August 2021 – My Morning Thoughts

Psalm 37

“Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; like green plants they will soon die away.

Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”

This Psalm is just what I need to live by, especially considering the current world situation. God knows my need. He also knows how weak I am when I try to follow His commands. Telling me not to fret is almost like telling a duck not to swim. I worry, wondering if our country will survive the current administration, wondering if the next terrorist attack will be on our soil, and is there anyone in the healthcare system we can trust or if we’ll have any healthcare? The list could go on and on. Maybe you have a worry list, too.

David wrote this Psalm and he certainly had his worries. His king wanted him dead, his enemies were searching for him, and his own family turned against him! Yet, he trusted God. I know many things I worry about will eventually disappear or go away. David did eventually become the king as God intended. His reign was marked by wars with Israel’s enemies and God gave him victories. He wasn’t perfect but the Bible calls him “a man after God’s own heart”.

David goes on to write, “trust in the Lord and do good.” Trusting is hard, isn’t it? God wants us to keep doing the good we know we should do while trusting Him to do His part. God wants us to “delight” in Him. He delights in us. He created us, loves us, sustains us, and provides a way out of our mess. He wants to make us shine for him. When we commit our lives to Him, He takes our weak and meager efforts for the sake of His kingdom and enlarges and brightens them to glow as the “noonday sun.”

Some days I don’t feel very “glowing” and that’s when I have to “be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” I’m sure you’ve noticed God’s timetable doesn’t match our own. We live in an instant society and forget God does not. We often cannot see what God is doing. He is weaving the tapestry of life and we may not be able to see or understand just how our lives are woven into that tapestry. We see the evil around us and the mess we’re in, but God sees His finished work. We must trust, commit, and be still and wait. God is still weaving. Some day He will reveal His beautiful tapestry and we will know it was worth the wait!

“The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble” (Psalm 37:39).

A Dry Season

As I sit at my computer I’m listening to the rain fall gently on the roof of my house. It’s a wonderful sound, especially after weeks of very little rain! The grass was turning brown, some local farmers were starting to feed hay to their cows, some trees had yellow or brown leaves, and little streams had dried up as river water levels dropped. It was dry, dry, dry! And then a few days ago we had a brief shower of rain, another the next day, and then a quick torrential downpour. I thanked God for every drop even as I prayed for more. Then we had an overnight rain and the grass was beginning to revive. What refreshment for the earth! The dry season may be ending.

I also have dry seasons in my spiritual life. I get discouraged, depressed, or downright lazy sometimes. I don’t always feel the refreshment of sparkling mountain streams of spiritual living water. I am reading the writings of the Old Testament prophets and if that isn’t discouraging enough, I can see so much of today’s culture looking a lot like those Israelites who ignored the prophets and continued in their sin. God warned His people over and over through the words of the prophets and still they did not repent. The people died or were taken into exile by their enemies. What will God allow our enemies to do to us, the USA?

I am in a dry season spiritually. It is discouraging to see many today ignoring the truth of God’s Word and know God will not always withhold His judgment. I long to see people turning to the truth of God instead of inventing their own truth. I pray for revival in our churches, for Christians to really be the hands and feet of Christ. How do we do that in this politically divided environment? What is it God wants me to do? It is difficult to know what important steps I should be taking, but I am certain that I must never forsake the truth of God’s Word. I must maintain a strong prayer life along with continued study of the Word. God is showing me the way one step at a time.

Reading the prophets’ writings is not all “gloom and doom.” God gave them words of hope! Isaiah 32:1-2 says, “See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.” Jesus is King of kings! He has made living water available to all who wish to receive it. My dry season will pass. I will again rest beside the still waters and feel the refreshing showers of blessings. God is still in control!

“When you went out before your people, O God, when you marched through the wasteland, the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain, before God, the One of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel. You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance” (Psalm 68:7-9).

I better prepare to gas up my lawn mower after the predicted showers for this week! Thank you, God!

Attachments

This is something I wrote ten years ago. It seemed worth a second look.

I once read about a couple (actually, it was only the wife at first) that began giving things away to try to lift her spirits. She had been looking for something to help her get past several things in her life such as the economic downturn and as she said, “the joy quotient of her seven-year-old marriage.” She had tried to bring herself out of the doldrums by shopping. Cutting the price tags off her purchases made her feel even worse so she consulted a friend who suggested the opposite of shopping – giving away.

She started small by giving away earrings, then a silk shawl, and one time even handed a book of stamps to a man outside the post office. She discovered that though her finances hadn’t improved, her anxiety level had.

The biggest challenge came when she thought they should give a young newly-wed couple a special table the two of them had built together. It was a piece of furniture they used especially when they had dinner guests According to the article, it took a bit of convincing argument to bring her husband around to her point of view. In that process, however, they worked out some of their personal issues and learned how rewarding it was to see the joy of the recipients.

As I read the article, I couldn’t help but think how Christ-like that was, but no mention of Christ was made — only that the Giveaway was a tradition of the Lakota Sioux Indians. I thought of things to which I was attached such as a car, a house, money, my kids, school, students, my schedule. I thought of Linus and his blanket and then Moses and his staff. We humans get attached to things and to people. I don’t think that is wrong necessarily, however, we may hold too tightly. Moving away from a house you have grown to love, leaving a child at college for the first time, or giving up a loved one to death are hard attachments to break. (Side note: Leaving our daughters at college always brought tears to my eyes, but we survived. Thanks to phones and email we were still attached, sort of.)

Moses had to throw down his staff before it became the Lord’s staff (Exodus 4:2, 20). Early in chapter 4 God commanded Moses to throw down his staff. It became a snake and God commanded Moses to again pick it up. In v. 20, after Moses had run out of arguments with God, it says “Moses took the staff of God.” God used Moses and his staff to fulfill His purpose of rescuing His people. Even our children must be held loosely. We must recognize the gifts they are and, with thankfulness, nurture and guide them along their way. They grow up. Allow God to use them in His way, not ours. Most important – pray for them diligently and often.

My dad used to remind me of Colossians 3:2 when he saw me making some “thing” more important than it really was. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” I’m ashamed to say that many times things have come between me and God. My mind is not always on things above. Like Linus. I think I need my blanket, my thing, whatever it is. You may feel the same way. Let’s hold things loosely. God may want you to give it away, or He may just want you to let Him use it.

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life (1 Timothy 6: 17-19).