How would you define your default attitude in life, your automatic, go to, spontaneous and unrehearsed attitude? I asked myself this question long before I asked it to you; and I find it difficult to answer. I think I’m a pretty positive guy, but I have my moments, moments I don’t want to admit to; (please don’t speak with Vonnie about this). Thankfully, the Psalmist doesn’t let me off the hook, and I am forced to look inward for a true gut check.
The Bible invites us to “sing for joy to the Lord” and to “shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation” (vs. 1). It challenges us to “come before His presence with thanksgiving” (vs. 2). These words challenge me to ask if joy and thanksgiving comprise the default state of my life. Am I so captivated by the reality of the Living God in my inner being that joy and thanksgiving flow freely in me? After all, I do believe that “the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods” (vs. 3). This should leave me awed and stunned. Why? Because this “great God and… King” is the very God who has dared involved himself in my life. He is the LORD (Yahweh), and He invites you and me into His presence to live and conduct our lives.
I am thinking a lot about this in this Lenten season. How much of an impact am I allowing God to have in me? Am I so aware of His presence in my life and in the world that this awareness impacts all it means for me to be who I am? Does God have a say as to what will be the inner attitudes of my life?
Charles Swindoll said somewhere, “Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitudes toward life. The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.” I agree wholeheartedly, and want to let the 90 percent be filled, saturated, and overflowing with the life of God.
Today, maybe all of us could search our hearts and open them to God’s transforming grace. May God help us to be a grateful, joyful, and thanksgiving people. Our God deserves this, the world needs it, and so do we.
Would you pray with me?
“Search my heart, O God” (Psalm 139:23). May the default setting of my life be one of joy and thanksgiving. You are my God, “a great God and a great King above all gods.” I worship you. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment