Can we turn to our verse for this time—the theme—which is found in Acts 13?
Acts 13:22:
And after He had removed him—that is, King Saul—He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.”
Psalm 25:14:
The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him,
And He will make them know His covenant.
Psalm 23:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou dost prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
Thou hast anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Deuteronomy 12:5:
But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God shall choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come.
Ephesians 1:9-10:
He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times—that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth.
Ephesians 1:18:
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
Ephesians 3:10-11:
In order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 2:1, 4-7:
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Let’s have a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so grateful that we can be in Your presence and worship You in Your presence. What a grace, Lord Jesus, that You have opened a new and living way, and we come with boldness because of Your precious blood. We can even stand in the holy of holies and worship in spirit and in truth. What a grace; what a love.
And now, Lord, we pray that we may just continue in Your presence as we meditate on Your Word. We pray that the Holy Spirit would be completely in charge of this time, Lord; that He would enable the speaking, that He would enable the listening of Your Word. Would You, Lord Jesus, speak to our hearts Your living words? We need Your living words. Would You do that?
We commit this time into Your hands. In Your precious name we pray. Amen.
Well, as you know, my responsibility is on this theme about David having been found by the Lord, and that testimony that he is a man according to God’s heart. I have been given the responsibility to share on the later part of his life as king, and more specifically on what David discovered as king.
I find Psalm 25:14 very interesting, because it says that the secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him. David wrote that psalm, of course, and it seems, to some degree, to be a testimony that he gives to us of something that he experienced. He was one who was given by the Lord to know His secret.
There was something in David’s heart that somehow allowed the Lord to reveal to him that secret of the Lord. We want to consider tonight, together by the grace of the Lord: What is that secret that was revealed to him?
We already read the verse in Deuteronomy, and I feel that has something to do with that secret. The Lord had said that He had a desire. This was told to Moses when the people of Israel had left Egypt and were almost about to enter Canaan, at the end of those forty years.
The Lord said those words in Deuteronomy 12: He had a place; He had a desire. He wanted to put His name on a place. That was something He chose to do.
Curiously enough, for centuries nobody knew what that place was. It was a secret. So many years passed, and nobody in Israel ever knew what that place was until David. Somehow, that secret was revealed to David.
Because there was something in David’s heart, as we read in Acts 13, he received revelation. It is interesting that the word there is, “I have found David.” It conveys the idea that the Lord was seeking all those years to find a man to whom He could reveal that secret.
Finally, the Lord says, “I have found David, a man according to My heart, who will do all My will.” There was something in David’s heart that allowed the Lord to reveal that secret which had been hidden for centuries. To David, it was revealed.
Because of the heart David had, he received revelation after revelation about the Lord’s secret.
As soon as David became king over all Israel, the first thing he did was take Jerusalem. The second thing: he brought the ark into Jerusalem. After that, everything is related to that secret.
After taking Jerusalem and bringing the ark, David had a desire in his heart to build a house for the Lord in that place. He was not allowed to do that; we know the story. However, even though he was not allowed, David gathered materials with all his strength for that house to be built.
He was granted to know the site of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem—the very specific place where that house had to be built. Even more, he was allowed to see the design, the plan, the blueprint, the pattern of that house. Revelation after revelation.
The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him.
I feel that is a testimony David left for all of us.
I want to ask a question at this point: Why did David do those things as soon as he became king over all Israel?
Humanly speaking, Jerusalem is not a big deal. It is not a big city, a metropolis, or anything. It is actually in an unimportant location; it is not on the main route. So, among so many things that he could have done as king, why would he take Jerusalem? Why would he desire to build a house for the Lord there?
Somehow David realized—somehow he discovered—that this had something to do with the will of God, something to do with the purpose of God. Therefore, he sought this thing with all his heart.
Jerusalem is somehow inclusive. It represents and includes all the other things that came after: the ark, the presence of the Lord, the house in Jerusalem, the materials—all of that is included.
When you look at the New Jerusalem, at the conclusion of the Lord’s work and at the conclusion of time, in eternity future, this becomes very clear. All those things converge somehow in the New Jerusalem.
