Psalm 7:1 – “O Lord my God, in you I have taken shelter.  Deliver me from all who chase me. Rescue me!”

As I read, prayed, and meditated on the Word of God today, I was reminded of what I needed to remember.   As Psalm 7:1 expresses, sometimes the appropriate prayer is “HELP!”    Sometimes, our only solution is to take shelter in God and make a plea for rescue! “LORD, I’m in a hard place and can’t fix it, HELP!”

We can confidently pray that prayer because, as (v 10) declares, “The Exalted God is my shield, the one who delivers the morally upright.”   That declaration embodies several things.

• Our hope of help is rooted in relationships.
• Our hope of help is based on God’s ability, not ours.
• Our hope of help is anchored on TRUST.

Sometimes, as we muddle through life, we wonder, “God, why would You even care about humanity?”   There is nothing good in us outside You.  We are ungrateful and disobedient.  Then, Psalm 8:10 gives revelation. “O LORD, our Lord, how magnificent is Your reputation (name) throughout the earth!” Our design and our purpose are to manifest God!  Our lives, lived in grace, are testimonials of God’s character.

Psalm 15 is challenging and encouraging.  Who can live in the perpetual presence of the LORD?  Who can have continual access to the Throne of Grace? Then (vv 2-5) lists the character traits of the person God accepts.

• The Blameless.
• The Honest.
• The Righteous.
• The Peaceable.
• The Kind.
• The Holy.
• The Covenant-Minded.
• The Promise Keepers.

These traits open heaven’s portals.  Those are not acts to earn, but evidence of the heart.  Those traits exude from a totally surrendered heart.  You don’t have to force them; they come naturally out of the overflow of love in the heart.

We must guard against being like those invited in of Luke 14.  We must not allow self-interest to become more important than God. We must not let career or the pursuit of economic or social status to become more important than God. We must not let our carnal desires overpower our desire for God.

If God holds our whole heart, we have all we need.