Michelle continues her quest to discover keys to Revival in Psalm 119 reading verses 161-68 in the Passion Translation. Today, we'll look at the question: “What Do I Have My Heart Set On?" As we read, we'll discover the key of longing or hunger for more. A longing or hunger and desire to go deep into God’s Word leads us to discover both His love and His power in a way that compels you to change and live only for Him.

Show Transcript:

You are listening to the Blooming Inspired Podcast on the Blooming Inspired Podcast Network. We exist to empower the voices of women who live their lives #BloomingAlive through Podcast Community. Now, here is your host.

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Introduction

Good Morning! This is Michelle Bentham, host of Blooming Inspired Podcast. It’s been a while since I’ve shared a new episode in our Revival Series. God has been impressing upon me that next year is going to require stewardship of rest and the health of my body. I’ve taken a few weeks to get my mind and heart in a place of rest, and now I’m working on getting health to my bones. I’ll be wrapping up our Revival Series as we conclude our reading of Psalm 119 next week. I have a few things stirring in my heart around recent events related to women in ministry that I will be bringing to you in the coming weeks. I also plan to feature some of my favorite podcasters’ shows in November and December, including an interview I did with Jayme Hull, an author and speaker who is passionate about face to face mentoring with Millenials. Be looking for that show to air in two weeks.

This week we are going to be reading from Psalm 119:161-168 in the Passion Translation - so go ahead and grab your Bible and let’s get ready to read by reviewing what we covered last time.

Review

In our last episode, we read verses 153-160 as we continued to discover keys to revival. In our last reading, we discovered the Key of God’s Loving-Kindness, that when we cry out to Him in our weariness and the difficulties we face as we serve Him, that He will breathe life into us again! Isn’t that the heart of revival?

As we read through verses 161-168 today, I want you to ask yourself, “What Do I Have My Heart Set On?” Are you devoted to God’s Word, meaning you read the Scriptures and try to do what they say… Or, Are you devoted to God’s Son, trusting His promises as revealed to you in the Scriptures and living out of your relationship with Him. Jesus is the final and fullest expression of who God is to us. When we say God’s Word these days we often think of a book, but when Scripture refers to God’s Word… It is often talking about Jesus.

This Week’s Reading

So Now Let’s Pray, Father God, I ask that you would give each person within the sound of my voice an encounter with You, Your Son and the Holy Spirit this morning as we read Your words of life together. Impart the truth of who You are to our hearts, minds, souls and bodies today - we ask for Holy Spirit revelation to open our eyes to the way You see, open our ears to hear Your majestic voice, and open our hearts to know Your heart in intimacy and truth. I thank you that when we believe in Christ, we are hidden in Him and His blessings. Remind us of these truths as we read today and make them real for us! I ask these things in Jesus’ Holy Name, AMEN.

The heading for today’s reading is, “Devoted to God’s Word”

Verse 161: The powerful elite have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart trembles in awe because of your miracle-words. When you read the Scriptures seeking God’s heart… Does your heart tremble in awe at the miraculous way God’s Spirit and His Truth speak to you? When the persecution of a friend or spiritual leader in your church comes how do you respond? You see, the powerful elite are not God, whether they are of the government in a legal sense or of the governing body of your church. Scripture commends us to submit to godly leadership based in Biblical principles, but spiritual abuse comes from the person - not from God.

It has become a slippery slope in recent years, all this painful reality being exposed in #MeToo and #ChurchToo, I have my own #MeToo story that has nothing to do with the church, but that doesn’t mean I’ve not been spiritually abused. You see for women in, especially evangelical, church settings,it is considered Biblical to introduce a woman to “her place” while giving a man a title and paycheck worthy of a pastor and giving a woman the title of director and a paycheck that is only a small percentage of what they offer the man.