In the New Jerusalem, you find the presence of the Lord. The Lord dwells in the city. There is a very interesting phrase: there is no temple there. How come? Because there is no need for a temple. The whole city has become the habitation of God, the house of God.
Everything converges in the New Jerusalem, with Jerusalem representing all those things. So, in the time we have together tonight, we would like to consider mainly Jerusalem. But please keep in mind that Jerusalem includes and represents all those actions David took.
Perhaps I should say a word about Jerusalem in Scripture. It is very interesting, because I think it is no exaggeration to say that Jerusalem sums up the Old Testament. That thought of Jerusalem is like a silver thread through the whole Old Testament—and, actually, through the whole Bible.
Consider the way the Bible begins and ends. In Genesis 2, man is placed in a garden. At the end of the Bible, there is a city. There is a very clear correspondence between the garden and the city. It is almost as if the garden, after God has completed His work, becomes a city.
I do not want to go over all the parallels, and there are many wonderfully done studies that show aspect after aspect of the correspondence between the Lord’s work in the garden of Eden and the New Jerusalem at the end. It is almost as if the Holy Spirit is trying to impress upon us that the Lord started with something in mind, and He will get there.
Actually, to say that He will get there is almost misleading, because John was given that final vision outside of time. He saw what the Lord had realized. We are in time, so we cannot see it right now. But John was given to see the work of the Lord completed in the New Jerusalem.
Just to mention a couple of points in that parallel: in the garden you find a river; in the New Jerusalem you find the river of life. In the river in the garden, you find materials: gold, onyx, and bdellium.
I do not know how you say “bdellium”; perhaps someone can help me here. Silence is golden, so let’s call it “bdellium.”
But when you get to the New Jerusalem, you find gold, precious stones—onyx is one of them—and pearl. Some students of the Bible suggest that bdellium is a white substance that comes from a plant and, when it crystallizes, becomes pearl-like.
I hope we see the correspondence between what the Lord did at the beginning and what He will have at the close, when everything is completed.
To me, this says that the matter of Jerusalem, which represents the purpose of God and what He is after, is not an afterthought. It is not merely an idea that appeared in the Godhead as an accident or an afterthought. Before anything was made, that thought was already there.
Even in that first restoration or creation, if you will, you see the stamp of what the Lord wants and what He is going to do. Everything converges finally in the New Jerusalem.
There is a thread through the Bible: earthly Jerusalem stands as a representation, a type, a picture—of course, an earthly picture—of what the Lord desires. Amazingly, David was the man who saw it. To him, that secret was revealed.
We would like to consider how that happened. What did the Lord find in David’s heart that allowed Him to reveal the secret to David?
I would like to look at two specific Old Testament Scriptures that help us see some fundamentals concerning the meaning of Jerusalem. The first is Psalm 48.
Psalm 48:1-2 says:
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
In the city of our God, His holy mountain.
Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion in the far north,
The city of the great King.
I want to take the last phrase: “The city of the great King.” I feel it conveys the fundamental meaning of Jerusalem.
The great King, of course, does not refer to David himself or to any king in Israel. This psalm is said to have been written by the sons of Korah, but even they knew that there was something much larger than David.
Jerusalem’s main characteristic is that it is the city of the great King. The great King is to be expressed in that city; He is to reveal Himself through that city. Jerusalem is Jerusalem because of the great King.
Immediately, in that same phrase, you have the other side of the coin: it is a city. A city is a place where people live. People come in, they go, they dwell in the place.
So, in one sense, it is something related to the great King, but at the same time it is a city with people. The great King is not expressed in isolation by Himself. Somehow there are people there, and the great King is expressed through the inhabitants of the city.
You see, it is a corporate matter. These two words help us see the fundamental thought behind Jerusalem. It is something related, of course, to the Lord Jesus, to the great King. But it is not something of the Lord Jesus by Himself; it includes a corporate body. It includes people in that city.
The second passage is Deuteronomy 12:5. Let us look again at the verse:
But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God shall choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come.
There are three things that impress me in this passage.
