Make God Your Portion Psalms 73:24-26 1 Kings 4:29 Psalms 18:19 Deuteronomy 33:26-27 Psalms 16:1-2 Proverbs 18:10 Isaiah 40:28-31 Philippians 3:7-11 Psalms 18:1-2 Lamentations 3:21-24 Psalms 31:14-15 Jonah 2:8 09.28.20

 

MAKE GOD YOUR PORTION

BREAD

²⁴ You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. ²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?  And earth has nothing I desire besides you. ²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  Psalms 73:24-26 (NIV)

 

²⁹ God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore.  1 Kings 4:29 (NIV)

 

¹⁹ He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.  Psalms 18:19 (NIV)

 

²⁶ “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty. ²⁷ The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33:26-27 (NIV)

 

¹ Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.  ² I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”  Psalms 16:1-2 (NIV)

 

¹⁰ The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10 (NIV)

 

²⁸ Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. ²⁹ He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  ³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; ³¹ but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.  Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV)

 

⁷ But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.  Philippians 3:7-11 (NIV)

 

¹ I love you, O LORD, my strength.  ² The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.  He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  Psalms 18:1-2 (NIV)

 

²¹ Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: ²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  ²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ²⁴ I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” Lamentations 3:21-24 (NIV)

 

¹⁴ But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.”  ¹⁵ My times are in your hands.  Psalms 31:14-15 (NIV)

 

⁸ “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”  Jonah 2:8 (NIV)

 

BUTTER

“Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that an invisible hand is always on the world’s tiller, and that wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, ‘It is I, be not afraid.’ He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, ‘If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it.’ ‘We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.’ The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that He governs wisely, that He brings good out of evil, the believer’s heart is assured, and he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit of true resignation pray, ‘Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes from Thee; never came there an ill portion from Thy table to any of Thy children.’”   C. H. Spurgeon

“Martin Luther wrote in his book, Table Talk:  ‘The greater God’s gifts and works, the less they are regarded.’  We tend to exhibit a degree of thanksgiving in reverse proportion to the amount of blessings we’ve received.  A hungry man is more thankful for his morsel than a rich man for his heavily-laden table.  A lonely woman in a nursing home will appreciate a visit more than a popular woman with a party thrown in her honor.  If the birds only burst into song once a year, we’d all pay close attention.  But because they are singing every morning, we scarcely bother to listen.”    Robert J. Morgan

“Live today.  Tomorrow we are not given.  Yesterday we cannot change.  Grace is given in exact proportion for the day and need we are in – never more or less - the right now and time of the moment - for every heir of mercy - just as manna was.  It will be there tomorrow – and worry will not get it there.  It is always bestowed by the gracious, faithful Hand of God.”  BHY 

“Even faithful people will go through the wilderness, even faithful people will have to surrender the most precious things.  Yet because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed. We are not consumed by our circumstances. We are not consumed by rejection. We are not consumed by cancer or divorce or infertility or trauma or abuse or anxiety or fear or even death. Because of His great love, we are not consumed.  We open our hands. We offer him the entire portion of Hard. Every last bit of it. Our anger, too? Yes, even our anger.  We say, ‘Here it is. All of it. It’s a horrible mess. I cannot do anything here that will make this better. So I’m opening up my hands and I’m giving you the whole tangle.’ And then we do it again. And again. And again.  A few times every hour, if needed. After all, His mercies are new, His compassions never fail. We choose to open our hands when what we’d rather do is clamp shut, protect, defend. We offer instead of hide.  This is the only way I know to make the journey.  You are held. It is all held. You are not lost. You are not broken. You are not disqualified. You are not sidelined. You are not silenced. You are not swallowed whole. You are held. Benevolently. Faithfully. Held.  There is always a hand reaching toward you.  There is always grace available. And there is always a chance to begin again.”   Leeana Tankersley

“When you have God for your portion, you have more than everything else put together. In Him every need is met, whether in life or in death. With God for your portion you are rich indeed, for He will supply your need, comfort your heart, relieve your grief, guide your steps, walk with you in the dark valley, and then take you home to enjoy Him as your portion forever.  ‘I have enough,’ said Esau; this is the best thing a worldly man can say, but Jacob replied in essence, ‘I have everything,’ which is a note too high for carnal minds.”   C. H. Spurgeon revised by Alistair Begg

“The world is our passage, not our portion.”  Matthew Henry

“Jesus knows the human heart. He made it, and then he took one himself when he became man. He knows, as both God and man, how to furnish courage to a fearful heart. He knows how to parcel joy to a sad heart. He is adept, and proven, at giving strength, in perfect portion, to a weak heart; peace to an anxious heart; forgiveness to a guilty heart; and wholeness to a broken heart.  And how does he choose, over and over again, to do so? He speaks. What would he have us do when our hearts are wilting? Rehear his words.”  David Mathis

“If the Lord calls you to suffering, do not be dismayed. For with it he will provide a deeper portion of Christ.”   Samuel Rutherford

“God carries His children through this world through a variety of conditions.  Sometimes we lack, and at other times we abound.  This allows our graces to be tested.  We will find that God’s love is stable, certain, and constant in a variety of conditions.  God does not change, and His love is constant however our lives might change.  We must learn not to quarrel with God’s government.  Let God do as He pleases as He brings us to heaven.  It is no matter what the way is like, or how rugged it is, as long as He brings us there.  God’s grace is able to carry His children above all conditions.  A man of grace is not overly dejected with abasement or overly lifted up in abundance, but carries himself in a uniform manner.  He is able to abound or lack without yielding to the temptations of those estates.  He can abound without pride and lack without impatience.  God is His portion…Those that are not brought up in Christ’s school are not able to do this.  If they abound, they are proud, and if they are cast down, they murmur, fret and are dejected, as if there were no providence to rule the world.  This is the excellency of a Christian; he has learned to abound and lack without being trapped by their snares.”  Richard Sibbs

HEART SAVOR

·         God’s children lack no good thing.

·         When God is your strength and portion you have all that you need.

·         “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight.”  Proverbs 3:5-6