Rock Crusher

Psalm 25:4-5 Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. 5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.

This Psalm of David is a heartfelt plea about his realization of sin, and his realization of who the Lord is to him; the Lord is everything to David. In all his failures, he comes to realize how deep God’s love is for him; he comes to grasp a small understanding of God’s grace and mercy. The simplest explanation of God’s mercy is the withholding of the punishment we deserve, and God’s grace is the giving of the reward of what we do not. You must at some point begin to understand the differences in those two words. When the Holy Spirit begins likely to reveal the mercy of God first, it comes with an incredible weight of the realization of sin. But, where Satan stops there with the weight, God lifts it right off you in the realization of how much he loves you in his grace. That is the difference; Satan puts the rock upon you to crush you, God allows the rock, but then lifts it to reveal his love for you. The conviction of sin with the combination of the forgiveness of sin is the life transformation process of salvation through Jesus Christ, the gospel.

Repentance is healthy, and as David writes in this Psalm, a life-long process. It is cleansing for the soul to release the weight of daily sins to the Lord, for we sin daily. As Satan brings to memory the sins of the past, we can go to God to lift that burden from us. When times in life get tough, many times it is simply God getting our attention back on Himself, using those trials such as David endured, to point out the proofs of His grace and mercy. I truly believe you are the closest to God in the valleys, but on the mountaintops you are simply worshipping the experiences of his deliverances to them.

Is God the center of your life? If you claim he is, he will continually ask you to step out in the proof of your faith to him. He will never leave you where you are comfortable; comfortable is the contentment that displeases God; many times you are neither hot nor cold for him in your faith, and you begin to look like the church at Laodicea. Revelation 3:15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’–and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked– 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. The life of a disciple of Jesus Christ is one of total reliance on him; seeking him in all things, remaining humble in all things, and understanding all your life is filtered through his hands. He is not going to let you be comfortable; he will let the rocks come, and then pick them up off you one at a time.