First, this is obviously a reference to Jerusalem, which was still going to be revealed. It is a matter that has to do with God’s choice: “I will choose a place.” It is something related to His will, something that He desired, and something that is His prerogative.
Second, it is a place where the Lord said that He would put His name. What does it mean to put a name on something?
Our brother Lance Lambert told us many times something I have always found helpful. If you study the Old Testament, names in the Bible are always prophetic concerning a personality.
This is so different from our day and age, when parents often choose names because they sound nice, or because they are popular. In those days, it was never like that. A name was given prophetically; it spoke about what that person was.
Jacob, perhaps the most famous example, means “supplanter” or “deceiver.” Not very nice! Yet it was prophetic of what Jacob was in himself, naturally. Or consider Joseph. Joseph means “addition” or “increase,” and that too was prophetic of what that man would be. What an increase; what an addition. His life speaks of fruitfulness.
If you explore this in the Bible, you will see that names are always prophetic. They speak about the person and reveal something about that person.
Here, the Lord says, “I will put My name on that place.” Jerusalem, at the end of the day, is the place that speaks about the Person of the Lord. The name upon Jerusalem is the name of the Lord Himself. The personality expressed through that city is no other than God Himself. He is to be expressed through that city.
One more thing impresses me in Deuteronomy 12: there is tremendous emphasis that the Lord would choose one place, and He would put His name upon one place.
All the sacrifices and offerings that were to be brought to the Lord were to be brought to that specific place. No one was at liberty to establish a second place and say, “I think here is more convenient.”
Psalm 122 speaks about Jerusalem as the place where the tribes of the Lord go up as a testimony for Israel. Every male in Israel was supposed to go up to Jerusalem three times a year to bring an offering to the Lord.
Suppose you were in Naphtali, up in Galilee, or in Asher, in the other corner. It was far from Jerusalem. You were not at liberty to say, “This is a pretty long journey. Why do we not establish our own private thing here in Galilee, a second place where we can bring the offering to the Lord?” No one was at liberty to do that.
If you read the Old Testament, you see a tremendous emphasis on this matter: there is one place. In Kings and Chronicles, time after time, you find a commentary about certain kings. There may be some praise concerning them, and then it says, “But the high places were not removed.”
Those high places were not necessarily related to idol worship. Sometimes they were places dedicated to worshiping the Lord. However, the Holy Spirit puts it in a negative tone. There was something going on that was not approved by the Lord.
One place that the Lord chose. All these things give us a picture of the meaning of Jerusalem.
Somehow David saw these things. Somehow he understood that secret of the Lord. Even in shadow and type, he was allowed to see that Jerusalem represented something deep in the heart of God—something having to do with what God is after at the end of the day.
When we come to the New Testament, we see the reality behind the type. Jerusalem, in one sense, is a type. At the end, there will be the New Jerusalem, when all the works of God converge in that city.
Even in Ephesians, we begin to see the reality. We know that the Lord is not after an earthly city. At best, that city was an Old Testament representation, a picture, a type of what the Lord is after. David saw, even through the type, that the Lord wanted this. But that was not the reality; it was not the real thing.
In Ephesians we see something of the substance behind the type—the reality behind the picture of Jerusalem.
Ephesians 1 says that God has revealed to us the mystery of His will. Do you see that this matter has to do with God’s choice, God’s will, and God’s desire? Just as Jerusalem was something about which He said, “I will choose a place,” so the reality is that God has a will.
That will is not temporary. It is not merely a circumstantial measure. It is an eternal will. Even before time, God decided this.
What is that will?
To sum up all things in Christ.
That is the will of God.
Somehow, God has decided that His Son would be the center. The term “to gather” or “to sum up” conveys the idea of all things being explained by Christ, all things finding their meaning in the Person of Christ.
God has decided that His Son is the center of the whole universe. Everything will find its real meaning—why it was created, why we exist—only in the Son. You see the will of God. You see what He desired. That is the substance and reality behind the type of Jerusalem.
But that is only half of the story. Yes, God has decided that His Son will be the center, the One who gives meaning to the universe. But it is not merely a personal matter. It is not just that the Lord wants the Lord Jesus to be the center in isolation by Himself.
