Third Week of Lent ~ Wednesday

​Love those who hate you and do good to those who persecute you...

Jesus always delivered a message counter culturally, opposite of what is comfortable. He opposed the religious action to fight for the win but rather to take second place in order to display the value of the kingdom - the value of love, of seeking out the good in others, of lifting others up, of kindness.

- Read Psalm 109

I think the Message Translation is the best translation for this passage.

- Devotional Thought

​In the psalms, we see the Psalmist fighting for God to see Him, to fight for him. We see him desperately wanting the Lord to acknowledge when he lifts his praise and for the Lord to come in and renew the struggle with peace.

We’ve all had the same struggle of wanting revenge over those who do wrong against us, sometimes it’s because of what we’ve done or who we are and sometimes it’s for no logical reason at all. But also like the psalmist, we know we can’t bring the ending we so desperately crave for ourselves or we’ll end up worse off than before - so we turn to God for His sovereign righteousness to reign over and above.

But this psalm also reminds me of when James and John asked Jesus to bring fires from the heavens down on those who were not with them. It leaves me with the question, is our so called righteous anger, the one where we involve God is saving us out of a situation so right after all of its not following Jesus’ demolition of the law “eye for an eye.” Are we not supposed to be the ones who rise above it all, who do not react for someone else’s belittlement, who model our Father who forgives, who loves despite of and who never cancels?

Let us not stop at the first part of this psalm in our own life. Let’s not linger on what went wrong, what was lost, who has hurt us, how we’ve been treated and let’s zone into the last section of this Psalm…. Where we take it all to the Lord. Every bit of it, good and bad, kind and nasty, life and death, blessing and cursing. We lift it to Him with our praise of hallelujah, knowing that He is the same God at His baptism as He was in the wilderness, the same god in the tomb as He was cooking fish on the beach.

He’s a God of life over death, rescue over losing, good over evil.

- Passage to focus on 

​“My God, don’t turn a deaf ear to my hallelujah prayer. Liars are pouring out invective on me; Their lying tongues are like a pack of dogs out to get me, barking their hate, nipping my heels—and for no reason! I loved them and now they slander me—yes, me!— and treat my prayer like a crime; They return my good with evil, they return my love with hate.

My mouth’s full of great praise for God, I’m singing his hallelujahs surrounded by crowds, For he’s always at hand to take the side of the needy, to rescue a life from the unjust judge.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭109‬:‭1‬-‭5‬, ‭30‬-‭31‬ ‭MSG‬‬

- Image for today 

Even when the clouds (spiritual, emotional, mental, physical) surround me, my prais ca still rise colourfully and joyfully because God is always there to receive our praise.

- Prayer 

​Lord God,

Thank you for your arms open wide that you always receive us with. Thank you that in these times of wondering how to respond, how to react, what to say or not say, you are there waiting to receive us and guide us in our action. We lift our hallelujah to you regardless of what we see or who we see around us.

Thank you that you are above and beyond anything we are facing.

We thank our for always being good to us.

- Active idea

​Spend some time thinking of someone who has mistreated you despite how you’ve treated them, how can you still show kindness to them? What could you say or do to relay God's love to them again and again as He has show love to you again and again?

Thank you for joining me today! Hope to see you again soon!

Have a blessed Lent

~ X ~