DAILY WORD 5/28/20

1. Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.

2. O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

3. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

4. Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.

5. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

Psalm 25:1–5 KJV

With today’s passage, I take a momentary pause from the focus I’ve had lately on providing Courage and Hope through the Covid 19 crisis and look briefly at the anger, disgust, and despair many are feeling over the killing of yet another unarmed black man by police in America.

I’ve stayed purposefully silent on the subject since the news broke, not posting or commenting on it at all, allowing my thoughts to fully form before I weighed in. If I’m, to be honest, I still have not come to a fully cohesive baseline of thought as it comes to all this but in coming across this passage and ruminating about the situation, this seemed like a good way to express myself.

I will do my best to stick to the Scriptures with this and keep from injecting too much personal inflection into it but that may be difficult. That being said, let me begin the way David did and say that as this all has developed, my first thought was to lift my Prayers up to God before I made any assumptions or came to any conclusions.

It is indeed unto the Lord I call but it is more than just Temperance that I Pray for. It is His Protection from those that consider me and those that look like me an enemy that I call on Him for as well. I have also asked for the Strength and Wisdom not to fall victim to the hatred that is so easy to succumb to in times like these.

Minorities, especially in African American communities, have been targeted since the inception of this country by violence, much of which has been “without cause.” False convictions, lynchings, police shootings, and the slave trade itself are all examples.

But it is the systemic discrimination and inequities, and the deafening silence from those who it does not negatively affect that is the most insidious and troubling part of this all to me. This is what allows it all to continue unabated into the foreseeable future.

As I seek God’s Will and Guidance through all this, like Verse 4 indicates, I have to admit that I, like so many others, have a difficult time acting on the operation of the next Verse. That is, waiting on the Lord to Execute His Judgment. The Fact is that God is indeed our Salvation and that includes more than just Salvation from sin.

His Salvation extends to those that murder us without cause driven by fear or hatred and it is only by Him Teaching us His Truth and by exercising our Faith in His Will that we are able to actually wait on His Justice to be Enacted.

However, it is also True that His Justice may well be Executed in His Final Judgment on the world and we may never see it for ourselves in this life.

The question then begs, are we as Christians, willing to truly “Wait on the Lord”, or are we so lustful for vengeance against our enemies without cause that we are willing to take justice into our own hands as is happening in Minneapolis right now?

Without Power, Unity, and Preparation seeking justice from a culture that has stripped us of any potency looks like what we’ve seen last night; chaos. I’m not saying do nothing and just wait in silence for God’s Judgment.

What I am saying is that if you want change seek His Wisdom before you act and keep in mind what we are really dealing with here. Never forget what Ephesians 6:12 tells us we are actually fighting against. Then keep in mind how Matthew 17:21 tells us how it can be effectively dealt with.

There is indeed evil in the world and unfortunately, we get to see it even at the highest levels of government and in the offices of those that are sworn to serve and protect us. But it is indeed evil derived from where all evil comes from and it can be combated the way all evil can.

God has the Final Say and it is His Word that will Prevail. As we continue on in this daily battle against tyranny and evil in all forms, take solace in that, and fight on! But do so in a way that will actually produce results, not produce even more evil and perpetuate the stereotype that will only fuel more hatred.

Have a Thought-Provoking Thursday, and Stay Safe out there.