There is a vessel, a corporate vessel, that is to express Him—an entity through whom the Lord Jesus can be fully expressed. If you go back to the city of the great King, you see the parallel: the great King expressed in a corporate way through a people, through a city.
Ephesians 3:10 says:
In order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
Do you see the eternal purpose centered in the Lord Jesus? Yet this purpose is manifested through the corporate vessel, even the church. Through the church, the manifold wisdom of God—His very purpose—is to be known, manifested, and expressed.
I hope this gives us a glimpse of what is in God’s heart when we consider the reality.
There is one more word I would like to emphasize when we consider Ephesians and God’s purpose. In Ephesians 3:11, this purpose is described as an eternal purpose.
Again, it is not merely a temporary measure, or something God was pursuing for some time and then changed. No. It is something eternal.
I feel that should be very encouraging to all of us as we find ourselves called to live for our Lord Jesus and for His purpose. This purpose is not something that is going to pass. Everything else will pass.
Your job, your beautiful house—or your not-so-beautiful house; who cares? After a hundred years, or way less than that, no one will care. If you were the most successful person in your field, after a couple of years, no one will care—not even you.
But His purpose will remain forever. It is eternal. Are we pursuing that eternal purpose? That is our calling. It is for us.
Psalm 87 gives us another description of God’s purpose, as represented in Jerusalem. It says:
Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.
Glorious things. How do you describe the purpose of God? How do you describe the fact that God desires not merely to save you—which in itself should give us reason to be grateful for eternity—but to take such unworthy material, place the life of His Son upon us, and cause us to become a corporate expression of Him throughout eternity?
How do you describe that? Glorious things are said about thee, O city of God. That is the purpose of God unto which you and I are called by His grace: something glorious.
Another word describing this purpose is joy. Psalm 122 says:
I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Psalm 48 describes the city of God as the joy of the whole earth. Do you know something of the joy of being called unto such a purpose? Do you know something of how glorious and joyful it is that we are called—not merely saved, again—but called even to express the Lord Jesus? Oh, it is a joy.
Psalm 137 has something wonderful to say in the same light. There is a bittersweetness in that psalm because it concerns Jerusalem when things were not well. The expression was not there because the people were in captivity.
Yet, even in captivity in Babylon, they realized:
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
If I remember thee not;
If I prefer not Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.
Once we realize what is God’s eternal will, even as represented in Jerusalem, oh, what a joy! There is nothing that can compare with that. If we really see it, our response will be exactly that of the psalmist: there is no joy greater than knowing and experiencing that we are part of such a calling.
It is wonderful that God revealed the secret to David in the Old Testament, but today the secret has been revealed. As a brother said some time ago, it is an open secret now. God has revealed to us the mystery of His will.
David, through the shadow, was able to see what the Lord was after. But the question for us is: Do we know it? Do we really know it?
I am not talking about mental knowledge. There is a tremendous difference between knowing something as a theory, doctrine, or teaching, and really knowing it—being vitally involved in it, having it become your experience, even your life.
Do we know such a purpose? This open secret is your portion and mine. It was given to us; it was revealed to us. No child of God ought to live without that living knowledge of what the Lord is after. More than that, we should not live without being vitally engaged in and pursuing what the Lord is pursuing.
Going back to David, what was it in that man, among so many in Israel over so many centuries, that allowed the Lord to reveal that secret to him? How was he able to see it?
I feel Ephesians 1:18 has something to do with that. This is New Testament, of course, but David’s experience is already pointing to that prayer Paul makes.
After stating that God has revealed His will in Ephesians 1:9, Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened. It may sound contradictory: the secret has already been revealed, but it is not enough. There is a need for the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened.
There is such a spiritual principle here. The matter of discovering what is in God’s heart—of seeing the things of the Lord, even His purpose—is related supremely not to understanding, not to the brain, and not to the mind, as we so easily mistake it. It has to do with our hearts.
