"God's Property"

"Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?" (Psalms 115:2)

 We really cannot have it both ways, thinking that we have any power to control our lives and that God has all the power to heal or to bless us. The Lord gives and takes away, based upon what He knows is right; at best, we can only think that we know anything at all what to do; but based upon the ability of our flesh to influence our choices, what we think we know is right, will most likely turn out to be wrong. Going back to the 2nd verse of the last Psalm, Matthew Henry explains it to mean that Judah and Israel are God's property; that His sanctuary and His dominion are His areas of worship and judgment, and that worship and judgment are one of the same, truth! To that, is the answer to the question, "Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?" "For thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake," He must receive all the glory, every last bit of it! Even in the times of testing and trials, He must be given glory! Those are the times in which the heathen will say, "Where is now their God?" But those are also the times where His light will shine the brightest in His people, when they praise Him and give Him glory during the testing and the trials. When it looks like all is lost, we are never lost; when it looks like we have been forsaken, we are always safe and secure. In the light of God's judgment, their must always be worship; we cannot truly worship God the way that we should without considering His judgment, because His judgment is always full of mercy. That is truth, and that is why we walk humbly with our God, because we love mercy; and because we love mercy we must act justly; just because...

"Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But -"When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life."" (Titus 3:3-7) NLT