determine

Opening Prayer:  Forgive me, O God, when I allow my circumstances, or the conditions of my life, to determine me.  You want way more for me than that.  Your love is really better than life.  And you, the God of all creation, are my help.  Let those be the things that determine how I live.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 63

Journal: What are your conditions these days?  How are they determining the quality of your life?  What if your life with God did that?  Fill in the blank: Because Your love is better than life________________.  Because You are my help_______________.

Reflection: Where you are is never meant to determine you; it is who you are (or rather Whose you are) that counts.  Who you are anchors you to something—or Someone—greater and keeps you from living at the mercy of your circumstances.  Circumstances matter, but they should never determine the quality of your life.

     Just look at the psalm for today.  David is in the Desert of Judah, a dry and weary land where there is no water, but the quality of his life is not determined by that.  The quality of his life is determined by the God who is far greater than his circumstances.  The quality of his life—and therefore his behavior—is rooted in two wonderful statements about his God.  “Because your love is better than life” and “Because you are my help.”  These two things determine how David sees his life and how he will respond as a result.

     Because your love is better than life: my lips will glorify you, I will praise you as long as I live, in your name I will lift up my hands, my soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods, with singing lips my mouth will praise you, on my bed I will remember you, and I think about you through the watches of the night.  And because you are my help: I sing in the shadow of your wings, my soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me, they who seek my life will be destroyed, they will go down to the depths of the earth, they will be given over to the sword, the king will rejoice in God, all who swear by God’s name will praise him, and the mouths of liars will be silenced.  

     David’s life is not determined by his circumstances or conditions, but by who his God is, and who he is in God.  May it always be the same for us.  May we, as David did, earnestly seek God, regardless of where we are, regardless of what surrounds us, regardless of what lies within us.  God’s loves is better than life.  And God, the Almighty God, is our help. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you.