Joy and Blessing and Salvation ...

Thursday, April 3, 2014. How are you approaching your days and your nights? Are you living in a basic mode of work, or endurance, or competition, or fear? What are your main feelings when you wake up in the morning? What are your feelings and your thoughts when you go through your day?

How are we living - feeling wise? …

It is interesting to live together with kids and see them grow up. Each kid has its own way to approach the world. It starts with the first days … and then it continues and grows to full maturity. Some kids are more fearful than others, some are shy, others approach people with boldness and build up new contacts all the time. Each person has his or her individual way to approach the world, the environment, other people …

You can observe similar things with colleagues. Some always have a smile for you, they are friendly and open - and also open to help you with your work and your requests. There are others, who are more in a mode of competition. Some are always trying to protect themselves and their own area or activities. That makes it more difficult to deal with them - cooperation is only possible as long as they feel in charge or in power.

You can start your day with heavy thoughts about the difficulties you are facing. Or you can start it with fantastic thoughts about some nice things, about the early spring, the warm winds from yesterday afternoon, or someone you love deeply. Can life be good to you? You might start your day with thoughts about all the good things which happened to you over the past years. But the bible has even further reaching suggestions for us.

The mode of salvation …

God is a god which wants and gives full salvation to us. The Psalm 65 is a very evangelistic psalm - it talks in a prophetic way about Jesus, who dies for the sin of the world. It talks about all the goodness which God gives to us and will give to us, coming to us with unbelievable blessings:

O God of Our Salvation 1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song. Praise is due to you,1 O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed. 2 O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come. 3 When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. 4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple! 5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; 6 the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; 7 who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, 8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. 9 You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. 10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. 12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy. (Psalm 65)

We can live our day under the influence of this psalm and under the influence of all the other biblical books. It is a mode of joy, a mode of hope, a mode of thankfulness. This attitude will not remain vain, but change our life and our experiences in a significant and deep way. Give it a try! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts