“The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works. 18. The Lord is near unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. 19. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him: He also will hear their cry and save them. 20. The Lord preserves all them that love Him: but all the wicked will He destroy. 21. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless His holy name forever and forever.”
From all that I read and hear today, most people have a view of God that is reflected in verse 20: “but all the wicked He will destroy.” It appears to me that in the minds of a lot of people, the God of the Bible is terrible, so terrible that they do not believe in Him. But this is not the complete picture of the Lord of the Bible. People who read the Bible, believe it, and take it seriously, know that this negative view of God is not the complete picture. It appears that what most people want in their god is for him to not care what they do. This is not the case. I will certainly not deny that the wrath of God is real, but God’s wrath is only part of the picture. Look at the positive view of God that David reflected in Psalm 145:17-21. David writes about the righteousness and holiness of God: “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.” God is perfectly righteous and perfectly holy. He is righteous in every way, or “in all His ways.” He is holy in everything that He does, or “holy in all His works.” Throughout the Bible we see God’s righteous ways and His holy works. When God delivered Israel from Egypt, He demanded righteousness of them, and all that He did for them was holy, such as, leading them with a “pillar of cloud” by day, and a “pillar of fire by night.” This is a foretaste of the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But the ultimate righteous way and holy work is the coming of Jesus into the world to offer salvation to all who would believe. When one accepts Jesus by faith, he or she does it with the understanding that God’s way is the way of righteousness and that His work is the work of holiness. One has to accept God as He is, not as he or she wishes Him to be. David wrote about the nearness of God: “The Lord is near unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.” God is always present in every part of the world, but His nearness is realized by those who pray in truth. This means that God is near to people who are willing to confess their sins and to walk in His way. I wish that I could promise that God’s nearness can be experienced by everyone, but that is not what the Bible teaches. The first step of realizing God’s closeness today is to receive Jesus by faith and live daily in light of that faith relationship. This relationship with Jesus will by no means make anyone perfect, but it will mean that they have been forgiven, and that God’s nearness is guaranteed. Jesus will not take anything of value away from your life, and will bring more positive things into your life. Jesus has promised that He will never leave nor forsake you, and He gives you the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of that. If you are not experiencing the nearness of God, run to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you and to come into your life and save you forever. David wrote about the faithfulness of God to answer our prayers: “He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him: He also will hear their cry and will save them.” God is always willing to fulfill the honest desires of His people. This does not mean that God will give us everything that we desire. What He wants is for our desires for our lives to be His desires for our lives. All of the holy works of God, all of His righteous ways, and the reality of His nearness come to bear in our lives and change us into new people with new desires. God is ever present to hear and to answer our prayers. When we pray we open ourselves up to the changes that God wants to make in our lives. When we pray we can be assured that God hears us and that He will answer our prayers. The answer that He gives will always be the right answer and will lead us in the right direction. Put your faith in the God who loves you, saves you, is near you and will answer your prayers. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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