Resilient “God's Role”

"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet . . . O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!"  Psalm 8:3-6; 9



Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

Have you ever asked, "When does a leader's confidence become arrogance? What does humility look like in a leader's life?" Psalm 8 answers those questions. It shows leaders how to balance their identity with their self-esteem. Consider how David perceives his identity and maintains both confidence and humility:



1.    David sees his own weakness and humanity. David realizes that in the sweep of the galaxy, man accounts for only a very small part.


2.    
 David sees his God-given position and privileges. David knows that God has made humankind a little lower than Himself.



3.     David sees a balance by giving all the glory to God. David closes the psalm the way he began. He magnifies the Lord and gives Him the credit for the good that has come from his life and leadership.

Knowing that the Lord will never let go of us unless we refuse to walk in his ways, allows us to let go of everyone else and everything else! It allows us to detach from the enslaving dependencies that abandonment fears set up in our hearts and lives. Awareness of the Lords constant love frees us to continue to love the people and even things, we have emotionally detached from but to love them now in such a way that they are free from us and we from them. We might only have one umbilical cord when we are born, but once that is cut we go on to grow other ones, cords attached to all sorts of people and things. These cords, invisible to the naked eye, limit where we can go and prevent us from entering into and onto the path of life. We grow them so that we will always be attached to someone or something, believing they will keep us from ever being abandoned or alone. In fact, the opposite is true. 

They prevent us from being free to love in a freeing way.

Other gods: The psalmist recognized that just because people believe in God it does not prevent them from believing in other gods, even gods of their own making. He saw the religious people of his day, especially the religious officials, giving lip service to God but actually worshipping other things like money, sex, power, and prestige. Oh, they did not bow down ostensibly, at least, in most cases. Yet, their behavior made it clear that they were attached, nailed to, much lesser gods,¨ much more demanding gods, multiplying sorrows¨ that the one and only true God. These other gods today we would call them addictions, ¨ obsessions, ¨ compulsion force obedience to them. Once we are in their clutches there is no deciding¨ to walk in their ways of death and slavery or not. Our free will is weakened so much that we, in effect, have no choice but to comply with the demands of these demanding gods or should we say "demons¨  At first, these gods deliver every time-drink that drink and you all get high, shoot that needle and you all get ecstatic, have that all about me thing and you all get pleasure, eat that cake and you all calm down. Once they capture the human heart then they demand more of the substance before delivering the goods and eventually stop delivering- true abandonment! Amen.

The Scriptures teach that God intends for you to enjoy life! You don’t have to let life’s challenges overwhelm you. God wants to help you face life with confidence and enthusiasm! He wants you to be encouraged and He wants you to experience a happy life!  if you want to encourage yourself in God you need to act like God would act. Express kindness toward others. Love them in spite of their failures. Don’t take your anger and frustration out on them.

David would face more challenges in life after this incident. But the key to staying encouraged in life is to walk with God and live according to God’s instructions. When you deviate from that you will lose your joy.

God Bless You and This Ministry!