The Lord Is My Portion

Adapted from www.christian.com

A man goes into his workshop to produce a piece of magnificent furniture; but the electrical power has been shut down as the result of a thunderstorm. He possesses every conceivable power tool, and begins to try to fabricate and construct his creation. He takes the blade of the circular saw and tries to spin it in order to cut through the pieces of wood. He rotates the chuck of the drill to produce sufficient revolutions per minute in order to create the holes necessary to allowing fastening of the pieces of his project together. He spins the mechanism of the lathe in order to shape the legs of the table that he envisions. But all of his efforts are futile: he doesn’t have sufficient strength or facility to produce the speed of blade or bit or cutter to do the work he purposes. However, as soon as the electrical power is restored, every tool comes alive with potential to accomplish the tasks that he was unable to do in his own strength.

How like that man are we when we deny God’s strength, and attempt to accomplish life goals in our own power.

How weak man is when compared to the magnificence of God; how powerless when compared to the infinite strength of God. And how unlike ours is God’s willingness to share His power.

The Lord is my portion means that one can fulfill his commission to subdue the earth­ – but only in the delegated power of his creator.

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Notice that Paul doesn’t say all “religious things.” Nor does Paul say “some things.” He says, inspired by the Holy Spirit, “all things.” Every component of our lives, every action that we are commended to take, every thought, every emotion, every action can be submitted to and then equipped by the power of God.

It will never be: “I can do all things through ME who strengthens me – that is a formula for disaster. But, in His power, I can do all things He calls and equips me to do because: The Lord is my portion!

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” (Lamentations 3:24)

John in his Revelation gives us an inspired picture of the physicality of Heaven: streets of gold, structures of precious stones, crystal rivers, bounteous trees, visible angels – and encompassing all, the brilliant glory of God.

Our physical being will experience sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches that earth’s experience can only anticipate. Our soulish being will experience intellectual understandings and emotional jubilation that earth’s experience can only approximate. Our spiritual being will experience a oneness with our Creator God that earth’s experience can only await. We will be overwhelmed by God!

In reality, we cannot even begin to imagine the glories of eternity with our Father who loves us, with our Savior who sacrificed for us, with the Holy Spirit who inhabits us. We can only possess a feeble approximation of what a limited mind and experience can assume. God’s Word in Lamentations gives us a picture, however, that can amplify that approximation while experiencing the limitations of this earthly existence. . . . “The Lord is my portion.”Shropshire, Richard J., Ph.D., adapted from The Lord Is My Portion, 2003. Used by Special Permission.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning, new every morning.
Great is thy faithfulness O Lord,
Great is thy faithfulness."