Thank You For Slapping Me...

This year one Psalm has repeatedly shown up in devotionals, sermons, and quiet times.  It is Psalm 141 and it has encouraged and strengthened me.  I'd like to point out just a few of the verses that have impacted me enough to make this my daily prayer.

The first is Vs. 3 & 4:
    “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart        incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity,          and let me not eat of their delicacies!” (Psalm 141:3–4, ESV)

For me it is extremely important that God watches over the door of my mouth.  For starters, I am around my little girl all day and I want to make sure that I don't say anything bad around her.  However, this goes far beyond my vocabulary.  It goes to the content and emotion in which these words are spoken.  It is a prayer to keep my anger in check, to make what I say count, and to ensure that it edifies her and others around me.

The second is verse 5:

   “Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it. Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds.” (Psalm 141:5, ESV)  

This is basically stating: Lord if I mess up smack me...I would greatly appreciate it.  

Now why am I appreciating someone calling me out in sin?  It is because if my brothers and sisters in Christ don't confront sin in my life than I will most likely continue on in it and damage my witness for and relationship with Jesus.  So I pray that if you see me in sin, you will, metaphorically, give me a hard and loving smack across the face.  Don't be afraid of my reaction, be afraid of what God will say/do because of your condoning sin.
**Disclaimer: Don't go up to random people on the street or even in church and call out their sin.  This is something that should follow Matthew 18:15-20**

The last is verse 8:

   “But my eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless!”            (Psalm 141:8, ESV)  

Lastly, I am putting my focus on God and asking Him to be my defender.  I mean, seriously, who better to have your back than God!?  Because I fix my eyes on Jesus every morning, I hope that the smackdowns are few are far apart.  But when they do come I will thankful for them bringing me back onto His path.

I would encourage you to make the entirety of Psalm 141 your prayer for a week and see how it affects your daily life.


And lastly our humor corner:

The video below is from the movie The Blues Brothers.  Warning it does have foul language to prove a point in a comical fashion.  Please bypass if you are worried that this will offend you.