Daily Journal: 6 June

Offenses, Worship

and Comfort

Psalm 43:3-4

Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

We go through periods where God has to work on our hearts and our minds. We collect offenses. We carry hurts that become burdens. When undealt with, they interfere with our relationships and the way we live. They're like spills that quickly spread, and stain, unless they're properly cleaned up.

Grace can be nullified and our thoughts contorted when we focus on ‘me’. Thankfully, when we seek God, we find Him. He ministers directly to our souls to readjust our thoughts and heal our hearts. It’s not a magic cure. We need to be honest about our attitudes, our perceptions, and be diligent in the work of releasing wounds, and forgiveness.

God is always faithful and sees our needs. He will step in to help readjust our lens whenever we are ready to look to Him. We have to be ready to do the work.

When we choose to worship Him, the Holy Spirit responds with comfort and realignment. When we take time to worship Him, the Holy Spirit ministers to all our hurting places. When we want to worship Him, the Holy Spirit points our thoughts to their true north in Him. When the Holy Spirit rises in us, our hurts seem to melt away and we can deal with them in a way that we can’t on our own.

God wants to replace sorrow and despair with His fresh oil.

Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV)

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.

We can't be oaks of righteousness without exchanging all of our griefs for His oil. God doesn’t want us to live with pain.

His work in us is like the stripping of paint and sanding down before a fresh coat of paint can be applied. It's painful. It takes time. It's possible to have messes and spills in the process. But God doesn’t want us to spread pain, and that will happen unless we deal with whatever He is trying to heal and change in us.

God wants to bind up our wounds. He wants us to find His grace, truth and beauty within our hearts. His oil is healing oil.

John 14:27 (NIV)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.