Greetings in the name of the Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. I woke up early this morning, went, and worked out with a couple friends. Now I am using the time between working out and chapel to get my Adopt-A-Student Thank You's, another psalm devotion, and this blog post done. It actually feels pretty good to get up, get the blood flowing, and be productive first thing in the morning.
I know I am going out of order a little bit, but I wrote this devotion on Psalm 16 this morning and it was just so moving to me because I just had this experience this last Sunday that I wanted to share it with you while it was still fresh to me. So here it is, enjoy!
Psalm 16 verse 2
I think verse 2 of this Psalm sums up our entire lives as Christians. This is what I try to remind myself of daily. I actually use this same frame of mind as my pre and post communion prayers. I thank the Good Lord that He has chosen me to be His holy and saved son. I do this because I know if He had not chosen me, I would have absolutely nothing good in my life. I would have no value, no worth, no point of existence. I would be completely worthless, just a sinner not worthy to even know what love is, not worthy to know what joy or happiness even feels like. I truly have no good apart from Him. I would not have life, but would instead be headed down the fast track straight for the eternal fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Without my Lord, I would be absolutely nothing but a damned sinner with not one iota of good in my life. You see, me myself on my own, by my own doings and my own efforts, I am truly and absolutely completely worthless. Stop and think about that, it is true for you too. You on your own are completely worthless! You do not have any worth at all. You are not worth the air you breath, you are not worth the Charmin you wipe with, you are not even worth the feces you are wiping off! As a sinner we are the truly lowest, scummiest, most worthless, waste of space there is. Feeling pretty low right now aren’t you? GOOD! This is our confession as sinners that we realize how far into sin we have fallen, how far from God we let sin separate us, and how truly worthless sin has made us. This is my pre-communion prayer as I am walking up to partake of the body and blood of my Savior. I remind myself that without Him that is who I am and what I would be, the lowest, scummiest, most worthless chief of sinners that does not even have the value of manure. And yet because of what Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior did for me I do have value. I am worth something; in fact I am worth something extremely valuable. I am worth the life of the one and only Son of our God. He is the good in my life, He is the ONLY good in my life. He is my all in all, He is my everything because without Him I would be nothing.
Pastor Wurm preached a really good sermon while I was on vicarage. The issue he addressed was how so many people are mad at God or angry with God because how could a loving and merciful God let bad things happen to good people? Pastor Wurm’s main point that I will always remember is that this is asking the wrong question. The question is not why does God let bad things happen to good people, the correct question is why does God give good things to such bad people. You see we as sinners are truly “bad” people, and we deserve nothing but eternal damnation. It is by His grace and mercy alone that He gives us good things in our sinful lives. It is by His gracefulness and lovingness that He sent His Son to redeem such a lost and condemned race of people and gave them the only good they have in their lives. We have just taken this good for granted. We have entitled ourselves to think we deserve this good and even further do not deserve the bad. One of my pet peeve statements of our generations is when we tell each other we only deserve happiness. No we don’t! This is completely denying our sinful state. We deserve nothing but misery and pain. Our gracious and loving Lord and God gives us the good we have in our life. He gives us love; we only love each other because He first loved us. He gives us joy, happiness, and good things because He loves us forgive us of our sinfulness and give us our value and worth in His name.
It truly is only because He is our Lord that we have any good in our lives. Apart from Him there is no good in our lives. My post communion prayer, in tears most of the time, is genuinely thanking Him for the mercy and love He has shown to this worthless sinner. As I confess my absolute worthlessness without Him, then receive the true body and blood of Jesus Christ, my Savior who was willing to die on the cross for my sake, to give my life value and worth, to give me the very life I have in His name, I cannot help but be in complete and utter awe as I thank Him so very, very, very much for the good I have in my life because He chose me and made me His. ALL PRAISE AND THANKS BE TO GOD, the only good in our lives!
“You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you!” Amen!
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