My Exceeding Joy

Leviticus 20:22–22:16; Mark 9:1-29; Psalm 43:1-5; Proverbs 10:18

My Exceeding Joy
O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. – Psalms 43:3-4

My Separation
Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from other people. – Leviticus 20:22-24

I am in a season where I have lost some close friends to other friendships and new callings. I don’t take offense at it, but there are days I look back, and on those days, I sometimes ask why. Then the Holy Ghost brings to remembrance that I asked the Lord to be my closest friend. I asked Him to show me the truth of “deep calling unto deep.”

This passage touches me today because I know there is a promised land. I know the Father is answering prayer. And though it has required a cost I never counted, the Holy Ghost is taking me to deep places that I likely would have ignored if life were busy with a larger circle of friends. The Lord, my God, has separated me from other people (as the scripture says of the Israelites in today’s passage) for His Glory and my good. It is the Lord that does this…

I know if He has separated me, He has separated others.

My Daily Bread
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. – Mark 9:25-29

As I wrote a few days ago, a deaf and dumb spirit has been wreaking havoc in this household since October.  I am in the midst of a 40-day fast, along with my church family, and Mark 9:29 is my Bread today!

My, My, My
He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool. – Proverbs 10:18

So often, I have had offense and anger toward someone and think the right thing to do is “fake it till I make it.” This verse tells me that approach is foolish. I don’t need to fake anything because faking is a lie. I need to deal with the hatred, the anger – what is according to scripture a spirit of murder.

Help me, Lord, to deal with my anger that left unattended turns to so many other things as it grows. Please help me not to speak evil or with evil intent regarding others.

Forgive me, Lord, for those times I have failed in this area. Holy Ghost, I ask You to do Your work in my life right here, right now.  Jesus, please help me to bring these things to You rather than to deal with them myself. Help me to cast away the sinful things in my heart. Help me to remember that the consequences of picking up this kind of evil are to be a fool and separated from Your glorious Presence. Such wickedness is not worth that high cost. Help me, Father. I can’t do it without Your grace. But with Your class and in the strength of Your grace, I know I can do all things.

My, my, my, I didn’t expect so much today from our reading today. I am blessed!!!