"Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But My people would not heed My voice....So I gave them over to...walk in their own counsels. Oh, that My people would listen to Me....I would soon subdue their enemies...." (Psalm 81)
The Hebrew word for, "gave them over," in one manuscript means, "to let loose," to, "set free." Some people fear the old flippancy of being struck by lightening if they rebel. I don't. I fear being left to my own devices.
Can you not remember the days when you were running your own life, how lonely, fearful, uncertain? "Then," as the chorus says, "Jesus came and He spoke my name." Oh, the joy, the release, the shackles were off, aka, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Why ever would we not, "listen to Me"? Yet it does happen, even after we experience His Eternal Love.
Our text offers choices. "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it," or, "So I gave them over to walk in their own counsels." Left to ourselves, His Words are just beyond our ability to believe or comprehend. But, if I have the faith which is-- "and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God," I will be able to walk in His, "exceeding great and precious promises." It is an irrefutable principle of life. The only way to not just survive, but live life to the full, is to avail myself of what the Bible calls, "the faith of Jesus." Trusting in, and clinging to Jesus Christ and His Words as my Anchor keeps me from being cut loose to the fearful realm of ---------- "gave them over."
"The Preacher" said, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments," viz., His Word. If this is our walk, then when the enemy rears his head, we can live in the assurance, "I [will] soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries." On my own?------------------------- well, I'm fair game.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I affirm, cry out today that You are my need, my protection. Whenever I have walked in the stubbornness of my own heart, it was to my own peril. You are the "Rock of Ages," My Rock of life. Amen.
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Count Down to Armageddon: America is ever increasingly in danger of, "I gave them over." Go to:
When 18 year old Peter Torjesen "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
