Could you imagine making a promise to God the way the Psalmist does when he promises to keep the Words of the Lord?
I think that is just really bold and brazen of him to stand before the Lord and make that promise with all his heart. But he doesn’t quit there, he goes on to say he has been seeking His favor also with all his heart and asks Him to be gracious to him according to His Word.
Psalm 119:57-64 The Lord is my portion; I have promised to keep Your Words.
I sought Your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your word.
I considered my ways and turned my feet to Your testimonies, I hastened and did not delay to keep Your commandments.
The cords of the wicked have encircled me, but I have not forgotten Your law.
At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You because of Your righteous ordinances.
I am a companion of all those who fear You, and of those who keep Your precepts.
The earth is full of Your loving kindness, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.
I am learning if we are seeking the favor of God with all our heart, then we are making some big changes in the way we do life. We cannot live anymore just thinking about our own wants and needs. We are going to be learning to reach out to others with filled hands and heart, showing kindness and mercy and putting the needs of others ahead of our own.
We cannot be asking for favor and then ignoring our actions. It just is not going to work that way. We have to be willing to give up self. If we are afraid of letting go of self we miss the abundance God has for us. His favor towards us stalls.
If we have kindness operating in our lives, then what we have is all we need to live abundant lives because the promise of showing kindness is receiving His favor!
The Lord Who is More than Enough is our Portion. He gives fully of Himself. All of Who He is lives in our hearts.
He is our Sustenance and Sustainer in life. We have all we need when we have Jesus.
His divine power has granted us, given us already, everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
By His glory and excellence, He gave us already His precious and magnificent promises. (2Peter 2:3-4)
The Lord is our Portion. He didn’t offer Himself up with the words, ‘now just take a little piece of Me”,
He didn’t bleed just a little bit for our salvation ~ He poured out His life blood by allowing His Body to be split wide open.
This GodMan of love and kindness dwells in our mortal bodies. Do you think that maybe we could allow ourselves to be split wide open and allow Him to motivate and quicken our hearts to showing mercy and kindness? To not be offended and to let love cover all?
It is going to be inconvenient and costly to our flesh. Showing mercy and loving kindness means we are willing to go against the grain, swim against the tide.
Maybe the Ocean of Love has no tide. No chart to keep track of things done right or wrong…
Showing mercy and loving kindness means we are willing to have the attributes and qualities of God be at work transforming our human nature into a nature in alignment with His.
It is going to be hard work actually to seek the favor of God with all our heart because it means we will have to bid adieu to company we have grown comfortable with. (You know the gang who have names like distrust, shame, fear, selfishness, piety, false humility…)
They are names in the wall we have erected and that whole wall has to go. It is a false wall and with it in place we cannot see beyond the boundaries of the wall, we can’t see with eyes of love…we can’t see at all the way God wants us to.
We will not be discouraged when we feel encircled by cords of wickedness. We will instead choose to remember the promises of God. We will remember testimonies of faith and we will begin to speak out the praises of God.
One of the promises I have grown to love is Isaiah 3:10. When my husband and I first began the walk through the journey of prostate cancer, some of the dearest words spoken to me were, “it shall be well with you.”
Maybe softly at first, but with ever-increasing confidence our voice speaks louder. Others will hear its sound. We break into songs of praise and victory ~ the cords break off.
As our hearts are focused on the Lord, He will teach us His statutes through the experiences we have. His plans and purposes for us are good! That is a promise but we must allow the promises of God to take precedence over our situation in life.
His Word will triumph and we will experience victory! We will always have bread for the hungry. 
All of us make up the one triumphant body of Christ. Together we have been Beckoned by the King.
Walking with you on our journey of faith,
Jeannie
Oh a big AMEN to this Jeannie! I love this line “The Lord is our Portion. He didn’t offer Himself up with the words, ‘now just take a little piece of Me'” – wow, that’s so powerful and true! I wish everyone would get this simple truth “We are going to be learning to reach out to others with filled hands and heart, showing kindness and mercy and putting the needs of others ahead of our own.” Thanks for a great post!
I’m grateful Toni that our God is the God of more than enough for all of us. May we be a generous people freely giving all we have received; and indeed we must give in order to continue receiving! God bless you.
great thoughts.
Thank you Jeannie! Truly this is the challenge, but also the hope: “we must allow the promises of God to take precedence over our situation in life. His Word will triumph and we will experience victory!
Thanks for sharing your thought Karen –
It is all about trusting the goodness of our God!
Amen Jeannie!! We do need to be bold as the psalmist and to open our hearts wide so He can fill us with everything we need.
Yes Karen! Sometimes the opening of the heart is a long and difficult process but when we taste of His goodness? Such delight!
Encouraging. Thanks for posting!!
“TO SEEK” is an interesting word study. I looked up the words in Hebrew and Greek, and my conclusion is…it’s more than a desire. It might start there, but it’s so much more. In the Hebrew, it can mean “seek to secure”; emphasizing the pursuit of a wish or the accomplishing of a plan. I the Greek “seeking diligently with PURPOSE; to require or demand.” You pointed out this PURPOSE so well Jeannie in this post. In the songs & praises we offer and the words we speak, “Lord, I want more of You,” and at the same time I think, Jesus is saying, “Yes, and I want more of YOU as well!”
This got me right here, Jeannie: “He didn’t bleed just a little bit for our salvation ~ He poured out His life blood by allowing His Body to be split wide open.” Amen. May others hear the sound of our walk and take notice as we pursue his heart and his will. Thanks for sharing.
Hearts and voices in one accord! Yes Abby, thanks for inspiring me with your thoughts!
Food for thought here, Jeannie. Way to get us to stop looking at ourselves and start focusing on serving the Lord.