life, can we not trust Him today with every situation, real or imagined, that causes us fear and anxiety? It is a choice we make many times daily.

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you. Psalm 55:22