Pour Forth Praise

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise.

Psalm 51:12-17

You cannot heal your own heart. You have to invite God to heal it for you.

God heals you so that you can tell others about God’s healing powers. God does not desire any offering you could bring Him; He wants your broken and contrite heart as it is. God delivers and God saves; he holds the broken heart together and fills it with righteousness by His generous Spirit. When you open your lips, you will pour forth praise because your inward parts are filled with His goodness. You cannot mend the heart sack that holds God's presence. God mends your heart sack and then God fills it with His glory so that when you open your mouth praise flows out of you. When the joy of God’s salvation is restored to you, you will want to teach transgressors about God and say to sinners the Lord is salvation. Only God converts sinners, but you tell others about His salvation, not because it is your duty being saved, but because God’s life and love flow out of you as you are filled with Him.

Everyone has a relationship with Jesus.

You will either have a good relationship with Jesus or a bad one. You will either come to Him with your wounds, knowing that he may pour hydrogen peroxide on them to heal them, or you will pull away from His healing touch. You decide how badly you want to be healed or how badly you don’t want to go through the pain of healing. Pulling away from the pain of healing will only make it worse but you have the option of doing that. Everyone has a relationship with Jesus, they either lean into His healing or pull away from His healing touch. You cannot heal yourself, but you can decide whether you want to be healed or not, whether you want to go through the pain of exposing your sin to a holy God or run away and allow the festering wound of sin to consume you. What kind of relationship do you have with Jesus, a good one or a bad one?

The fear of failure is the opposite of the fear of God.

If you fear God and bring your heart broken and contrite to  Him, you cannot fail. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31b). If you’re living in a constant fear of failure, then you are trusting your own abilities to deliver you instead of trusting God. Only God can deliver you from guilt, and only God is worthy of all praise, so come just as you are and bring a sacrifice of praise that God will fill your mouth with when you simply open your lips. The fear of God will lead you into a good relationship with Jesus. Let your relationship with Jesus heal you as you allow Him to cleanse the wounds in your life.