What Is Your Portion?

Are you satisfied?

Psalm 145:19 "He will fulfill the desire of all who fear Him."

All of us have desires, dreams and ambitions. Whether it be for an object, a relationship, a status, an achievement...
Often I have looked at scriptures like this and - though I would never have admitted it - I considered it a way to manipulate God. "If I love Him - if I fear Him, He'll give me what I want."
But today I looked at it different. I realized that what this is not saying that we'll have everything that we want right now.
It is saying that as we honor and revere and love the Lord - truly love Him from our hearts, and not just with lip service - He will become the fulfillment of every yearning of our hearts. He doesn't just satisfy a temporary longing, He reaches into the depths of our desires and satisfies the root, the core, the heart!

If you long for a relationship, He becomes your lover - and the best love anyone could ask for.
If you long for position, He gives you a place in His heart, in His family, in His story.
If you long for achievement, He will show you what counts for eternity.
If you long to be noticed, He shows you your own name written on His hand that He will never forget.

Oh, I know, sometimes life gets hard…hard because we have bought into the lie that says we have to strive for anything we want or we will never get it. Sometimes we get tired of waiting for the fulfillment of the promises of God…because we put more affection on the promise than we do on the Promise Maker.
Sometimes we get mad at the Lord because we think He has forgotten us, but in reality we are still cared for, still alive, still have access to salvation. He just doesn’t care so much about our priority list because He has one of His own that is infinitely better and eternally more perfect.

Are you satisfied with just your Lord and nothing more? If everything was stripped away and stolen from you (family, spouse, friends, job, responsibility, possession) would you still be satisfied. Or perhaps is your love a bit divided. Perhaps you love the Lord BECAUSE of all He's given you. I encourage you, do some searching...I had to, and I discovered how lacking my love was.

The age old question remains. Would you love Him if He took it all away and you were left with nothing but Him?

I ask you, what is YOUR portion?

Those Who Dwell...

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty...Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence..." -Psalm 91:1,3

He who lives, abides, finds his home in deep and real companionship with God will be covered by the protection of the God whose strength greatly exceeds all His enemies. He will be safe, sheltered, comforted, kept under the jurisdiction of the Commander of the Hosts of Heaven - the One who thunders from Heaven to respond with fiery anger to wreak havoc on any that would harm His beloved.


He will deliver that child, that close friend who dwells near Him from the snare of the fowler.
Hunters would hide traps in tall grass to catch the feet of birds as they walked through unsuspectingly. Our God keeps us from falling into the iniquities that we might fail to foresee, or the harm that could come to us when we can't notice the danger ahead. He watches over us to direct us around the devil's traps that trip us up, and cause us to fall when we aren't aware.
The one who is close, who lives daily, hourly in the God's presence will know God's voice as He directs Him carefully through the minefield the enemy of his soul has laid for him. He will be kept safe because he is familiar with the voice of God and is quick to obey that leading.

God will deliver His own - His friends - from the perilous pestilence. He will come between the fearsome plague that come to cause great destruction. He guards us from the things we can't overcome. He keeps death and destruction at bay. When cultures fall around us, when society is drenched in wickedness, when we aren't sure how to keep ourselves or our children safe from being swept into the tide of evil, our God comes to be our great and mighty protector.  The one who makes his home at the feet of God can be sure He will never be overcome by an irresistible evil. Though ten thousand fall at his right side, it can not come near because the Almighty God is his protection.  The friend of God knows his God is greater than any and every wickedness, so he does not fear. He knows evil is the enemy of His God, so he will not succumb to it.

Stay close to God today. Remain near Him tomorrow. Learn to live - not just visit - His presence. Don't make an appearance in His secret place, stay there! This is more than a daily Bible reading plan, or a quick prayer before work. This is stopping to make His voice priority. This is halting in the madness of life to push everything else aside to just listen. This is not just being a servant of God, this is being His FRIEND.