You have brought me close to death; I am almost in the dark place of the dead. You have been very angry with me; all Your waves crush me. You have taken my friends away from me and have made them hate me. I am trapped and cannot escape. My eyes are weak from crying. Lord, I have prayed to you every day; I have lifted my hands to You in prayer. Do You show Your miracles to the dead? Do their spirits rise up and praise You? (Verses 6-10)
Where can I go to get away from Your Spirit? Where can I run from You? If I go up to the heavens, You are there. If I lie down in the grave, You are there. If I rise with the sun in the east and settle in the west beyond the sea, even there You will guide me. With Your right hand, You hold me. Psalm 139
You ever notice how sometimes when a person asks you how you are they don't really want to know? Especially at church. Where we're all supposed to be fixed because we're, well, Christians. Perfected in Christ without the struggles of the common pagan. Eh-hem. Someone asked me not too long ago, when I asked, "How's your life?" if I really wanted to know. Because it wasn't pretty. Just like the psalmist, the person wasn't having a bad day, but a bad season. Was I prepared to listen? Yes. I was. Was I prepared to not show horror at her brokenness? Yes, I was. We are all broken. Even the best of us aren't living the Christian life on our own or we are a sham. Dressed in Sunday clothes trying, without the Holy Spirit, to do what only Christ can do in us. And that is make us whole. Because, as I already pointed out, we are broken.
For those of us who've had a season of crying our eyes out because of loss, abandonment, confusion and betrayal, we get this psalm. It feels like God is angry, too. That He feels just like the rest of the world does. And it doesn't seem to matter that we call out to our God with great fervor only to be greeted with His perceived silence. But what if the miracle we want is the one God wants to do in us, instead of for us? What if, with David in Psalm 139, we concentrate on the fact that we aren't anywhere, as His children, that He is not. Even in Sheol, the place of the dead. In fact, He holds us in our place of pain. Waiting with us for His salvation. Which will come! Our Father knows something cracked us, made a fissure on the surface of our lives or cut us deeply to the core. Restoring pieces in the re-creation of the jars of clay we who know Him are is a touchy job. If our pot fell apart, we need lots of renovation. Aren't we glad God cares enough to make us beautiful again? But in the process, we're a work in progress.
So, if my sister wants to tell me today that God is just not to be found in her life, that things since the divorce or betrayal (or both) haven't gone well at all, that she's found a new guy and is contemplating a relationship that isn't God-glorifying because she doesn't know what to do with her pain, I will listen. Without judgment, I hope. Because I know my own brokenness. That's not to say I won't encourage her to keep allowing God's process in her life instead of creating more broken pieces out of her mutiny. But since God loves my sister more than I ever could, He will go to hell and get her if she chooses to go there. I know this. For a fact. I've had my hair singed there.
The encouragement is that we are the apple of His eye whether we feel like it or not today. Our God not only holds us together, He keep everything together, from the tiniest atom to the largest planet(Ephesians 4:6). Part of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is to listen to and encourage them when things are really tough. I confess, when I read this portion of the Psalms this morning, I sighed, asking God what I should do with the fact it's such a downer. I had to smile as my Father lovingly reminded me of some of the things I've prayed. It sounded all too familiar. Thankful that Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit as the indwelling power for our lives, I hurt for the psalmist who lived in times before the outpouring of this extraordinarily generous and powerful gift from God. The first fruit of all we have awaiting us in heaven living in us, giving us conviction of sin, direction for life, and instruction for living the way God wants. Wow! We have the privilege of speaking, Christian to Christian, the truth to each other in love, because the Way, the Truth and the Life lives in us. So putting judgment behind, I want to listen to the distress calls of my sisters and brothers as well as rejoicing in their triumphs. I might need their ears myself because life is hard, full of surprises and an enemy lurks looking for an opportunity to steal our joy. I want to encourage others to hold onto God because He has us in His hand. Don't jump out of it. Our Father is molding it for its glorious purposes in Him. With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more than we can ask or imagine. Ephesians 3:20
Where can I go to get away from Your Spirit? Where can I run from You? If I go up to the heavens, You are there. If I lie down in the grave, You are there. If I rise with the sun in the east and settle in the west beyond the sea, even there You will guide me. With Your right hand, You hold me. Psalm 139
You ever notice how sometimes when a person asks you how you are they don't really want to know? Especially at church. Where we're all supposed to be fixed because we're, well, Christians. Perfected in Christ without the struggles of the common pagan. Eh-hem. Someone asked me not too long ago, when I asked, "How's your life?" if I really wanted to know. Because it wasn't pretty. Just like the psalmist, the person wasn't having a bad day, but a bad season. Was I prepared to listen? Yes. I was. Was I prepared to not show horror at her brokenness? Yes, I was. We are all broken. Even the best of us aren't living the Christian life on our own or we are a sham. Dressed in Sunday clothes trying, without the Holy Spirit, to do what only Christ can do in us. And that is make us whole. Because, as I already pointed out, we are broken.
For those of us who've had a season of crying our eyes out because of loss, abandonment, confusion and betrayal, we get this psalm. It feels like God is angry, too. That He feels just like the rest of the world does. And it doesn't seem to matter that we call out to our God with great fervor only to be greeted with His perceived silence. But what if the miracle we want is the one God wants to do in us, instead of for us? What if, with David in Psalm 139, we concentrate on the fact that we aren't anywhere, as His children, that He is not. Even in Sheol, the place of the dead. In fact, He holds us in our place of pain. Waiting with us for His salvation. Which will come! Our Father knows something cracked us, made a fissure on the surface of our lives or cut us deeply to the core. Restoring pieces in the re-creation of the jars of clay we who know Him are is a touchy job. If our pot fell apart, we need lots of renovation. Aren't we glad God cares enough to make us beautiful again? But in the process, we're a work in progress.
So, if my sister wants to tell me today that God is just not to be found in her life, that things since the divorce or betrayal (or both) haven't gone well at all, that she's found a new guy and is contemplating a relationship that isn't God-glorifying because she doesn't know what to do with her pain, I will listen. Without judgment, I hope. Because I know my own brokenness. That's not to say I won't encourage her to keep allowing God's process in her life instead of creating more broken pieces out of her mutiny. But since God loves my sister more than I ever could, He will go to hell and get her if she chooses to go there. I know this. For a fact. I've had my hair singed there.
The encouragement is that we are the apple of His eye whether we feel like it or not today. Our God not only holds us together, He keep everything together, from the tiniest atom to the largest planet(Ephesians 4:6). Part of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is to listen to and encourage them when things are really tough. I confess, when I read this portion of the Psalms this morning, I sighed, asking God what I should do with the fact it's such a downer. I had to smile as my Father lovingly reminded me of some of the things I've prayed. It sounded all too familiar. Thankful that Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit as the indwelling power for our lives, I hurt for the psalmist who lived in times before the outpouring of this extraordinarily generous and powerful gift from God. The first fruit of all we have awaiting us in heaven living in us, giving us conviction of sin, direction for life, and instruction for living the way God wants. Wow! We have the privilege of speaking, Christian to Christian, the truth to each other in love, because the Way, the Truth and the Life lives in us. So putting judgment behind, I want to listen to the distress calls of my sisters and brothers as well as rejoicing in their triumphs. I might need their ears myself because life is hard, full of surprises and an enemy lurks looking for an opportunity to steal our joy. I want to encourage others to hold onto God because He has us in His hand. Don't jump out of it. Our Father is molding it for its glorious purposes in Him. With God's power working in us, God can do much, much more than we can ask or imagine. Ephesians 3:20
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