Because Of Who I Am…
Psalm 138:1-8 Amplified Bible (AMP)
1I WILL confess and praise You [O God] with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing praises to You. 2I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name! 3In the day when I called, You answered me; and You strengthened me with strength (might and inflexibility to temptation) in my inner self. 4All the kings of the land shall give You credit and praise You, O Lord, for they have heard of the promises of Your mouth [which were fulfilled]. 5Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord and joyfully celebrate His mighty acts, for great is the glory of the Lord. 6For though the Lord is high, yet has He respect to the lowly [bringing them into fellowship with Him]; but the proud and haughty He knows and recognizes [only] at a distance. 7Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. 8The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever--forsake not the works of Your own hands.
As I laid in bed last night, there was so much that was running through my mind, as I began to think of the all that seemed to need to get done and accomplished and all that was on my heart I began to pray, as I began it was first not praying about my situations I began to pray for others as they came into my heart. As I lay there in the midst of prayer and my prayer began to shift to my heart, I heard why do you praise me, pray to me, need me…At first my response was going to be because of who you are Lord, but then it hit me, it really is because of who I am. It is because I have come to understand that I need God. You see God has always been who He is, but I have not always been who I am. When I was able to see to be in a place good or bad and still be in my right mind, have health and strength, to be in a place where I am finishing two Masters programs and I have raised two young adults through adversity that are drug free, alcohol free and don’t have any babies, and still possess their virginity. When I think of how God takes and uses the resources I do have to stretch to support and assist my parents and God has allowed me to sow into the lives of others, even on what people view as minimal. You see my praise and worship is because of who God has made me, what He has kept me through and the lives that He has allowed me to touch.
If we look at whom we are, in spite of the adversities that we have encountered and the trials we have had to endure and the test that we had to take, why wouldn’t we realize that without God we are nothing and without God we can’t and won’t get to the level that He desires of us. We don’t realize that in our status of brokenness that God can speak to us and get our attention in a way that when all is well, He would never obtain. It is because of who we are that we should realize that we lift up praise and honor to God that He has not consumed us and allowed circumstances, our nasty attitudes, our disobedience, our times when we thought our talents and our methods got us where we were going. It is because of whom we are that worship should be perpetually on our lips, because God chose us to love and be in relationship with and He loves us enough to give us gifts, even when we are less than deserving of what He gives us and blesses us with. If we could begin to be honest about who we are, and we understood the working of who we would be, without God, we would not neglect to offer ourselves to God, knowing that it is because of who we are that God has to be who He is to us. Look at where we could be if God’s hand had not been on us, where we would be, and what we would be doing, what value would we be? It is because we are the creation that we should understand what is due to the creator.
Yes, it is true that God is God all by Himself; He is the Great I am. He is worthy all by Himself without us in the mix, but it is because of whom we are, that makes Him needed all the more and it makes Him more of a factor; it is because of who we are we should feel a yearning to give Him praise, and to worship Him. We pray to Him because we understand that He is bigger, better and more “Sourceful” than we could ever be and when we could never get the job done or the mission accomplished He can. You see it is in our weakness that He is made perfect. It is in our weakness He is made strong. God is the abundance in our lack. You see taking a long hard look at who we are and who we have become, and who we are becoming, should be enough to garner God a praise that would ignite the universe, and set the hearts a flame because we know if it had not been for the Lord on our side where would we be…
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