PSALM 35:27-28 – Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, “Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.
THEME OF THE DAY. DEFEATING DOUBT BY DEFINING GOOD. In the middle of today’s scripture is a soul-stirring, heart-warming truth every Christian needs to embrace on a daily basis – Great is the Lord, who delights in the welfare of his servant. Now the first part is easy to grasp and believe – Great is the Lord. Perhaps not so with the latter part – who delights in the welfare of his servant. Especially when we fail the Lord which is not sometimes, but often, quite often. I know there are probably some readers of the daily nugget who might be whispering to themselves, “Not me, Jim. I firmly believe and never doubt the Lord takes great delight in me.” I understand what you are saying, but really? I recall a Christian once saying to me in a rather boasting way, “Doubt? I have never had a single time in my spiritual life that I doubted my salvation or the Lord’s care over me.” Charles Spurgeon once said, “Doubt the one who never doubted.” When I heard those self-confident words from this believer my first thought was one of envy because I couldn’t say that, but then reason came to my mind and I realized he simply wasn’t being true to himself. Doubt is real. The devil used it to defeat our first parents in the Garden of Eden – “Did God really say?” (Genesis 3:1). And he continually attacks Christians with the fiery dart of doubt. Should we be honest with ourselves, we admit it is true. When life sometimes gets really hard with situations and circumstances causing us great pain, sorrow, and grief, the floodgates to doubt of God’s care, direction, and delight in us are opened. I am not saying we give into doubt, but we are flesh and flesh is weak. Flesh fuels doubt. Discomfort breeds doubt. And we must fight it. With vengeance and diligence. How so? Today’s truth – the Lord delights in the welfare of His servant. Let’s break that truth down into two applications to help us overcome doubt when the devil shoots that arrow our way.
First, understand our relationship with the Lord as Master – servant. What is the responsibility of the Master? To not only own His servants but to protect, provide, and direct His servants. And when it comes to the Lord as our Master, there is none better. His steadfast love and faithfulness never fails His servants. Yes, it might feel like we are deserted when doubts come, but we are not. Feelings come and go, and doubts feed on feelings, but the steadfast love and faithfulness of our Master never comes and goes. It stays upon the welfare of His servants – always.
Another truth to hold close in our minds and hearts when doubts come is to remember our Master knows what is best for our welfare. As life goes through its deep and painful valleys, and we quote Romans 8:28 – “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God”, don’t define good by what we think it is but by what God says it is. We may have the same word as God – good – in our vocabulary, but we have different definitions for it. God’s good is always to make us like Jesus and draw us near to Himself. We tend to define good by what makes us comfortable and feels right. Be careful here. God’s good is far more committed to our being made like Jesus than our comfort. Let Him define it and we will defeat doubt regularly.
Battling doubts. It is part of our fight till we get to heaven. And God wants us to win over them on our journey. By holding fast to His unchanging character of delighting in us, no matter our circumstances, we will defeat doubt. Why? He delights in us and that will never change.
PRAYER: “Father, thank You for delighting in me and thus working all things out for my welfare.”
QUOTE: “Even when we don’t understand what God is doing, trust what He is doing. He knows what is good and best.”