“Keep company with God, get in on the best”, sings David. Be honest with God, He knows what you are thinking anyway. Be open to hear carefully what He has to say. In order to hear Him we must be quiet before Him with all concentration on what He wants not what we want to ask Him. Then rise up and obey. This is a life that is validated by God as a life that is true, humbly sincere, wanting nothing but God’s best. This is a life that is grateful that God delivered and saved him or her from death. They want nothing less that God’s best.
NO JOKE!
“Bad guys have it in for the good guys, obsessed with doing them in. But God isn’t losing any sleep; to him they’re a joke with no punch line.” God knows that as we follow Him heart, mind and soul, we will contend with God-haters who oppose us, poke fun at how we live our lives for God, and who will try to bring us down while doing what God wants. But God delivers us by stepping into those battles and conquering the foe. This is what keeping company with God looks like in our world knowing that the best life we could live is the life lived for God.
Worship and Wisdom, Psalms and Proverbs
Psalm 37, The Message
A David Psalm
37 1-2 Don’t bother your head with braggarts
or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
In no time they’ll shrivel like grass clippings
and wilt like cut flowers in the sun.
3-4 Get insurance with God and do a good deed,
settle down and stick to your last.
Keep company with God,
get in on the best.
5-6 Open up before God, keep nothing back;
he’ll do whatever needs to be done:
He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day
and stamp you with approval at high noon.
7 Quiet down before God,
be prayerful before him.
Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder,
who elbow their way to the top.
8-9 Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,
cool your pipes—it only makes things worse.
Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;
God-investors will soon own the store.
10-11 Before you know it, the wicked will have had it;
you’ll stare at his once famous place and—nothing!
Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,
relishing a huge bonanza.
12-13 Bad guys have it in for the good guys,
obsessed with doing them in.
But God isn’t losing any sleep; to him
they’re a joke with no punch line.
14-15 Bullies brandish their swords,
pull back on their bows with a flourish.
They’re out to beat up on the harmless,
or mug that nice man out walking his dog.
A banana peel lands them flat on their faces—
slapstick figures in a moral circus.
16-17 Less is more and more is less.
One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,
For the wicked are moral weaklings
but the righteous are God-strong.
18-19 God keeps track of the decent folk;
what they do won’t soon be forgotten.
In hard times, they’ll hold their heads high;
when the shelves are bare, they’ll be full.
20 God-despisers have had it;
God’s enemies are finished—
Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time,
vanished like smoke in thin air.
21-22 Wicked borrows and never returns;
Righteous gives and gives.
Generous gets it all in the end;
Stingy is cut off at the pass.
23-24 Stalwart walks in step with God;
his path blazed by God, he’s happy.
If he stumbles, he’s not down for long;
God has a grip on his hand.
25-26 I once was young, now I’m a graybeard—
not once have I seen an abandoned believer,
or his kids out roaming the streets.
Every day he’s out giving and lending,
his children making him proud.
27-28 Turn your back on evil,
work for the good and don’t quit.
God loves this kind of thing,
never turns away from his friends.
28-29 Live this way and you’ve got it made,
but bad eggs will be tossed out.
The good get planted on good land
and put down healthy roots.
30-31 Righteous chews on wisdom like a dog on a bone,
rolls virtue around on his tongue.
His heart pumps God’s Word like blood through his veins;
his feet are as sure as a cat’s.
32-33 Wicked sets a watch for Righteous,
he’s out for the kill.
God, alert, is also on watch—
Wicked won’t hurt a hair of his head.
34 Wait passionately for God,
don’t leave the path.
He’ll give you your place in the sun
while you watch the wicked lose it.
35-36 I saw Wicked bloated like a toad,
croaking pretentious nonsense.
The next time I looked there was nothing—
a punctured bladder, vapid and limp.
37-38 Keep your eye on the healthy soul,
scrutinize the straight life;
There’s a future
in strenuous wholeness.
But the willful will soon be discarded;
insolent souls are on a dead-end street.
39-40 The spacious, free life is from God,
it’s also protected and safe.
God-strengthened, we’re delivered from evil—
when we run to him, he saves us.
TRUTH: God gives us courage, strength, tenacity, wisdom, insight and understanding to live for him. “The spacious, free life is from God.” He also protects, provides and keeps us safe “under the shadow of His wings”. Run to him. He saves us.
Proverb 16:10-15, The Message
A good leader motivates,
doesn’t mislead, doesn’t exploit.
11 God cares about honesty in the workplace;
your business is his business.
12 Good leaders abhor wrongdoing of all kinds;
sound leadership has a moral foundation.
13 Good leaders cultivate honest speech;
they love advisors who tell them the truth.
14 An intemperate leader wreaks havoc in lives;
you’re smart to stay clear of someone like that.
15 Good-tempered leaders invigorate lives;
they’re like spring rain and sunshine.
WISDOM: Follow a proverb leader who follows God. Look for those who motivate but do not manipulate. Learn from Godly leaders who are honest, sincere, loving God and others as the basis of their moral foundation. Love advisors who tell the Truth. Run from anyone who is not of God. If leaders don’t invigorate you and refresh your soul, the run from them. Ask God for wisdom for yourself and your leaders.
Abba Father,
Help us. I’m being still to listen. What do you want for me to think, say or do today that will help someone else? Thank you for defeating the foe before I get there. You are indeed the Way to an open, spacious life!
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 