The only real help we need in this brief life is from God who rescues, saves, releases our bondage and sets our feet on solid ground to walk with Him daily.  In fact, God is really all that matters in this world.  Everything else is just fluff and stuff that can either add to our lives or put us in bondage.  People we want to serve and please well is also a bondage maker and will make our lives miserable because we will never be enough for them.  But God?  Oh, dear friends, when we commit all our hearts, minds, and souls to Him with a desire to please only Him in all we think, say, and do—we are set free!  I cannot explain how this progressive day by day individualized discipline works for this is a work of God in and through us; I just know it does work, He works, to free us from the idolatry of people pleasing. This a work of God’s Holy Spirit from the inside out.  We cannot do this alone.  We need Him. 

And the bonus—we are always enough in His eyes as His created.  Each one of us were enough to die for to take away our bondage of sin and be set free.  EVERY single one of us.  He accepts where we are then leads us farther in faith to live the abundant life He has for us.

Psalm 39, The Message

^1-3 I’m determined to watch steps and tongue
    so they won’t land me in trouble.
I decided to hold my tongue
    as long as Wicked is in the room.
“Mum’s the word,” I said, and kept quiet.
    But the longer I kept silence
The worse it got—
    my insides got hotter and hotter.
My thoughts boiled over;
    I spilled my guts.

^4-6 “Tell me, what’s going on, God?
    How long do I have to live?
    Give me the bad news!
You’ve kept me on pretty short rations;
    my life is a string too short to be saved.
Oh! we’re all puffs of air.
    Oh! we’re all shadows in a campfire.
Oh! we’re just spit in the wind.
    We make our pile, and then we leave it.

^7-11 “What am I doing in the meantime, Lord?
    Hoping, that’s what I’m doing—hoping
You’ll save me from a rebel life,
    save me from the contempt of idiots.
I’ll say no more, I’ll shut my mouth,
    since you, Lord, are behind all this.
    But I can’t take it much longer.
When you put us through the fire
    to purge us from our sin,
    our dearest idols go up in smoke.
Are we also nothing but smoke?

^12-13 “Ah, God, listen to my prayer, my
    cry—open your ears.
Don’t be callous;
    just look at these tears of mine.
I’m a stranger here. I don’t know my way—
    a migrant like my whole family.
Give me a break, cut me some slack
    before it’s too late and I’m out of here.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

When we are trying so hard to be in the center of God’s will and do what He tells us be and do; the wickedness we see around us is tiresome and troubling to us.  Seeing the prosperity of the wicked and hearing their blasphemous words so angered David that he wanted to retaliate and say something to defend God, but he deemed it best to keep quiet. But this restraint only made his heart burn with intense pain until finally he had to speak out.

There is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes 3:7), and wise is the person who knows the difference. David didn’t argue with God (Ps. 39:9) or with those who reproached him, but he did pray to the Lord. God will give us the timing, the words, and the spirit of the words to be said. David’s closing prayer was that God would turn away His discipline, give him strength to return to normal life, and then one day enable him to pass into eternity. The phrase “no more”, merely means David would “no more” be on his earthly pilgrimage, able to bring God’s glory to the nations (Psalm 18:49).

May we proclaim God’s glory to the world until we see Him face to face!

In Jesus Name, Amen