Paul is not praying that our understanding would be enlightened, that our brains would become sharper, or that we would have more natural ability, more study, more this or more that. No. For us to see this open secret in reality, the eyes of our hearts must be enlightened.
I feel that is exactly what David experienced. In the Old Testament, he experienced something of this. Because of his heart, he came to see that secret and understand it.
There is a testimony in the Old Testament concerning David’s heart: it is called a perfect heart. We need to clarify that immediately, because when we hear “perfect,” we may imagine sinless perfection—no mistakes, nothing wrong.
But in the Bible, “perfect” often means complete. David’s heart was completely turned to the Lord, totally given. There was a perfection in terms of sensitivity.
Even when there were mistakes, failures, and sins, as soon as David was convicted, he totally turned to the Lord. Somehow his heart is said to have been a perfect heart.
I feel this is related to our question: Why did David see this? What was the spiritual secret in David that allowed him to see what the Lord was after? It was something related to that perfect heart toward the Lord.
Our Lord Jesus said in the Beatitudes:
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
Do you see the secret here? How can we see—not only the Lord Himself, but even what is in His heart and what He is after? “Blessed are the pure in heart.” It is something related, brothers and sisters, supremely to our hearts and to our attitude toward the Lord.
David had such a heart: pure, not sinlessly perfect, but completely turned toward the Lord and completely open to the Lord. To such a degree, the Lord says, “I have found David. This is what I was seeking, and I found it in David: a man after My heart.”
I want to clarify something as we close. I am suggesting that there was something in David that allowed the Lord to reveal His will to him. That is true. Yet I do not want to give the wrong impression.
On the one hand, David had such a perfect heart; he was completely turned to the Lord. On the other hand, I would suggest that this was not the ultimate cause for him seeing what the Lord was after. That pure heart, that perfect heart, was much more an effect in David than the cause.
Consider Psalm 23, that beloved psalm which some say David probably wrote in his very early days, perhaps as a young man in the fields of Bethlehem, even before he was anointed.
David realizes in the psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Then he goes on enumerating all the things the Lord does for him. Essentially, he says, “He does everything for me.”
He takes me to green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness. Even when I find myself in rough circumstances, in the valley of the shadow of death, Thou art with me.
This psalm is more than the expression of someone happy about the Lord’s blessings, though certainly you find every sort of blessing in it. The impression I get, the sentiment behind the psalm, is that David is in deep appreciation of the Person Himself—the Shepherd.
You see something of David’s heart here. He was not born with a perfect heart. It was not that David did something in himself that produced a perfect, pure heart toward the Lord.
Think of a sheep for a moment. If we could talk to one, I do not think it would say, “I was born, and immediately my heart was full of love for my shepherd.” Before a sheep can understand anything going on around it, how much care, love, protection, and provision are lavished upon it?
Do you think it is the sheep that produces or attains to a pure, perfect heart? Or would you say that such love is poured upon the sheep that the only thing it can do is love back that gracious shepherd?
I feel that is what David expresses in Psalm 23. The psalm culminates with David showing a deep desire not merely for the Shepherd Himself, though it is above all for Him, but also for what the Shepherd wants:
I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
When David saw the grace of his Shepherd, how could he not respond by having a heart totally given toward the Lord?
Brothers and sisters, we read in Ephesians the explanation of this purpose in the New Testament, and the wondrous fact that we are called to be part of it—that we are included by the grace of the Lord.
But does our inclusion in this purpose start because we are wonderful people who love the Lord and realize, “Well, He wants this, so I am going after it”? Who are the ones He included in this purpose?
Those who were dead in sins and trespasses. Those who were rebels, who did not care for Him.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.
When we were dead in our trespasses, He gave us life in Christ. By grace you have been saved.
Do you think we are included in this purpose because our hearts were always wonderful? Oh, no. What a grace was given to us. What a grace was lavished upon us.
At the end of Ephesians 2, Paul says that in the ages to come, God will show even in us the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us.
How would you describe sinners and rebels—those who did not care and who turned their backs to the Lord—being saved, redeemed, and included back in that purpose?
The surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward you, toward me.
