2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
I hope you are not saying, “oh no, another message about Jehovah Shammah!” to yourselves. God is making it very clear to me that this is one of the most important names for Him, “the Lord is there.” He does that by giving me things He wants me to write when I pray. If there is that much to be said, then He must think it’s important. I’m still standing in awe that he has given me enough for 105 messages about Him! I’m surely not smart enough to have that much to say on my own! So, with that having been stated, I will follow His lead on the path upon which He is taking us.
The Psalmist in PS 138: 2 set an important example for how our heart-attitude toward Jehovah Shammah should be. “I face Your holy Temple, bow down, and praise Your name because of Your constant love and faithfulness, because Your name and Your commands are supreme.” The last time I attended a Jewish synagogue not too long ago, I was reminded at the Shabat (Sabbath) service of the Jewish practice of turning toward the east (since that is the direction Jerusalem is from the Twin Cities) and offering this same prayer. This passage does two things, which I firmly believe pleases God. One is that it acknowledges His love and faithfulness. Too often we take it for granted or don’t pay any attention to it. Both of these things are powerful forces that bring blessings to our lives. They are offered to us by His grace, not because we deserve it.
The second element is acknowledgment of God’s supremacy. I think it takes a certain degree of spiritual maturity to really appreciate how important to our lives that is. It’s a maturity to which I personally strive. (We’ll leave it up to God about how far each of us are in reaching that goal). What it does for my life is to simplify it. Since we only need to worship one God, believe that is the only God, and can see that His message is consistent, that helps to make His will clear to us. The fact that He is always righteous, acting in our best long-term interests, we can trust Him and know that He will never do evil to us. The Prayer of Jabez, which is found in 1 CH 4: 9-10 and which I intend to write about soon, asks for His hand in our lives. What that means is His awesome power, the power that can only come from a God Who is supreme. I immediately am drawn to the reminder of the weapons He gives us to wage spiritual warfare and be victorious in EPH 6: 10-18. That is only one example of God’s supremacy as it relates to our lives. There is so much in the Psalmist’s prayer that is so essential to our spiritual well-being. That is why it is so important to us.
One other element that can be seen in PS 138: 2 is inherent humility on the part of the Psalmist. Isn’t that what God has always asked of us? MT 5: 5, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” And, of course, these were our Lord and Savior’s very own words. We need to ask ourselves a very important question: How can I personally please Jehovah Shammah? Each of us will have his own answers to that question, but we all must understand how important doing that is to our lives. Dr. Henry Blackaby in his Experiencing God course gives several “realities.” One of them is that we experience God by obeying Him. When I first began taking that course, I didn’t really understand what that meant, but I do now. When God commanded me to be more humble and to have a better quality prayer life, I began finding ways to obey those commands. What resulted amazed me and brought a new kind of joy into my life that I never thought possible. One thing that being humble does is to take the pressure of trying to compete with God for who deserves affirmation off one’s shoulders. We can always have confidence in Jehovah Shammah, but we can’t always have confidence in other people. When we obey Him, all of a sudden things seem to fall in place and we are given “the peace that goes beyond human understanding” [PHIL 4: 7]. That is God’s way of letting us know right now that He is pleased with what we are doing. None of this kind of communication would be possible, if God weren’t there in our lives.
Part of what makes God’s commands supreme is that they are never things we can’t do. There is an underlying justice in that which we often take for granted. However, He didn’t promise that His commands would always be easy for us to obey. Another of Dr. Blackaby’s realities is that God sometimes asks us to make major changes in our lives to enable us to join Him in His work. This may be dropping a bad habit, changing an attitude, accepting an assignment that takes us away from where we feel comfortable and secure, changing the way we interact with other people, or any number of things. Christ addresses this issue when He said in MT 10: 38-39, “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow in My steps is not fit to be My disciple. Whoever tries to gain his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will gain it.” This may be difficult, but the real value of it is to move us from an attitude of selfishness outside of ourselves to an attitude to service to others. I know in my heart that is one of the elements necessary for forward movement in our own sanctification. All of these things are manifestations of the love our Abba, our Jehovah Shammah has for each one of us.
PRAYER: O Lord, You command us to recognize Your sovereignty and supremacy while at the same time offering us constant love and faithfulness. All of this is done while we do not deserve it, by Your grace. To obey Your commands, we need to understand how important to our lives they are. It means that we must never take anything about You for granted. We must be willing to make whatever changes in our lives that You command us to make. It also means that we must acknowledge Your fairness in never asking us to do something we can’t do. When we understand that all of this is necessary so that we can join You in Your work and also forward our own sanctification, we will begin the appreciate the love You have for each of us in making these demands of us. You are the Leader of our cheering section, urging us on to spiritual growth, encouraging us to actions which will give us serenity and peace never before possible. You are compassionate and patient, knowing that some of these changes we must make are hard for us. We can take comfort in knowing that because You are a righteous Deity, You equipped us to make these changes and they are always in the interest of granting us eternal life. For all that You mean to our lives and for Your consistent presence in them blessing them, we humbly offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, trust, obedience, honor, glory, thanks, and praise. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, Jehovah Shammah commands me to write about His faithfulness to Israel and about the Messiah Who will deliver us all from evil. All around us are examples of the love our Abba has for us. There is real joy in taking the time to discover them. It can be anything from the gorgeous view of newly fallen snow out our windows to the discovery that something we did in His name brought blessings to another person’s life. Let me suggest that you consider looking for these things in your life and write them down in a small notebook. You’ll be amazed how fast it will fill up as you do this. Then, when you are feeling low, open that book and read them. Every day, Jehovah Shammah will lead us to revel in His love and keep His perspective on our lives this way. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn