This is a crepe myrtle on my walk this morning. It reminded me of Jacob’s words about Joseph. Genesis 49:22 says, “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; his branches run over the wall.” May our lives bear much fruit that will bring the Lord glory.
David was stressed. In Psalm 31 he described what the stress was doing to him physically. Verse 9-10 says, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; my eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body! For my life is spent in grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.”
At one point in David’s life, king Saul hunted him to kill him. David was on the run, hiding in rock formations and caves. He lived a lot in his sympathetic nervous system. Yet David knew that the Lord was with him.
In Psalm 61 he wrote that he was overwhelmed. Then in verse 3 he recounted how the Lord has been his protector. It says, “For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.” Psalm 144:1 says, “Blessed by the Lord my Rock…”
David wrote Psalm 139. In it he described how our Creator God watched us being woven in our mother’s womb. I love his words to express God’s attentiveness. Verse 13 says, “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.”
Verse 16 says, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” God has a record of how many days we will live.
We will live out those days. Our quality of life depends on our thought processes. One of the biggest factors to maintaining vital health is to manage stress. No matter what are circumstances are, God is Present. Every breath we take we are breathing in the Presence of the Eternal God.
Take a slow breath in and realize that you just filled your lungs with His life-giving power.
Psalm 144:3-4 says, “Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him? Or the son of man, that You are mindful of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”
David also wrote Psalm 8. Verse 3-4 says, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?”
Great questions. Genesis 1:26 says that we are created in God’s image. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that He has put eternity in our hearts. How amazing to consider. You and I are created to have a relationship with God who is Eternal.
I love to think about Jeremiah 1:5. It says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” Included in the seed of our conception is the whole of our lives while on earth and throughout eternity.
By Asaph intentionally recalling Who the Lord is, he strategically directed his thoughts. Verse 11-12 says, “I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds.”
Our relationship with the Lord develops more deeply through our trials. He reveals Himself to us in ways we may not have known Him before. I love David’s heart-words.
Psalm 144:2 says, “My lovingkindness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield and the One in whom I take refuge…” This verse reminds me of Psalm 18:1-2. There is emotion to his words ~ his heart’s connection to the Lord.
It says, “I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Have you ever complained in your trial? Jeremiah did. Lamentations 3 was his written complaint. Verse 20 was his encapsulation. It says, “My soul still remembers and sinks within me.” Anytime we return in our mind to the trauma’s in our past, we relive the emotional pain.
Jeremiah did something that turned the tide of his complaint to praise and exultation. Verse 21 says, “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.” He took his thoughts from off himself and placed them on Who the Lord is at all times.
Verse 22-23 says, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
Asaph is another example for us. Psalm 77:3 says, “…I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.” Verse 4 says, “…I am so troubled that I cannot speak.” Asaph reversed his negative spiraling down. We can also.
We alone are responsible for our thoughts. Our words and actions come from our thoughts. Have you ever said something or acted a certain way that you wished you hadn’t? Our thoughts, actions, and attitudes come into play with every interaction we have. Whether with loved ones, or those in the marketplace, our inner character is on display.
Character is developed through our trials, which come in all shapes, sizes, and intensity. The Lord is our Potter. He knows what needs to be trimmed off our lives. I tried wheel pottery. I didn’t have the strength in my hands to center my lump of clay.
In order to center the clay, it takes a lot of pressure as the wheel is spinning. If the lump isn’t centered, it will never become a usable vessel. We may not appreciate the Lord’s way of centering us. He knows what we need in order to be more like Him.
Our first example of blame shifting started in the Garden of Eden. God gave specific instructions. Genesis 2:16-17. In Genesis 3, the serpent tempted Eve. She ate the fruit. When God confronted Adam and Eve, the blame shifting began. Eve blamed the serpent, and Adam blamed God. Verse 12 says, “…The woman that You gave me…”
Blame is often rooted in buried anger. Our unresolved issues are never a valid reason to blame others. Our negative behavior is never someone else’s fault. What has happened to us is in our past. Five minutes have passed away. It cannot be taken back, changed, or altered in any way.
We only live in the present. If you are blaming someone or a circumstance for your negative behavior, it is time to release it to the Lord. He paid the price to set you free through His total forgiveness.
Blame has many roots. I want to focus on this one aspect since we covered procrastination recently. Blame is an excuse for not dealing with unresolved issues. Proverbs 4:23.
Blame is often a false belief based on not feeling good about ourselves. Therefore we look for some reason to blame so we don’t have to look inside. Our heart is our belief center. When we have a faulty belief it controls every aspect of our lives.
Truth. Ephesians 1:4 says that He chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him. Why would we choose to blame ourselves or others when Jesus doesn’t? Blaming is judging. As we judge we will be judged. Matthew 7:2.
We sabotage ourselves when we blame others as our ‘why’ we failed to finish something. It alleviates us from having to shoulder the responsibility. Procrastination is the refusal to investigate the emotional reason behind our inaction.
I love the angel’s words to Daniel. Let them reverberate in your heart. Daniel 10:19 says, “…O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!…”
I have found strength for my soul as I read through the Psalms. Here is what I learned years ago.. Take the date of the calendar then add thirty. Today is the 9th. I would be reading Psalm 9, 39, 69, 99, 129.
Oftentimes David was overwhelmed. He would acknowledge that to the Lord, then he would ask for help. Psalm 143 says, “Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is distressed.”
Then he remembered how the Lord helped him in the past. He took his thoughts under control. Verse 5 says, “…I meditate on all Your works; I muse on the works of Your hands.” David recentered through focusing on the Lord.
M's Creations 