"I, the Lord, am your God..."

Psalm 81:10 says, "I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide and I will fill it."

I have been shown more and more recently that the old testament is in one sense a picture of what our lives are like in the new testament under grace. Our God has delivered us up from a dark, terrible bondage in the land of sin where we were slaves to sin (just as Israel was in slavery in Egypt) so that we may dwell in the promised land of Christ Himself and posess all that He is. Just like the nation of Israel, we stumble through the wilderness at times because of our lack of faith in God. If only we would believe and receive all that Christ offers us, we would be able to take hold of that promised land and dwell in it! The sins of the nation of Israel are not foreign to us and the same sins take hold of us in the Church. "They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to walk in His law; they forgot His deeds and His miracles that He had shown them," Psalm 78:10-11. Oh people of God, children of the Most High God, do not forget what the Lord has done for you! Remember that it is He that has delivered you from a life of destruction, a slavery to sin, and death. He has done a wonderous miracle in our lives in bringing us up out of the "land of Egypt." And has done numerous good deeds and works in our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit through sanctification. "Consider your ways!" declared the prophet Haggai to the nation of Israel and I must do the same. Are my ways the ways of the Lord? Am I living in a sacrificial way for the Lord? Am I committed to the building of His Church? The Lord continued to speak to the people through Haggai..."Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house (the temple) lies desolate?" Haggai 1:4. It is so easy to fall in the ways of the world, putting our own lives, our own houses, and our own time before the house of God and the worship of God. I pray as the psalmist writes, "Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; and deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name's sake,"Psalm 79:9. So I return to the passage that I began with..."Open your mouth wide and I will fill it." That is our prayer, O God...fill us up with Yourself, Your words, and Your praise. May all the people hear the testimonies of the works that You have done with Your own hand. May all the nations hear of Your salvation because Your people have remembered You and what You have done. Praise be to God!