2009 – Day 136.May 17 – Who Am I?

2009 – Day 136.May 17 – Who Am I?

Passage of the Day: 2nd Samuel 7: 4 – 20… Link to 2nd Sam. 7 for study …

My Journal for Today: In today’s passage we read of a man taking stock of his life. God has let him know that it will not be David who will build the Lord’s Temple; and he comes back to God, basically asking the question, “Who is this David, Lord?” And as Swindoll rightfully points out, the language David uses to converse with God is almost like a child; because it is children who refer to themselves by their own name to their parents, before growing and later in life using self-directed pronouns.

So, we read David asking “Who am I?” to God. And in doing so, he does a self inventory which leads David to count his blessings. If I were to ask God today, “Who am I” … what would I see in my life as it has been cast by God? What would my life look like? And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing today as I meditate on what David asked of God.

Maybe you’d be asking “Who am I” that God would give me life when the lives of others are snuffed out by tornados or tsunamis? Maybe you’d say, “Who am I that God would allow me to have a regular income when others are struggling so much financially?” Who am I that I drive over the speed limit and I don’t get fined when others do? And we could go on and on and on, couldn’t we?

Do we really stop long enough or often enough to realize just how blessed we are? Do we really appreciate the truth of Lamentations 3: 22,-23 [linked], which says that God’s mercies are new every day. As I sit here this morning, I realize that for what I’ve done in my past, I could be an ex-con; … but I’m not. I correspond with a young man in prison who is now labeled by his state as having committed a sex crime; and yet, here I sit on the outside when I have committed what my state labels as sex-crimes in my past. I am an Elder in my church and an ordained minister, leading a ministry for God’s kingdom; and my young brother in Christ languishes in prison. Who am I to receive such mercy when my young friend has not?

It is no wonder that David lamented where he was in life and who he had become? And this study today helps us [well, at least me] see that God can use each of us for His glory in different ways and in different places in life. I don’t know why God has put me here and my young brother in Christ in prison. But now that we are what we are, where we are, and whom we are, it behooves us to grow where we’re planted and to be used for God’s glory, going just where He leads us and being just whom we have been molded to become.

I am the clay, God is the potter? May this cracked pot be used for His glory?

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I am so blessed; and even if I can’t build Your temple, may I be Your servant as You call me to be. Amen