PSALM 73: "IF I'M DOING THE RIGHT THING, HOW COME I'M NOT WINNING?"
Psalm 73 is really interesting. As usual, the writer is really honest about where he's at:
"But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold."
And then he goes on to explain how he got off-course: he started looking at people around him who weren't even trying to be righteous or godly, and he didn't seem to be ahead. I think we've all been there: We're doing our best to be obedient to God's plan, and everything seems like a struggle, while meanwhile... people who don't give a rip about God seem to be doing just fine. It's easy to want to say, "Hey! What's wrong with this picture?"
Caz mentioned that there are two ways we can get off-track: either with distorted truths (the most effective lies have an element of truth in them); or false promises. When I think of a distorted truth, I think of what happens when our faith in God becomes a RELIGION. Because religion is all about following the rules (and getting rewarded for it), and when that doesn't happen, then we get bitter and resentful. "For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."
False promises are just what they sound like: it's when the enemy tries to get us to believe a lie. In my life, those lies have come down to variations of three themes:
"God is not enough to meet your needs"
"God cannot be trusted"
"God doesn't like you anymore (you've messed up too many times.")
It can be helpful to recognize which kind of lie you're most susceptible to. For me, it's usually a variation of the third one: I've made too many mistakes, and God's not happy with me anymore, and I can't get it right (so give up.) When that happens, I need to go back to the Father and admit to Him that I've been taken in by a lie and ask Him to set me straight. Bill Johnson says in his book, Experience the Impossible, that "repentance is seeing from God's perspective... Either I see from God's perspective, or I need to repent."
Before he had gotten to the end of his song, the psalmist had repented of his messed-up thinking and had plugged back into the truth:
"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion
forever."
And just as Jesus told us, the TRUTH will set us free. Believe God. He loves you. Be free.
~Pastor Rick
