The Lord is faithful in all His words and kind in all His works. The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand; You satisfy the desire of every living thing.
(Verses 14-16)
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He Who keeps Israel will not slumber nor sleep. Psalm 121
Our God is faithful in all He says and all He does.
I'm growing accustomed to having my time with the Lord in the middle of the night. There are days when I whisper a quick prayer to Him before I get out of bed, but don't spend the time I need to in His presence. My heart gets lonely. Needs refreshing. And so it wakes me up to pray. This happened last night. I realized in that time with Abba that I have many things on my mind that I often push down into my subconscious and don't deal with. It was a battle last night to grasp God's love. Satan rushed onto the scene throwing fear at me...the kind that knots my stomach. I know the enemy's ploys by now, though, and there was a palpable calm after I demanded he leave me alone in the name of Jesus. Some might think this weird, but I felt the enemy leave. In the calm that resulted, I realized I needed to intentionally trust for things beyond my control. Again.
Vanessa had a friend in high school who was very troubled. I loved her, as Vanessa did, but Heidi (not her real name) was just bad news. The high school years are not the best for many kids, and our daughter was no exception. Heidi's gothic clothing and strange habits were a real draw to Vanessa. Adopting a new persona would be an escape, I thought, from the fact that Vanessa wasn't too happy with being Vanessa. "You can't spend time with Heidi except here at our house." That was my rule. The lure of drugs and Heidi's rejection of Jesus made her relationship with Vanessa a powder keg waiting to blow. We argued about this. But, for the most part, she kept the deal. Since I taught at the same high school to which my daughters went, I knew the kids they knew. As an adult, I could see the road Heidi was going down. I had perspective Vanessa wasn't old enough or experienced enough to have cultivated. I was, in this instance, way ahead of her. My rule was for her safety. My rule was set in place because I love her. It looked mean to her. Like I was judging her friend. Against all she felt, Vanessa obeyed the rule. Heidi's life ended sadly with suicide several years later despite several attempts to draw her to Jesus.
Will was in a hard core Christian band, which means he was the drummer for a band that made very loud noise with a lead singer who screamed (literally) instead of singing. They were beating the drums, banging the guitars and screaming for Jesus. And I could often feel the Spirit of God at their concerts. But also at the shows were kids with foot long mohawks, whose bodies were covered in tattoos and piercings. So when our son, who is six feet, four inches tall, wanted his first piercing, we said no. "First of all, you would look ridiculous with an earring, Will," I reasoned. "You are a really big guy." And more importantly, "It would look, at least to your mother, like you are giving in to the world you hope to bring to Jesus." I know this is simply my opinion, so don't judge me. Will has tattoos on his back and arms. His choice. They are all about Jesus. But the earring thing was a gut feeling that a line would be crossed. Will obeyed. He didn't have to. He could have rebelled. Would the earring have plunged our son into a life of debauchery? Probably not. The point is, he was willing to listen to me and do what I asked though everyone else in the band had piercings (which they now regret because the spacers ruined their earlobes for life.)
In the years since these rules of mine, both of these children have said, "We obeyed because we loved and respected you." That's really all I had. The gift of their respect. It's what drove them to do what I asked. To trust the decisions were for their good. Because they knew I loved them and because I always try to keep my word to them. I wasn't about to let them satisfy their every whim if it meant there was a danger to them involved. I would be a horrible mother if I just let my kids do whatever.
When I read this morning, "You satisfy the desire of every living creature" I waited there for a few minutes. The verse doesn't say God gives us all our desires. It says He is our satisfaction. It is He Who satisfies our deepest longings. In Him we find our peace, not always in the decisions God makes for us. I don't always...or ever, for that matter...know what my God is doing. Why things are working out the way they are. But He does. So if my satisfaction is in Him, and I'm preaching to myself right now, then whatever He chooses, wherever He leads, I know that God is kind and His word is trustworthy. God doesn't promise that we will never falter or fail. He does promise to uphold us when we do, though. To take us through the storm, if it's not His will to take us around it. God, our Source for life...all of it, even our daily bread...is always aware of our struggles, our needs, our victories and our failures. He's also aware of where we are going, the direction we've set our faces toward, and God will be as kind as He can in taking us down the path that is best for us. We may not see it now, the confusing maze of His will, but if we trust enough to put our hand in His, take a deep breath, and go where our Father leads, there's a good chance that further down the road we will see the wisdom of His decisions for our lives. Remember, God isn't sleeping and our prayers awaken Him. He was in my room last night...at one in the morning...and He is here with me now. Filling up the largest space in our planet ruled by time and able to narrow Himself down into the tiniest crevice of my heart. Just as "Christ is before all things, and in Him all things hold together," so He keeps me in one piece for His glory and my good.
