{"id":3952,"date":"2017-02-04T19:36:58","date_gmt":"2017-02-05T02:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=3952"},"modified":"2017-02-04T19:40:05","modified_gmt":"2017-02-05T02:40:05","slug":"god-in-the-journey-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=3952","title":{"rendered":"God in the Journey of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning we hosted a &#8220;nominating petition signing party&#8221; at our home. It was good to have many friends and neighbors stop by and show their support. This afternoon, I had some help in covering about 125 houses as we began our door to door walking campaign. Thanks to all those who have been supportive and encouraging in this effort.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY&#8230;.<\/strong> <em>&#8220;<span id=\"en-ESV-14456\" class=\"text Ps-37-5\">Commit your way to the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span>;\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"indent-1\"><span class=\"text Ps-37-5\">trust in him, and he will act.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span id=\"en-ESV-14457\" class=\"text Ps-37-6\">He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,<\/span><\/em><span class=\"indent-1\"><em><span class=\"indent-1-breaks\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span class=\"text Ps-37-6\"><em>and your justice as the noonday.&#8221;<\/em> Psalm 37:5,6 ESV<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Psalm 37 contains some very familiar and encouraging verses. When they are placed in sequence, they form a sense direction and assurance of God&#8217;s presence throughout our journey in life.<\/p>\n<p>It is important that we, as Solomon admonished, <em>&#8220;trust in the Lord in all [our] heart.&#8221;<\/em> The verse above is David&#8217;s &#8220;version.&#8221; <em>&#8220;Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him&#8230;.&#8221; \u00a0<\/em>We also read the familiar verse, <em>&#8220;<span id=\"en-ESV-14455\" class=\"text Ps-37-4\">Delight yourself in the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span>,<\/span><\/em><span class=\"indent-1\"><em><span class=\"indent-1-breaks\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span class=\"text Ps-37-4\"><em>and he will give you the desires of your heart.&#8221;<\/em> (Psalm 37:4 ESV)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The goal of our life is not to coerce the Lord to be with us, but for us to be sure we are following Him and allowing Him to go before us in all that we do.<\/p>\n<p>The importance of this is seen in these verses, <em>&#8220;<span id=\"en-ESV-14474\" class=\"text Ps-37-23\">The steps of a man are established by the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"indent-1\"><span class=\"text Ps-37-23\">when he delights in his way;\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span id=\"en-ESV-14475\" class=\"text Ps-37-24\">though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span class=\"indent-1\"><span class=\"text Ps-37-24\"><em>for the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> upholds his hand.&#8221;<\/em> (Psalm 37:23,24 ESV)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Life will certainly have its ups and downs. There will be challenges, mistakes and failures. But when the Lord is directing our life we can have the confidence that, &#8220;our failures are not fatal.&#8221; When I read these verses, I think of the Lord lifting Peter from the waves of the sea when he sank in the sea of Galilee, as he was walking on the water.<\/p>\n<p>The testimony of those who follow the Lord and allow Him to be their source of trust and help is reflected in these verses, <em>&#8220;<span id=\"en-ESV-14476\" class=\"text Ps-37-25\">I have been young, and now am old,\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"indent-1\"><span class=\"text Ps-37-25\">yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/em><span class=\"indent-1\"><span class=\"text Ps-37-25\"><em>or his children begging for bread.&#8221;<\/em> (Psalm 37:25 ESV)\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>At the end of life, when we reflect on the journey of life, we will be able to observe and testify to the goodness of the Lord. Even when trials come and disappointments and delays are part of &#8220;our&#8221; plan we can see the Lord working in our behalf and for our good.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding how the Lord desires to work through the course of our life, in the journey of life, the psalmist offers this simple advice, <em>&#8220;<span id=\"en-NCV-14376\" class=\"text Ps-37-27\">Stop doing evil and do good,<\/span><\/em><span class=\"indent-1\"><em><span class=\"indent-1-breaks\">\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span class=\"text Ps-37-27\"><em>so you will live forever.&#8221;<\/em> \u00a0<\/span><\/span><span class=\"indent-1\"><span class=\"text Ps-37-27\">(Psalm 37:27 NCV)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Prayer for today&#8230;.\u00a0<\/strong><em>Lord, thank You for the words of encouragement, assurance and direction we find in this one psalm. Allow our hearts to be filled with hope and peace as we commit this day and all our days to You.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning we hosted a &#8220;nominating petition signing party&#8221; at our home. It was good to have many friends and neighbors stop by and show their support. This afternoon, I had some help in covering about 125 houses as we began our door to door walking campaign. Thanks to all those who have been supportive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3954,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3952\/revisions\/3954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}