A Declaration...

I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the strength of my salvation, and my stronghold. I will call on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, for he saves me from my enemies. Psalm 18:1-6 (NLT)

Psalm 18 is one of my favorite. These opening verses are such a declaration. I love to read these first six verses out loud and replace all the appropriate words to make it my declaration and my prayer to him. When I pray this Psalm it goes something like this…

I love you, Lord; YOU are my strength. YOU ARE my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. YOU are my shield, the strength of my salvation, and my stronghold. I will call on YOU, Lord, YOU ARE worthy of praise, for YOU save me from my enemies.

There is just something about a declaration. A declaration of what we believe, a declaration of our individual core value, a declaration of what is central to our being. This is what is central to me.

Life has become so cluttered and complicated. So many things compete for our attention and 90% of the time our attention is won by those other things. Attitudes and thought processes have slipped into the land of relativism and the embracing of absolute truths has been tempered. The enemies that He saves me from are the enemy of self, situations, distractions, and other enemies of the more traditional definition.

Our great youth pastor, Todd, and our youth leadership team is being driven this year by a passage from Hosea. It’s a pretty simple statement.

My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me… Hosea 4:6

My exposure to that verse now causes me to see this destruction it seems at every turn. In saying this, I must state that perfection… I am not and never will be. I am just forgiven. That is it and all, just simply forgiven.

It is my prayer that you will begin this faith journey today. If you have been on this road before, I pray that you will return. People are being destroyed every day because they do not know the grace and love of God. It is my prayer that you will be able to make Psalm 18:1-6 a declaration of your own.

Blessings…