(Verses 14-16)
I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He Who keeps Israel will not slumber nor sleep. Psalm 121
Our God is faithful in all He says and all He does.
I'm growing accustomed to having my time with the Lord in the middle of the night. There are days when I whisper a quick prayer to Him before I get out of bed, but don't spend the time I need to in His presence. My heart gets lonely. Needs refreshing. And so it wakes me up to pray. This happened last night. I realized in that time with Abba that I have many things on my mind that I often push down into my subconscious and don't deal with. It was a battle last night to grasp God's love. Satan rushed onto the scene throwing fear at me...the kind that knots my stomach. I know the enemy's ploys by now, though, and there was a palpable calm after I demanded he leave me alone in the name of Jesus. Some might think this weird, but I felt the enemy leave. In the calm that resulted, I realized I needed to intentionally trust for things beyond my control. Again.
Vanessa had a friend in high school who was very troubled. I loved her, as Vanessa did, but Heidi (not her real name) was just bad news. The high school years are not the best for many kids, and our daughter was no exception. Heidi's gothic clothing and strange habits were a real draw to Vanessa. Adopting a new persona would be an escape, I thought, from the fact that Vanessa wasn't too happy with being Vanessa. "You can't spend time with Heidi except here at our house." That was my rule. The lure of drugs and Heidi's rejection of Jesus made her relationship with Vanessa a powder keg waiting to blow. We argued about this. But, for the most part, she kept the deal. Since I taught at the same high school to which my daughters went, I knew the kids they knew. As an adult, I could see the road Heidi was going down. I had perspective Vanessa wasn't old enough or experienced enough to have cultivated. I was, in this instance, way ahead of her. My rule was for her safety. My rule was set in place because I love her. It looked mean to her. Like I was judging her friend. Against all she felt, Vanessa obeyed the rule. Heidi's life ended sadly with suicide several years later despite several attempts to draw her to Jesus.
Will was in a hard core Christian band, which means he was the drummer for a band that made very loud noise with a lead singer who screamed (literally) instead of singing. They were beating the drums, banging the guitars and screaming for Jesus. And I could often feel the Spirit of God at their concerts. But also at the shows were kids with foot long mohawks, whose bodies were covered in tattoos and piercings. So when our son, who is six feet, four inches tall, wanted his first piercing, we said no. "First of all, you would look ridiculous with an earring, Will," I reasoned. "You are a really big guy." And more importantly, "It would look, at least to your mother, like you are giving in to the world you hope to bring to Jesus." I know this is simply my opinion, so don't judge me. Will has tattoos on his back and arms. His choice. They are all about Jesus. But the earring thing was a gut feeling that a line would be crossed. Will obeyed. He didn't have to. He could have rebelled. Would the earring have plunged our son into a life of debauchery? Probably not. The point is, he was willing to listen to me and do what I asked though everyone else in the band had piercings (which they now regret because the spacers ruined their earlobes for life.)
In the years since these rules of mine, both of these children have said, "We obeyed because we loved and respected you." That's really all I had. The gift of their respect. It's what drove them to do what I asked. To trust the decisions were for their good. Because they knew I loved them and because I always try to keep my word to them. I wasn't about to let them satisfy their every whim if it meant there was a danger to them involved. I would be a horrible mother if I just let my kids do whatever.
When I read this morning, "You satisfy the desire of every living creature" I waited there for a few minutes. The verse doesn't say God gives us all our desires. It says He is our satisfaction. It is He Who satisfies our deepest longings. In Him we find our peace, not always in the decisions God makes for us. I don't always...or ever, for that matter...know what my God is doing. Why things are working out the way they are. But He does. So if my satisfaction is in Him, and I'm preaching to myself right now, then whatever He chooses, wherever He leads, I know that God is kind and His word is trustworthy. God doesn't promise that we will never falter or fail. He does promise to uphold us when we do, though. To take us through the storm, if it's not His will to take us around it. God, our Source for life...all of it, even our daily bread...is always aware of our struggles, our needs, our victories and our failures. He's also aware of where we are going, the direction we've set our faces toward, and God will be as kind as He can in taking us down the path that is best for us. We may not see it now, the confusing maze of His will, but if we trust enough to put our hand in His, take a deep breath, and go where our Father leads, there's a good chance that further down the road we will see the wisdom of His decisions for our lives. Remember, God isn't sleeping and our prayers awaken Him. He was in my room last night...at one in the morning...and He is here with me now. Filling up the largest space in our planet ruled by time and able to narrow Himself down into the tiniest crevice of my heart. Just as "Christ is before all things, and in Him all things hold together," so He keeps me in one piece for His glory and my good.
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