It's interesting to see how the world is constantly trying to conform us to its ever changing image. We're bombarded constantly by images, music, television, and many other platforms telling us who we should be and what we should think. On my recent trip to Florida, I was appalled by how news casters don't read the news, they dramatically insert public opinion into a piece that should have merely been a report. Yet this is how the world operates, and don't get me wrong, Satan is the ruler of this world (but his day is coming soon!). They try and act as if they care about you, your family, your freedoms, your welfare, but what it's really about is control. Everything the world does, or tries to do is "for your own good," but when we follow worldly advice, we become even more a slave to our own vices.
And, while this seems a contradiction, there is only one true place to find freedom, and that is at the side of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. It is only through submitting to His will that we find true freedom and peace, and joy that surpasses all understanding. It makes no sense! Yet, when I submit to Christ, I have less anxiety, doubt, and depression. When I make it about Him instead of me, I know He gets glory, and yet I share in its blessing. When I hand over my cares to Him, He's in charge of the outcome, and I merely get to trust His great wisdom and judgment. He truly cares, and the more I submit to Him, the more I like who He's making me to be. He's my designer, my creator; He knows each hair on my head, and each day is numbered in His book. He is intimate with all of my ways, and He cares for each step and breath I take. I'm going to trust Him completely. The world cares for me only as far as it can control and consume me; Jesus died for me while I was still His enemy. Where is the greater love?
Psalm 139 Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.a Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
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