Monday, May 8, 2017

Psalm 100 Part 3 - “Supplicants, Stewards, Sons”


"Supplicants, Stewards, Sons"     

Psalm 100 - Part 3     
  
   "Know ye that the Lord He is God.  It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.  We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture" (Psalm 100:3).

   The fact that we did not make ourselves should tell us much about our natural state of dependency.  "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  Neither can we cannot sustain our own existence - "by Him all things consist" - another telling indicator of how we must view ourselves and our lives.  "He is thy life" (Colossians 1:17; Deuteronomy 30:20).

   We exist as sheep of the Shepherd, or rather as supplicants, stewards, and in Christ, as sons and daughters of God.  God made us to know Him as our Source and supply in all things.  As supplicants, we ask for provision.  As stewards, we use the gifts God gives.  As sons and daughters, we receive and respond to our Lord in love.  Always we are the dependent vessels of His supply, the branches of His vine, the vessels of His content, and the lamps of His light.  Sin distorted this Truth at the outset of the human race.  Satan tempted Adam and Eve with the lie that they could be self sufficient gods (Genesis 3:5).  Sin still deceives the sons and daughters of Adam.  Only in the Lord Jesus can we find deliverance from the delusion of our independence.  God provides the Savior and His salvation as a free gift, thus establishing the proper role of Himself as Provider, and ourselves as dependent recipients.  Thereafter we seek to in "the things that are freely given to us of God" (I Corinthians 2:12).  Again, we ask for His provision, and then use His good gifts as sons and daughters  to honor the Lord Jesus and reveal Him as our supply in all things (Philippians 4:19).

   We must know that the Lord is God in both general and specific terms.  Every believer affirms the fact of God's singular being in relationship to ourselves.  However, specific matters of life tempt us to forget that we do not and cannot control our own existence.  Only our Heavenly Father possesses the capacity for that role.  Thus, we seek to grow in the awareness that God is God, and we are not.  This leads us to greater reception and application of His boundless generosity, and greater revelation to others that just as we did not make ourselves, neither can we determine our own destiny.  The Shepherd who created us and spiritually birthed us in Christ fulfills that role.  As sheep, we follow to the green pastures and still waters known by those who accept their role as supplicants, stewards, and sons.

"Without Me, ye can do nothing."
(John 15:5)

Weekly Memory Verse
   For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
(John 1:17).
   
  

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