How to Develop a Strong Faith – Part Two

Psalm 27

Many people try to find their stability in externals. For these reasons their emotions ride a roller coaster with more ups and downs than a roller coaster. Then comes suffering as explained in Psalm 27.

Verses 2, 3 and 6 refer to suffering caused by people.

Verses 7 and 9 inform us there are sufferings caused by discipline. 

Verse 10 speaks of suffering caused by loved ones.

Verse 12 notes even another form of suffering. It is verbal abuse.

What can be done with our misfortunes?  

DON’T: CURSE THEM REHEARSE THEM

DO: DISPERSE THEM (PRAY) REVERSE THEM

Have you ever been where the Psalmist was when he wrote: “I would have lost heart?” This means I would have fallen apart, I couldn’t otherwise cope. The thing that stabilized him was preoccupation with the Lord, not circumstances.

“When you said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, will I seek’ … I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 27: 8, 13). Keep focused on Christ. Make Him your standard.

Wait translates the Hebrew “kiwah.” It is a word that draws a picture for us. It describes starting with one thread and weaving a rope.  Every experience with the Lord is a thread in the tie that binds you closer to Him.

As a young professor at Oxford in England, C.S. Lewis was an outstanding author and one of the greatest literary geniuses in literary criticism in the world. By any standard he was an outstanding scholar. He was also an atheist.

That is, he was until he went to Tinturn Abbey, immortalized  by the great poet William Wordsworth. The Abbey stands on the banks of the river Wye. The walls are in tact, but it has no roof, windows or floor. The floor is a carpet of green grass growing as  it can only in Britain. 

The genius, C. S. Lewis, said it was there in Tinturn Abbey one day with the sunlight falling through the arches onto the green grass he experienced inexpressible joy and “All of a sudden I found the essence of the universe in Jesus Christ.”  Is Jesus the center of your universe?

When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He removed every charge the Father had against us and every claim Satan made of us. Salvation is available to all who by faith trust Christ.

Salvation is actually a person. Note, “The Lord is my salvation.” Can you insert that personal pronoun “my?”