Brothers and sisters, I feel that is where a perfect heart comes from. We cannot produce it. We cannot do it on our own. But when we consider such a Lord, such a Savior, what else can we do but give our lives completely to Him, love Him back, pursue Him, and pursue whatever He wants—pursue even His purpose?
I want to say one more thing. Oftentimes—I do not know about you, but this is certainly my case—we realize that our heart is perhaps not in the condition that it should be. Perhaps we realize that we are not pursuing as we should.
David would stand as a witness, even tonight, and say from his own experience, “Many times my heart got into a bad state because of my sin and failure. I was not pursuing. I lost my vision. I lost nearness with the Lord.”
But then he would stand as a witness and say, “As soon as I turned to Him, as soon as I turned back to the Lord with a contrite heart, I was immediately embraced, restored, and forgiven.”
Brothers and sisters, oftentimes, at least with me, our hearts are not what they should be. If we realize that is the case, none of us should be discouraged even a little.
If we just turn to this loving Shepherd, how immediately He is more than willing to restore us.
When we consider Psalm 23, we are often so silly, because the enemy wants us somehow to believe that this is for other people. “Yes, sure, it is for David. He had a perfect heart. It is for some spiritual giant. But you?”
The enemy would have us believe that. But consider one thing with me for a moment.
Our Lord Jesus is that Shepherd who left the ninety-nine sheep in the fold because of one that was lost. To me, that says that if I were the only human being who had sinned and turned my back to the Lord—if you were that only one—He would have come down and left His glory.
He went to the cross and shed His blood. He was the good Shepherd. We can never forget that.
Yes, the Lord is my Shepherd. But the first thing that He is for us is the good Shepherd who gives His life for the sheep.
When we sometimes listen to Satan’s lies, when he says, “It is not for you. That perfect heart is for others. It does not work for you; you know it very well from your experience,” let me ask you this: Do you think your good Shepherd, who suffered on that cross, would do that and not give you all the grace needed for you to have a perfect heart that loves Him back?
Do you think He would not give you a perfect heart somehow totally turned to Him, totally turned toward what He wants, toward His purpose?
Oh, brothers and sisters, what a Shepherd we have. What an assurance we have. All that is needed was provided, even as our brother reminded us yesterday.
His wonderful redemption has given us a new heart. Even if, in our experience, things sometimes seem muddy, black, grayish, or whatever, what never changes is the finished work of the Lord Jesus in redemption for you and for me.
Yes, He has already given us that new heart, with all the capacity. As our brother put it, there is a longing in that heart, even when we do not realize it because there is stuff getting in the way. That heart is still longing for Him.
Would we consider that? Would we consider again what David says?
I want to close with this verse. It is quoted in Hebrews 3, and it is from a well-known psalm written by David. If we find ourselves in the situation where our hearts are not responding as they should to our Shepherd, where we are not seeing what we should be seeing, would we consider David’s exhortation?
This purpose is your portion and mine. If we realize that somehow we have been derailed from it and are pursuing something else, would we consider what David says in Psalm 95?
Today, if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.
All the grace needed to restore us and put us right back in the position where we should be is available to us. But on our side, if today we hear His voice, we must not harden our hearts.
May the Lord help us and give us that right heart before Him. Let us pray.
Lord, indeed, we are so grateful. We confess, Lord, that You had all the initiative. What can we say? What can we boast of?
Lord, all we can say is that we were dead in sins and trespasses. And Lord Jesus, You made us alive. You gave us Your new life.
When we were dead, You gave us a new spirit and a new heart. You forgave all our iniquities, all our sins, and You called us with a high calling, Lord. What a calling. What can we say, Lord?
So we pray, Lord, that by Your grace and mercy there would be the only right response—the response becoming when we see such love and such grace. Give us that response: a heart completely given back to You.
Would You do that, Lord Jesus? If there is anything in our lives that gets in the way, Lord, would You allow us by Your grace and mercy to hear Your voice and not harden our hearts?
May all that You are and all that You have done have its full course in our lives, Lord, and bring us back to what You want. We thank You, Lord Jesus. We pray these things in Your most precious name. Amen.