Not to mention what happens to a pastor’s wife if he should die while in the pastorate. Many times it means not only a loss of love and comfort, but a loss of income, insurance and even the home if the pastor’s family was afforded a parsonage. And the church leaders, often men, will come and say we can help you a few months but then - figure it out. You may not see this as persecution, oh, but it is. It is spiritual abuse and spiritual abuse is a form of persecution without cause.

Yet, as we see the Psalmist in this passage, crying out to God in the season of persecution we see his heart turn to God’s miracle words which cause his heart to tremble in awe before the Lord. I think of the end of the book of Luke when the two disciples realize they are talking to Jesus they reflect, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as He talked with us along the road…”

I want to ask you when life closes in and the season is dark, do you turn to the Scriptures and find Jesus speaking to you, causing the awe and tremble of a heart burning within you to devote yourself to Him no matter what you face?

Verse 162: Your promises are the source of my bubbling joy; the revelation of your word thrills me When was the last time you reflected on the promises of God in Scripture and they gave you JOY? Scripture tells us joy is the promised reward for those who suffer grief and loss, and even in persecution there is a loss of expectation and a grief over missed opportunities or lost relationships. But, God’s promises bring us bubbling over joy - joy that becomes strength as we immerse ourselves in His word and allow it to thrill and delight us - even when we face devastating circumstances.

Verse 163: I despise every lie and hate every falsehood, for I am passionate about keeping your precepts. Jesus said that Satan is the Father of Lies. Meaning all falsehood and deception comes from Satan, himself, and if you believe and live by lies then you are agreeing and aligning yourself with the enemy of God. An enemy that God says over and over again that He hates. He hates lies and falsehood because they damage relationships and hurt people. He hates lies because He, Himself, is Truth - all truth comes from him. Committing ourselves to His precepts breaks any alignment with lies and deception, and removes the enemy’s power to work in our lives and destroy us.

Paul writes in the book of Romans that Satan veils the eyes of those who are perishing so they may not see the truth. And, yet the good news is that the Truth of God, the Scriptures and who He is, will uproot and destroy the lies of Satan if we focus on it. Replacing the lies life has taught me - whether by persecution, experience, the enemy’s whispers to me in my weakness, or that I’ve told so myself - with God’s eternal and unchanging truth sets me free from not only the enemy’s hold on my life, but also sets me free to be fully who He designed and paid a price for me to be. When His truth becomes my passion I can say like the traditional hymn, “Though none go with me. Still, I will follow. No turning back.”

Verse 164: I stop to praise you seven times a day, all because your ways are perfect! This verse just makes me giddy… The Psalmist mentions praising God seven times a day - every time I eat something, when I wake and when I lay down to sleep - my heart rejoices in the Lord. But also, because it says all God’s ways are perfect. Did you know that? All God’s ways are perfect! And that number 7, it is the perfect number of creative completion as the Lord created the earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th. When my heart rests perfectly in Him, my life is full of peace and full of praise for the one who made it so.

Verse 165: There is such a great peace and well-being that comes to the lovers of your word, and they will never be offended. A few years ago, I heard a teacher talking about living life “UNOFFENDED.” I hit pause on that word as he explained he lived by the law of love and grace and chose not to get offended by people and circumstances. And here is this word - 1) that affirms my conclusion from the last verse and 2) affirms this word about living unoffended. You see, if the Bible truly is God’s mind revealed to man, and we become transformed by taking on the mind of Christ in our lives - then the result loving God’s Word (Jesus) by reading the Scriptures will not only allow us to realize God’s peace, which passes our ability to understand, but also to overcome offense and the wounds that life offers us along the path home. Jesus withstood great persecution, accusation and pain -- They killed Him. And yet He forgave, He laid His life down for the very ones who called for the government leaders to end it. This is the life unoffended, this the life of a transformed heart - and it comes first from loving Jesus and then by living according to His words.

