You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you

I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

-Psalm 16:2 (ESV)

Photo: Pixabay

This is a word of dedication.  What or who are we dedicated to?  We dedicate and re-dedicate our selves and our lives to the Lord.

Christ the Lord is alive and his presence is with us as Christians.  He dwells in and among us, and in our Christian homes.  But there is a dynamic where we must practice his presence, as Brother Lawrence, in his book writes about.

Each day, we can sacramentalize the day, by invocation and dedication.  We are already made holy and set apart by God in Christ.  The question is, will we seek to walk in that?

The presence of Christ is part of the normal Christian life.  Religions and religious activity is when you only go somewhere to seek God, appease God, or worship God.  In Christianity, Christ is in you and walks with you everywhere you go and wants to be present in your home.

To forget the Lord all week, except at church and in your devotional or prayer times or at your small group, is to completely miss out on the life he wants you to have.  The life of Christ is, "hidden in plain site".  He is available and present at your home and with you every where you go.  We just have to be aware of him.

We deliberately say, "You are my Lord.  Apart from you, I have nothing good."

God wants me and you to understand, believe, and agree that He is Lord.  Lord means master, king, and the one I bow to.  He is Lord over everything in my life.  I have made him Lord and I continue to make him Lord.  I dedicate and rededicate myself to that solemn belief, "You are Lord".

Do I believe that I can do good outside of the Lord?  No.  Since he is my Lord, all I have is his and all I have is from him.  Any good I can do is through him.

The stuff that I take part in that is not in him is not good.  What he is involved in, where his presence is in my life is where good is.  I want his presence in and with me always, so that he is there in everything I have and take part in.

When I say, "Apart from you, I have nothing good", I am reminding myself that, "if he is not in it, it is not good".  And I don't want to be involved in things that are apart from him and not good.

Christianity is life in Christ, and life in Christ is not legalism and sin management.  Life in Christ is walking with Christ, learning to walk in Christ.  Like newborn babies, newborn Christians can not walk, but need to be held, nursed, and changed.

But that is a period of time which transitions to 'toddling', when people learn to walk.  Then, children learn balance, and so forth.  We learn to walk in and with Christ.

The walk and the life is the road of the Christian life, on which we learn as disciples.  It is an intentional thing.  We must continually exercise or will to walk.

Salvation is an event and a process.  We work out what he works in.  We continually exercise faith.

There is a paradox involved in that salvation is wholly his job, but it only works if we cooperate.  Sanctification and discipleship only work or take affect, when we cooperate.  We must willingly take up our crosses and willingly die to our selves.  We must willingly give up all to follow him.

When we say, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you", solemnly, sincerely, and truly; it sets the stage for the Lord to move in your life.  If the Lord is not doing things in your life, it may be because you are not allowing him to be Lord.

And the scariest verse in the NT is perhaps where Jesus remarks about the ones who say, "Lord, Lord", but he never knew them.  We can vainly say, "Lord", while not making him Lord.  We can have doctrine and believe we are saved, but not walk with him.

Dedicate your self to the Lord.  Live in and walk in the reality of his presence.  Live in his life, where he does good.  Let him into your thoughts.  Let him into your pain, loneliness, and fear.