More Than Still

I was rooting through some old papers the other day and happened to come across a copy of the poem that I'd partially referenced in my last post.  I'm not a big one for poetry, but sometimes it has a way of saying what I wish I could put into words.  Although it was especially meaningful for me when I first came across it several months ago, it still has a lot of impact on me as I re-read it today.  

In the struggle to be still, we have the ability to be GLAD. God knows our hearts, He knows our anxious thoughts.  He says, "I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have known.  I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them."  Isaiah 42:16 

The Stolen Song

I was thinking tonight about the things that I let my mind dwell on. Much of the time it’s a lot of nothing…or too much of what definitely isn't true, right, pure or lovely (Philippines 4:8).  Why is it that I can think of nothing quite easily, but it seems to be an effort to focus my mind on Christ, my Saviour, the One who has given me everything?  I'd like to be more intentional about what I think on throughout the day.  Sometimes I’ll literally force myself to sing even if I’m not in the mood.  Singing does something...somehow just saying words out loud does something to my heart.  It reminds me of the things I’m grateful for and what an incredible God I serve.  It reminds me of His truths and encourages me through what others have experienced and are singing about.  It makes me focus on the words and mean them.  And yet I often let my song get stolen by apathy, laziness, pointless conversations in my head and paying waaaaay too much attention to my feelings. 

I remember several months ago at a time of deep hurt in my life I would try and sing and couldn’t even make it through the first line without breaking down.  Then slowly over the months I would keep trying and eventually I’d make it through an entire verse before the tears came.  Then when God brought resolution to this very difficult situation I felt like I could sing and never stop!  Life is like that, and we won’t always have a song that we feel like singing.  Psalm 40:1-3 says,

“I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.  He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.  He has put a new song in my mouth – praise to our God.” 

Whatever way you can praise God today, do it.  It may be “without the sound of tuneful strings,” as someone once wrote, but take some time to sing!     

The Truth About Truth

Truth is a funny thing.  I'm sure I've spent more moments than I'd like to admit believing that truth is truth only to the extent that I feel it.  Once I'm convinced in my mind that something is true, then I'll place my full trust in it but until then I'll continue on being uncertain and uncommitted.  Obviously truth doesn't work that way, but have you ever felt like that?  

Truth is truth.  Truth is truth always.  Truth is truth no matter how I'm feeling, how much I believe in it, or how much it contradicts what I might be experiencing.  I was reading through a few Psalms yesterday and wrote down some of the truths and promises that stuck out to me.  They're all from Psalm 32,33 & 34 but I won't include the verse references as I think it's amazing enough reading to look through yourself.  

* "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.  I will guide you with My eye."  

*"The word of the LORD is right and all His work is done in truth."

*"By the word of the LORD the heavens were made...for He spoke, and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast."

*"The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.  The counsel of the LORD stands forever...blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD."  

*"The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men...He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works."

*"The eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine."

*"The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him."

*"The righteous cry out and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles."

*"Those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing."  

These are God's promises to us.  Will you believe them today?