Verse 166: Lord, I’m longing for more of your salvation, for I want to do what pleases you. As one whose lived a lot of my life squandering my resources and my time in wild living, then in just really unhealthy relationships, thought and behavior patterns I realize that the Lord’s salvation is my only hope - ever - and His salvation sanctifies, purifies and transforms me from the inside out so that my life becomes a pleasing sacrifice laid out before Him, one drawn up in wells of obedience born of faith and trust in the One who saved me.

Verse167: My love for your ways is indescribable; in my innermost being I want to follow them perfectly! Once again the Psalmist confirms my conclusion from the last verse we read. That when I long for more of God’s salvation in my life it stirs a love and passion for me that is beyond description. Have you ever had an encounter with God you found hard to put into words? I have. I can’t explain exactly what happened but all I know is that after the encounter I WAS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. It felt like some part of the old me had been removed and a new part had been given in its place. A fresh new part. This is what I believe it means to have a new heart and a new mind. When the innermost part of your being wants to follow God perfectly.

This is a Key to Revival - a longing or hunger for more. A desire to go deep into God’s Word, and know both His love and His power in a way that compels you to change and live only for Him.

Verse 168: I will keep your instructions and follow your counsel; all my ways are an open book before you. I remember a time in my life when I first began to pursue Scripture and God’s will in my life. I had been saved at age 12, meaning I knew my destination after life on earth was Heaven because Jesus was my savior who paid the price for my sins, but I did not know Him as Lord quite yet. I believe this is what Paul means when he says that people are saved as ones escaping flames. They get the benefit of heaven, but no transformation in life on earth.

I would study Scripture for hours.. I would wrestle with His words and my actions. I would lay in the floor weeping in repentance. I would cry out for more, longing to know Him in intimacy and friendship. But, there was that whole life between salvation and when I began to pursue Him… Some 18 years… Where I had locked up my skeletons in a padlocked closet in my mind and didn’t want to expose them to anyone, even God. Have you ever thought you were keeping something from God by not confessing it to Him? Honey, He already knows.

I had to lay my life out like an open book before Him and trust Him with all the bad choices I made alongside the good ones. And the truth is… He redeems it all for His glory. Both my human good (filthy rags) and my human bad (sin) - God redeems them and exchanges them for a crown of life that bring Him glory. Let’s do as Psalm 5 exhorts us, lay our lives out before Him every single morning and let His fire fall on our hearts, consuming what doesn’t look like Him and refining the parts that do.

Closing Remarks

That's all the time that I have today! Thank you for tuning in with us. I want to ask you if this podcast has been a blessing to you: would you consider subscribing to it and share it with your friends and family? We’d love to partner with you in sharing messages that encourage and inspire.

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BIBLE STUDY SEASON IS UPON US! We began our The Gospels: Verse-By-Verse Bible Study in October. We will resume this Saturday, in person (Granbury, TX) and on Facebook Live at 10 am (Central Time). That’s right - This season our study is found in the book of Luke. We read the first 80 verses in October and will pick up in Chapter Two next week. You can learn more and catch up on last week’s study by visiting facebook.com/bloominginspired.

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Psalm 119:161-168 The Passion Translation (TPT)

Devoted to God’s Word

161 The powerful elite have persecuted me without a cause,

but my heart trembles in awe because of your miracle-words.

162 Your promises are the source of my bubbling joy;

the revelation of your word thrills me

like one who has discovered hidden treasure.

163 I despise every lie and hate every falsehood,

for I am passionate about keeping your precepts.

164 I stop to praise you seven times a day,

all because your ways are perfect!

165 There is such a great peace and well-being that comes

to the lovers of your word, and they will never be offended.

166 Lord, I’m longing for more of your salvation,

for I want to do what pleases you.

167 My love for your ways is indescribable;

in my innermost being I want to follow them perfectly!

168 I will keep your instructions and follow your counsel;

all my ways are an open book before you.

The Passion Translation (TPT)

The Passion Translation®. Copyright © 2017 by BroadStreet Publishing® Group, LLC.

Used by permission. All rights reserved. thePassionTranslation.com