O Lord

Hear, O Lord, have mercy and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper! You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; You have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, to the end that my tongue and my heart and everything glorious within me may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever. Psalm 30:10-11 AMP

For me, these three verses describe the process of drawing closer to God and understanding more of His love for us. Let's have a closer look at them.

Firstly, we find ourselves in that place of desperation, with only one option left - God. We cry out to Him - it may be a whisper, it may be a scream.

Hear, O Lord, have mercy and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper. Psalm 30:10 AMP

As I am writing this, my ipod shuffle is playing the Hillsong worship song, I surrender!  Yet another reminder from the Holy Spirit, that He wants us to always let God have His way in our lives. To let Him really be Lord of our lives.

Once we call out and surrender, then can God do the work in our heart. He can make changes in us. 

You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; You have put off my sackcloth and girded my with gladness. Psalm 30:11 AMP


God helps us to see His perspective. Even (or maybe especially) when our circumstances don't change, He changes the way we view our circumstances and the way we view other people in our lives. The Message Bible puts it this way,

You did it; you changed wild lament into whirling dance; You ripped off my black mourning band and decked me with wildflowers. Psalm 30:11 The Message

And when that change takes place, freedom comes. Freedom to be, freedom to live and freedom to love. Every part of your being does want to praise God as you get this greater revelation of His love and grace towards us.

To the end that my tongue and my heart and everything glorious within me may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever. Psalm 30:12 AMP

So we find ourselves in a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father - exactly where He wants us to be. Our hearts have a little more understanding that we cannot live fully unless we live His way and let Him indeed be Lord of our lives.

And what's more, every time we go through this process of surrendering, letting Him change our hearts, praising and thanking Him, our relationship goes deeper still. Our revelation grows. We are able to receive more of God's love for us. Gratitude is continually on our lips.

I'm about to burst with song; I can't keep quiet about you. GOD, my God, I can't thank you enough.
Psalm 30:12 The Message

Question for today, Are you in the middle of this process right now? I think if our relationship with God is growing, we will always be somewhere in this process - either surrendering, letting Him change us and praising Him. So let's not be afraid to be in this process, let's embrace it, and let God do His good work in us.

I, Simon Peter, am a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ. I write this to you whose experience with God is as life-changing as ours, all due to our God's straight dealing and the intervention of our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace to you may times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master.
2 Peter 1:1-2 The Message