"Make It Count"

"Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God." (Psalms 50:23) This was tougher than I thought it was going to be; which was due mostly to the fact that I wanted to stay in Isaiah with all my closing verses; but also due to the fact that this is hard to share about and to deal with the truth that comes out of it while sharing. The whole thing about "consider" that I mentioned yesterday, I was spoken to later in the afternoon regarding the same matter; it was through 'To Every Man An Answer', as Pastor Steve used a similar illustration to answer a caller. The point was made about sin that we don't want to give up, and that God honors our free will; so in order for God to change our heart, we must first change our mind regarding what we want most: do we want to hold onto that sin, and accept the consequences of owning it? or do we want to desire the things of God in our life, and receive all the blessing of being owned by Him? Once we change our mind and desire Him above all else, then He will change our heart, making that desire real and long lasting. Giving our heart to the Lord is something that starts in our mind; it really is all about a choice! We cannot fool God in anything, so we should just stop trying to pretend to worship Him, and really let go so that real praise can come forth from our hearts. That is what this verse is actually speaking of; it's all a matter of wanting God! Not just wanting to be counted as one of His, but actually wanting that relationship with Him that only comes from Him owning every fiber of our being. To really see the "salvation of God", is not about 1 and 1 equals two, or about putting two and two together, it is about being set free, really free; beyond belief freedom that can only come from having a perfectly clean slate before God. And again, it always involves "consider"; always we are to be considering what is that perfect and acceptable way of the Lord; and with the right heart, and the power of the Holy Spirit living within us, we actually have a pretty good chance of making all the right choices...
"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified." (Isaiah 61:1-3)