QUICK REMINDER HERE THAT I’M SELLING SHIRTS FOR SIX MORE DAYS – GET ONE BEFORE THEY’RE GONE
Below are the notes from a message I got to share at my church this past Sunday. It’s all about the power of reminding ourselves of who God is in order to combat doubt, specifically through the Psalms. I’m including the live stream from the message in here as well – I’d recommend watching the live stream and following along with the notes!
Alright, so, as many of you may know, I am going on a year of missions soon. And while I feel like this is what God wants for me and this is what He’s called me to – following that calling boldly comes with A LOT of struggle.
Satan doesn’t like that I’m going to commit a whole year to serving people and preaching the Word. In fact, He HATES it. He wants to whisper lies in my ear like “you aren’t good enough”, “other people are better suited for this”, “you don’t have the skills that are necessary for mission work”, “you don’t have the network to get the support you need” and all these things are SO FALSE.
I was listening to a pastor the other day and he was talking about doubt. He said the response to doubt is to scream at the sky.
To not let doubt quiet your conversation with God but let it increase your conversation with God!
So, I’m going to take some time this morning to show you how I’ve been raising my voice against that doubt, and hopefully this will bless you guys and give you some tools in your arsenal.
I think it is so key to look at who God is when we are in the face of doubt.
He is promise-keeper. He is heart-comforter, He is prayer-answerer, radical-lover, there’s so many facets to our great God.
Now, what I’ve been doing to remind myself of this is looking to the Psalms. And I want you guys to really work with me on this, okay? Let’s get down to the nitty gritty and work through this together. So let’s all turn to Psalm 92, then Psalm 62, then Psalm 149?
I’ve had these three key questions I ask every time I study a psalm lately, and you can do this with pretty much any part of the Bible, but the Psalms have been where Holy Spirit is pulling me lately.
So, we’re going to look at what this Psalm says about “who God is”, “what He does” and “what it says about us”
So let’s read together and get ready to break this down.
K E Y T A K E A W A Y S
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We see in verse 5 that God has profound thoughts and we rejoice in them… When was the last time you rejoiced just in the fact that God’s thoughts are so profound?? How different would our lives look if we just savoured His thoughts in that way?
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Verse 13 declares that we are planted in the house of the Lord. That means it is a permanent residence, we don’t have to ever leave and won’t ever be forced out of His house.
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Verse 7 says evildoers are like grass, so they wither and fade. They are temporary. Verse 12 calls the righteous a palm tree, which is long-living and sturdy. They can bend way far over in the strongest storms, but ultimately they will stand back up again. Their roots are deep. Verse 15 calls God the rock – so, He is immovable, does not die, and He is solid
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Verse 14 calls out that the righteous will bear fruit even into old age. So, whether we are feeling weak, struggling, or flourishing, we are called to bear fruit in every season. Bearing fruit is a sign of Holy Spirit dwelling in us, not a sign of our mood that day.
K E Y T A K E A W A Y S
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In verses 11-12 we see that strength and faithful love belong to Him. So what does that mean? He is the owner, the sole proprietor, the source of these things. He is the creator and the only one who possess them in their purest form. And knowing all that, He still allows us to have access to His strength and faithful love!
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Verse 10 reveals our addiction to the world – we tend to love the very thing that destroys us, we have adoration for our captor. Where Christ calls us to live in freedom, we instead choose to live in shackles all too often because it is comfortable and familiar.
K E Y T A K E A W A Y S
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Verse 5 shows us that God participates in what I like to call the “exchange of glory”. So, we glorify Him and proclaim His mighty works and then He takes that blessing and turns it right back around to us, allowing us access to the very glory and power we were just praising!
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Verse 6 speaks about the mouth and the sword here, which is such an interesting connection. In Revelation (link) we see Jesus speaking and a sword comes out of His mouth, and this just shows how much power there is behind words. We can use our mouths to tear people down, build them up, perform miracles, and share the gospel!
Going through the Word in this way really stamps it onto my heart. I am forced to read through the chapter multiple, multiple times to dissect these questions. The nuggets I get from the Word repeat in my head throughout the day. I’ve found it to be such a helpful and fruitful way to recenter myself on the Word, and I hope it benefits you guys as well and consider using this method of studying the Word during your quiet time!
I’d love to hear some of the things you got from reading these Psalms that would go under one of these three categories that I didn’t touch on! Feel free to comment them down below 🙂
grace + peace
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