Gather
My Godly Ones to Me
Psalms 50 speaks of the harvest when
the saints will be gathered. How I look forward to that day! Yet, until then,
we walk a difficult path… a path of sacrifice. The saints who are gathered are
those who “have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice” (Psalms 50:5). Not the
sacrifice of animals (the Psalm goes on to explain), rather the sacrifice of our
own carnal nature. Psalm 50 concludes with these words: “He who offers a
sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; and to him who orders his way aright I
shall show the salvation of God” (Psalm 50:23). The apostle Peter said that since Christ has
suffered in the flesh, “arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who
has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the
time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God” (1
Peter 4:1-2). The apostle Paul encouraged the saints in his day to keep the
faith, for we go through troubles of all sorts to enter the kingdom (Acts
14:22). And in his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote, “present your bodies a
living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service
of worship. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which
is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2).” Dear Father, help us as we carry our own
cross to walk the difficult path of sacrifice into the kingdom. Help us to patiently
endure the trials of life, knowing that they are for our good – to refine us
and sanctify us. For it is through the narrow gate we must enter the kingdom.
Let us be among the few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
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