Friday, July 18, 2008

My Part & God's Part

I just love Psalm 25! It starts off "Unto to You, O Lord, do I bring my life". That's the way I think we should begin each day! Well, today I started reading this Psalm at verse 2 by accident, I read for a while, then backed up and read verse one and realized that this is one that I really like to read. I decided to see which things I'm supposed to do, and what parts God is going to do. So, here goes:

My Part:
1. Unto You do I bring my life
2. I trust, lean on, rely on, and am confident in You
3. For You only and altogether do I wait expectantly all the day long
4. Those who fear the Lord have the secret of the sweet, satifying companionship of the Lord
5. My eyes are ever toward the Lord
6. My trust and my refuge are in You
7. I wait for and expect You.

God's Part:
1. Don't let me be put to shame or my hope in You disappointed
2. Don't let my enemies triumph over me
3. Show me Your ways, teach me Your paths
4. Guide me in Your truth and faithfulness and teach me
5. Remember Your tender mercy and loving-kindness
6. Don't remember the sins (lapses and frailties) of my youth or my transgressions
7. Remember me according to your mercy and steadfast love for Your goodness sake
8. Instruct sinners in Your way
9. Lead the humble in what is right and teach the humble Your way
10. Pardon my iniquity and my guilt
11. He will teach the person who reverently fears and worships Him in the way he should choose.
12. He will show His covenant and reveal its deep, inner meaning
13. Pluck my feet out of the net (get me out of a trap)
14. Turn to me and be gracious to me
15. Bring me out of my distresses
16. See my affliction and pain, forgive all my sins (of thinking and doing)
17. Consider my enemies
18. Keep me, deliver me, don't let me be ashamed or disappointed
19. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me
20. Redeem Israel out of all their troubles

To me this just kind of sums up how God operates! He is sooooo good to us! So much better than we deserve! It is so easy for us to mess up and get ourselves all trapped up and entangled in things we shouldn't be involved with! Compared to all of what He does for us, our part seems pretty simple! This psalm shows how He wants to lead us and teach us the right way to go. I LOVE THAT!

Anyway, I just thought I'd share this because I thought it's neat! Have a great week!
Dina

Thursday, July 17, 2008

More about hope, trust, faith, expecting...

Ok, I'm still studying on faith, hope, trust, expecting from God, etc. So, as I came across things, I decided to put them here so that you could read them too. I'm definitely hoping, trusting, and expecting huge things from God right now. I pray for you today that whatever you may be trusting Him for will be taken care of for you too!

Have a great week!
Dina

Faith -
1. belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
2. confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing
3. confidence or trust in a person or thing
4. secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God's will

Faith is a belief in the trustworthiness of an idea that has not been proven.

Hebrews 11:1 - Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Hope -
1. the desire and search for a future good, difficult but not impossible to attain with God's help
2. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best
3. to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence
4. to wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment

Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope implies a certain amount of despair, wanting, wishing, suffering or perseverance — i.e., believing that a better or positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary.

Trust -
1. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.
2. confident expectation of something; hope
3. to have trust or confidence in; rely or depend on
4. to believe
5. to place confidence in; to rely on, to confide, or repose faith, in
6. to show confidence in a person by intrusting (him) with something

Trust implies instinctive unquestioning belief in and reliance upon something
Trust is a relationship of reliance. A trusted party is presumed to seek to fulfill their previous promises. Trust is a prediction of reliance on an action, based on what a party knows about the other party. Trust is a statement about what is otherwise unknown -- for example, because it is far away, cannot be verified, or is in the future.

Expectation -
1. to look forward to; regard as likely to happen; anticipate the occurrence or the coming of
2. implies confidently believing, usually for good reasons, that an event will occur

An expectation about the behavior or performance of another person, expressed to that person, may have the nature of a strong request, or an order.

Confidence -
1. full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing
2. certitude; assurance

Confidence implies conscious trust because of good reasons, definite evidence, or past experience

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Do you have hope?

During my Bible study times lately I've been reading lots about hope. It's easy to put our hope in other sources, but ultimately God is the one with the master plan. I'm noticing that many times when hope is mentioned trust has either just been mentioned or is about to be! So I'm concluding that hope, trust, and faith are all tied together. If I was a deep thinker I'd probably be able to give a profound explanation of how they all fit together, but so far I'm still in study mode. (If I get that profound explanation, I'll post. If you already know, please comment and share!!!)

I do know that right now I find myself in a place of hoping and waiting again. There are actually a couple of huge things I'm hoping and praying for. For myself and for others. I'm applying Philippians 4:6-7 to these situations. I'm presenting them to God and I know that He will guard my heart and mind so that I can sit back and trust Him for whatever the outcomes may be!

Somehow I think hoping is the human component, trust is the relationship component, and faith is the spiritual component, but I DON'T KNOW, yet!

Here are some of the hope scriptures that I have been encouraged by so far:

Psalm 25: 1-4
UNTO YOU, O Lord, do I bring my life.
O my God, I trust, lean on, rely on, and am confident in You. Let me not be put to shame or [my hope in You] be disappointed; let not my enemies triumph over me.
Yes, let none who trust and wait hopefully and look for You be put to shame or be disappointed; let them be ashamed who forsake the right or deal treacherously without cause.
Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.


Psalm 27:14
Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.

Psalm 31:1 & 24
IN YOU, O Lord, do I put my trust and seek refuge; let me never be put to shame or [have my hope in You] disappointed; deliver me in Your righteousness!
Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord!


Psalm 33:18-22 (If you have time, read this whole Psalm, it is AWESOME!)
Behold, the Lord's eye is upon those who fear Him [who revere and worship Him with awe], who wait for Him and hope in His mercy and loving-kindness,
To deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

Our inner selves wait [earnestly] for the Lord; He is our Help and our Shield.
For in Him does our heart rejoice, because we have trusted (relied on and been confident) in His holy name.
Let Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, in proportion to our waiting and hoping for You.


These are just a few of the times that trusting, hoping, waiting, expecting are mentioned. WOW! I'm just so glad that we have these encouraging words to read. I pray that whatever situation you are trusting, hoping, and waiting for will work out according to God's plan for you. I hope that whatever the outcome may be that you will put your total trust in Him to work in your life (and let Him work). It is so much easier to sit back and let Him work than to buck the system and kick and scream, and worry the whole time! :) He is faithful, good, loving, and kind! There may be no other person that you can run to, but know that God is there waiting to take care of whatever you need! Just like the writer said "UNTO YOU, O Lord, do I bring my life." Bring Him your life today and enjoy His peace and love.

Have a great week!!
Dina