Friday, May 19, 2017
Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did
for me. For I cried out to him for help,
praising him as I spoke. If I had not
confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer. Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer or
withdraw his unfailing love from me.
Psalm 66:16-20(NLT)
Any parent
who has stayed up into the wee hours of Christmas Eve assembling something that
Santa brought which has 46 pages of instructions on where to put bolts numbered
A-16 through Q-97, knows the feeling of wanting to tell Santa to forget the
whole thing.
I remember
one such Yuletide; it was around 3AM when bolt Q-97 was finally in place. I plugged the monstrosity in, and, to my extreme
surprise, the behemoth toy worked just as advertised. I remember sinking back into my chair and
wondering what I was going to do with all that extra time, because, unlike every
other Christmas where I would have to pull it all apart to see why it wouldn’t
work, this time I was ready; I wanted to shout hallelujah!
As I laid
my head on the pillow, the glorious feeling of mission accomplished brought a smug pride to my
being. It was then I remembered that,
for once in my Christmas Eve assembly career, I had actually followed every
step in the 46-page instruction manual. It
dawned on me that I couldn’t claim credit for this success; all I could do was
give thanks for a manufacturer who actually cared that a kid would get a
working toy instead of my usual crumpled mess.
What a revelation: following the instructions
actually works!
The
Psalmist found out that this principle also is valid in our relationship with
God. Psalm 66 is a hallel, a worship song that
is sung to give praise to God, and instructions to God’s people. In this song we are told to wrap our minds
around a simple process – when you’ve
sinned, don’t hold it in…let it out in confession to God.
That…my
dear Christmas toy-assembling friend…is the right place for bolt Q-97…and
anything else that keeps you from walking with God today.
For You Today
If
you want to feel like shouting hallelujah the door to the confessional is
always open.
NOTES
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