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Saturday Psalm and Praise~I Am His and He Is Mine!

 

 

I hope everyone isn’t getting tired of me talking about The Heart of the King by Ron Auch!   Again, this book has blessed me in so many ways!  I just finished it today–176 pages, one for each verse.  And I’m going to go through it again!

 

The reason I love Mr. Auch’s books is that they focus on our relationship with Christ.  Not "doing things for Christ" but "being with Christ". 

 

That is what the Christian life is all about.  That is why He died–to restore that relationship so we could walk and talk with God as Adam did.  That is what He wanted all along–to have fellowship with us!!!!

 

How it must grieve Him that we want to hand Him a list in prayer, go on and "do things for God" more than we want to just spend time with Him!

 

Can you imagine handing your husband a "Honey-Do" list, and THAT was the main sum of your relationship with Him?!  It wouldn’t be much of a relationship, would it!!!

 

Psalm 119:176 says, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant; for I do not forget Thy commandments."

 

Some thoughts from The Heart of the King:

 

"There is a reason why we are called sheep and why Jesus is called the Good Shepherd.   Sheep don’t have a lot of common sense……We need to be led.  we don’t even know enough to stay on the straight and narrow path.  We need a shepherd who will continualy and gently guide us.

 

"In this verse, David is expressing how we would be naturally lost without a shepherd….He is expressing a complete dependency upon his Shepherd.

 

"Fortunately for us we have a Good Shepherd.  Jesus, our Good Shepherd, continually, gently, compassionately, corrects us.  How fitting for David to finish this great Psalm with a focus on the One who perpetually seeks us out.

 

"Our Good Shepherd seeks us out.  This is the One who deserves all our praise.  This is the One to whom we owe our life!"

 

I am so grateful He does seek us out, especially when I go down the wrong path.  He doesn’t let me go, saying, "Well, she’ll learn her lesson!  I’ve told her and told her."  He gently, compassionately seeks me out.  I might  not listen, but the consequences I may suffer are not a big "I told you so!" from God!  They are the results of the path I’ve chosen.  It grieves His heart that I choose to go away from Him instead of trusting His leading and following.

 

I’m sure you’ve heard this analogy before, but there is a difference between "driving the sheep" vs. "leading the sheep".  When we drive the sheep, there is fear, trampling, bedlam……when we lead them, it means we’ve developed a relationship with them to where they trust us, and then we just need to "speak the word" and they follow.

 

Christ is the ultimate Good Shepherd!   He longs to spend time with us, so we can get to know His voice.  Then when He speaks the Word, we just follow.  We can trust our loving Shepherd to guide us in exactly the right pastures for us.   Maybe it looks scarey, maybe it doesn’t look exactly like what we had pictured, but with our hand in His, we trust.   And then we find out that "In His presence in fulness of joy" (Ps. 16:11) and that He has led us "beside still waters" and "in green pastures".   Sweet, nourishing pastures!

 

From The Seven Spirits of God by Ron Auch:

 

"Human nature hasn’t changed much during the intervening centuries.  As Jesus calls us to surrender our dreams of an earthly kingdom, we, too, feel uncomfortable.  Yet He continues to beckon uncompromisingly, instructing His followers to die to self, to all their selfish aspirations for life.  He wants us to be able to say with Paul, ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal. 2:20).  He doesn’t want to be number one on our list; He wants to be our entire list.   Jesus doesn’t want to be our number one love; He wants to be the only love of our lives.  He becomes this through our own willful dying to self, surrendering control of our lives and letting Him establish His character in us.  That is what the fullness of the Spirit means:  demonstrating all seven qualities of God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit."  (pp. 21-22)

 

 

This is one of my favorite hymns, I Am His and He Is Mine.

 

Loved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that love to know;
Spirit, breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so!
 
Oh, this full and perfect peace!
Oh, this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His, and He is mine.
 
In a Love, which cannot cease,
I am His, and He is mine.
 
Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green–
Something lives in every hue,
Christless eyes have never seen.
 
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow,
Flowers with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine.
 
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine.
 
Things that once were wild alarms
Cannot now disturb my rest,
Closed in everlasting arms,
Pillowed on the loving breast.
 
Oh, to lie forever here,
Doubt and care and self resign,
While He whispers in my ear–
I am His, and He is mine.
 
While He whispers in my ear–
I am His, and He is mine.
 
His forever only His;
Who the Lord and me shall part?
Ah, with what a rest of bliss,
Christ can fill the loving heart!
 
Heaven and earth may fade and flee,
Firstborn light in gloom decline;
But while God and I shall be,
I am His, and He is mine.
 
But while God and I shall be,
I am His, and He is mine.

 

You can rejoice that He is yours!

 

But the question is…..
Are you totally His?

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