Each day this year I’m using  Tim Keller’s daily devotions on the psalms, called My Rock My Refuge as part of my prayers. It’s short and simple and I thoroughly recommend it! Here’s today’s entry, which is really helpful on sharing faith.

READ Psalm 47:1-3   1 Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. 2 For the Lord God is awesome, the great King over all the earth. 3 He subdued nations under us, the people under our feet.

THE JOY OF SUBMISSION. God is the powerful King of the whole earth and is subduing people to his rule. But because God is the rightful King – the one we were created to know, serve and love – the result of his conquest of their hearts is joy. They clap their hands because of his rule over them (verse 1). God is the fuel that our souls were designed to run on. So the greater the submission to the true King, the greater the pleasure. Rather than thinking of ourselves as an embattled political minority or persecuted underdogs, Christians should be so overflowing with the joy of our salvation that we feel the privilege of singing his praises to those who do not know him.

Prayer: Lord, “sharing my faith” feels like a threatening duty, but it should not be that. If I urge people to believe in you, I am summoning them into joy. I should not do such a thing with a long face. Open my lips, that my mouth can speak your praise with winsomeness. Amen.

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