Thoughts Along The Journey

“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”

I remember a pastor once saying that repentance and faith were linked together in the minds of the biblical writers.  You could not talk about repentance without following up and talking about faith.  Likewise you could not talk about faith without turning to consider repentance.

My prayer, for this New Year, is that the Holy Spirit would search my heart (Psalm 139), put His light of truth on those places where my motivations are not pure, and drive me back to the Cross.  This is a prayer of repentance. As I consider what I want to do with my life, how I want to invest my energies in 2017, I begin by opening my heart to His ‘searchlight’ and work in teaching me to lay aside the sins that encumber me on my journey with Him.

Repentance though is regularly linked to faith. Faith is expressed in one way through the words of this short verse from Psalm 90.  Daily, I must find my joy in the love that God has for me.  Daily.  This is an expression of my faith.  The Psalmist’s words are meant to convey that the day is ‘defined’ or structured by the context in which I place it.  I can express my faith by finding my joy daily in the unending, unconditional love of God for me.

There are times when I easily forget to find my joy in God’s love.  The result is often complaining and dissatisfaction.  What I want to do with my life becomes just that: a question of ‘my’ and how I can find satisfaction apart from God. Daily I should drive the roots of faith deeper into that love displayed in Jesus Christ.  Then what I will want to do with my life and how I will want to invest my energies will be an expression of thanks to the God of all grace.

Daily.

Filed under: Gospel, Love of God, Repentance & faith |