God Does Not Despise Weakness — Carter Conlon

For those that are joining us for our very first ever live broadcast. In the event that we face a situation where there's difficulty in our day, our city, and we're not able to get together to mutually worship God, there will still be an obvious method that God's given us where we can make contact with each other and encourage one another.

I think it's so important for us to stay in touch with each other as these days are beginning to unfold before us, and we're not living in a state of constant dread or anything like that, but you and I know that difficult things can happen, and they can happen rather quickly.

We need to be prepared for that, and we need to be able to get in touch with each other and to encourage one another, and that's what this emergency broadcast devotional is all about. We'll make every effort to be able to stay in touch with you from various locations, both here at the church on Broadway and 51st, also in New Jersey, and also from Pennsylvania.

So we appreciate you taking the time to be with us today. I want to give you a word of encouragement from the Lord. We'll be doing this once a month, just so that you and I can both get familiar with what needs to be done for this to be able to be done effectively.

God Knows Every Detail of Our Lives

Psalm 139 is an incredible psalm. I've been reading it this morning, and I trust that it will bring gladness to your heart. Listen to what David the psalmist says. I'm going to read it. I'm going to have to look down and read a little bit of it.

He says, Oh, Lord, you've searched me, and you've known me. In other words, God, you know everything about me, and that can be comforting, and it can also be somewhat uncomforting at times. And when you and I realize that there's nothing hidden from God whatsoever.

God Is Present in Our Ordinary and Difficult Moments

He says, You know my down sitting and my uprising, and you understand my thought afar off. You see me when I'm in motion. You see me when I'm still. You see me when I think that you don't, and you know everything, David said, that I'm thinking.

You encompass my path and my lying down, and you're acquainted with all my ways. God, you know everything about me. When I'm at work or looking for work throughout the day, and when I'm at home, when I'm seemingly in a position of being quiet or lying down for the night, you're still there.

You're still sitting with me. You've not lost sight of me. And he says in verse 4, he says,. There's not even a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, you know it altogether. In other words, you know me so intimately that you even know what I'm thinking before I say it.

God Does Not Despise Our Weakness

Now, that's an incredible thought about God. He says in verse 5,. You've beset me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. He said, You know everything about me. You know all that I'm struggling with.

You know every thought of my heart. You know my strengths and my weaknesses. You know my frailties. You know my fears. You know everything. There's nothing hidden from you. But then David says,. But then you've still laid your hand upon me.

In other words, you've touched me with your presence. You've decided to walk with me. You've decided to use my life for your glory and for your good. And David says, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It is high. I cannot attain to it. God, I can hardly lay hold of this, the fact that you see everything about me, and yet you still love me. You still walk with me. You still touch me with your hand, and you call me to be a partaker of the wonderful work that you're doing in the earth, in spite of my weakness and my frailty.

God's Everlasting Presence and Guidance

Then he says these words in verse 7 and on. He said, Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. He said, If I have a real good day, you're with me.

And if I have a real bad day, you're with me. If I'm walking right where I should be with you, and I'm walking where I shouldn't be, I've taken a course throughout my day or my week or month that really is not your best for my life, but even there, he says, you will lead me.

You won't forsake me. And your right hand, that means the hand of your strength and power, will hold me. How precious, David says, are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I could count them, they're more in number than the sand.

And when I'm awake, I'm still with you. In other words, God Almighty, in spite of all of the frailty of my life, you love me. Your hand is on me. You're with me. You're guiding me. Think about this. Those that are going through difficulty in the midst of your day right now, those that have snuck away to listen to these words and you're not having a real good day in your home or in your workplace, but he says, not only is your hand on me, he said, but you're thinking thoughts towards me that are so numerous, thoughts of good, as Jeremiah says, and not of evil, thoughts to bring me to the desired place that you would have me to be, and where deep in my heart I want to be as well.

And he says they're more in number than the sand. And even if I lose heart, even if I go to bed at night and I lay my head on the pillow feeling like an abject failure, he said, when I'm awake, I'm still with you.

Or, in other words, you're still with me. We're not parted because of my weakness. Surely, he says, you will slay the wicked, O God. Therefore, depart from me, you bloody men. In other words, David is saying, get away from me, every lying voice, trying to tell me that I have failed God and trying to tell me that God is not pleased with me, trying to tell me that somehow God's not going to walk with me and he's not going to work through my life.

He says, get away from me, you lying voices. I've seen something of God. I've understood something of God that he doesn't call me because I'm strong. He called me because I was weak. He doesn't walk with me because I have it all together.

He walks with me because it's his choice, first, before it was ever mine. He loves me with an everlasting love and he will never fail me and he will not forsake me. And then he says something phenomenal at the end of this psalm.

Asking God to Search and Lead Us

He says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. David had come to the point with this understanding.

He wasn't afraid for the searching of God. He says, O God, if I am that secure in your hand, then, Lord, search me. Help me to walk away from what I shouldn't be walking with and to stop doing what I'm doing and to start doing what you've called me to do.

Help me to acknowledge your hand on me and that your thoughts towards me are good. Deliver me from the voice of the condemner and let me hear the tenderness of the voice of God that says, this is the way, walk ye in it.

Standing Firm Against Condemnation

We're going to have to learn to fight on this level in the coming days. There are going to be myriads of voices coming against the church of Jesus Christ trying to destroy you and trying to take away your confidence in a holy God.

But Christ is willing to show you the depth of his love, everyone who has an honest heart. And so if you have an honest heart today, I want to tell you to be encouraged in God. Be strong. He will not fail you.

He will not forsake you. No matter where you are, what you have to go through or what kind of days await us, he's already there. He already knows the way through. His hand is already on you. He will not forsake you and he promises to bring you through.

Prayer for Strength and Grace

Now, Father, I pray, God, for everyone who's listening today that this devotional be a time of strengthening a time where your grace and the touch of your hand comes and gives strength that only you can give.

For those that have had a hard day, Lord, I pray from this moment forward that this would be a better day. A day where we live by the understanding of who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us. God bless you.

Thank you for taking the time to join with this devotional today. In a month from now, we'll let you know again when we're going to do the same. God bless you.