1 My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
2 But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
3 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore. Psalms131:1-3
Sometimes Penitence means "Slow Down" or "Simplify".
We get so busy - even in our relationship with God.
We try to impress Him with our good deeds and efforts.
We try to wrap our heads around His greatness and try to understand all He does in the world.
We pray, fast, read our Bibles, go to church, and tell others about Him.
Did you notice the first word in each of the above sentences?
David uses a powerful analogy: An UNweaned baby cries when it is hungry, because it is not sure that the food will come. A weaned child has learned to trust Mom to provide a meal - even if it is not served _immediately_.
Oft times we are guilty of trying to be in control of our relationship with God. (Think about how nonsensical that is: us trying to be god over the Almighty.) But David warns us against this kind of pride.
We won't always be in complete control - we won't always have all the answers. We don't have to do all the talking and we don't have to understand everything. We have to grow up from being the insecure and demanding baby to the trusting child who has learned from experience that God is faithful.
Penitence means slowing down, simplifying and coming to a place of saying: "I trust You Lord. I don't have all the details. I don't know all the answers. I know I am not God so I'm putting my hope in You."
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
