WordLive - Year OneSample

Prepare: ‘Lord Jesus, help me grasp the width, depth, length and height of your love. I am empty; please fill me with the fullness of God. Amen.’ Everybody hurts The psalmist was well aware that life throws up a lot of dirt. We get sick, we get hurt (v 3). We suffer physical and emotional pain. I guess we would all identify with some of the situations described here: the things people say that cut us to the heart (v 5), the way people jump to conclusions (v 6), the way they judge (v 7) and even the way our closest friends or family let us down (v 9). Added to which we suffer spiritual pain – those moments when we are acutely aware of the wretchedness of our sin (v 4). Protector and sustainer We may wish it otherwise, but God does not lock his people away in an ivory tower to protect them from the pains of life. The psalmist’s experience and his song testify to the way that the Lord protects us and sustains us through the pain. No matter what life threw at him, no matter how hurt he felt, the psalmist clung on to God. He clung on by trusting what God had promised (vs 1–3) and by believing that God’s love for him was stronger and more powerful than the problems in his life (vs 11,12). Respond: If life is really tough right now, read Romans 8:35–39 until you know it by heart. Nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! http://www.wordlive.org/Session/Classic/2012-11-04