Psalm 23:6

Surely goodness and love will follow me

    all the days of my life

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord

    forever.  Psalm 23:6

Because of who the Lord is....goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Because God is

our father, we will dwell with him forever. David predicts the eternal life of the believer with the Almighty. 

What a great promise of God's goodness to us now and forevermore.

Wickedness

Failure is better than wickedness. The Lord hates evildoers and cannot dwell with evil (Psalm 5:4,5). Thank God for his grace that makes me righteous in his sight by Christ's work.

Love The Lord With All Your Strength

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all of your soul and with all of your strength. The greatest commandment according to Jesus. As I was lying in bed this morning, hitting my snooze button, I couldn't help be convicted that I was not loving God with all my strength. Am I using my strength to love God? Do I spend my self for him? Do I care enough about him to obey all of his commands? Is my energy focused on him? Is my life about service to him? This is very convicting to me. It got me out of bed this morning. Am I living for God or an extra half hour of sleep and a couple hours of watching tv at night?

Prayer

"No man is greater than his prayer life." Leonard Ravenhill

Believers in Jesus Christ have direct access to God in prayer at any time of day or night. God has limitless resources and has sovereign control over all things. The sun only rises at the order of the Almighty. In the word, the Lord says he hears our prayers, will grant us what we ask in his name for the right reasons and that we should pray without ceasing and about everything. If I want to be a man that is God obeying and honoring, can I really afford to pray for fifteen minutes a day?

Kindness

We are particularly required to be kind to the unthankful and to the evil; and therein to follow the example of our heavenly Father, who causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and unjust. We are obliged, not only to be kind to them that are so to us, but to them that hate, and that despitefully use us. Jonathon Edwards ^1

I have failed miserably.

1 Jonathon Edwards, Works, vol. 2 (reprint, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1974), 171.

An Overflowing Cup

 You prepare a table before me 
   in the presence of my enemies. 
You anoint my head with oil; 
   my cup overflows.  Psalm 23:5


Imagine the Lord of the universe preparing a table for you in the presence of your enemies. The loving kindness of God to us is really incomprehensible. What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him (Psalm 8:4)? For those who are purchased by the blessed blood of Christ, there is no end to the good things God has in store for us (1 Corinthians 2:9;  Matthew 7:11b; 1 Peter 1:4). We have been given even more than we need. Every good and perfect gift is from above (James 1:17). Our cups indeed overflow.