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My heart stands in awe of Your words.  I rejoice at Your Word as one who finds a great treasure. Psalm 119:161-162

In the mid-nineties, I dropped by Pier One on the day of their best clearance sale.  I was shopping for a very large salad bowl and went straight to the dinnerware section.  In front of me was a beautiful blue and white bowl.  It was 75% off and a real steal.  I was thrilled and made my purchase.  Years later, I still love it.  The bowl now has quite a history.

I’ve used it to serve a main dish kind of salad when I’ve fed a lot of people at our table.  A salad for twelve people was no problem.   When it wasn’t in use, it was on display.  It graced the middle of our kitchen table. Or, it was placed in the middle of our stove with lights overhead shining down on it.  But most of the time, it sat on the counter with ‘stuff’ in it. Bananas, raisins, good chocolate, nuts, licorice, trail mix, apples, and pears.  Always stocked well and the contents constantly switched up. 

Now, here’s the fun part.  Our family has always headed straight for the bowl whenever they walk into the house.  Adults and kids alike, it’s calling their name.  There’s a quick greeting, ‘Oh hey, Nana!’, and then there’s a collective beeline made for the bowl.

Just say the words ‘blue bowl’ in our house, and everyone feels happy. 

This is not unlike what happens to my spiritual senses when I approach the scriptures on a good day.  When my spiritual hunger is engaged and my need are worn on my sleeve, I can’t wait to mine for gold.  I never know what I’m going to find.  I keep digging until I’m given just the right ‘word’ for the day.  God keeps His word stocked – full of surprises – and loves it when I find the treasure.

I know this is just a foretaste of ‘pleasures forevermore’ that will be waiting for me one day.  When I finish exhaling the earth’s air and inhale celestial air, this will be the moment when my appetite is completely satisfied.

Feed me.  Satisfy my cravings.  Delight me.  In You are pleasures forevermore.  Amen

When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?  Psalm 56:3

How long can you keep going under pressure before you give up?  How many losses can you sustain before a particular one seems too much to bear?  The threshold of abdication is different for each of us.  I know someone who lost one of her children to cancer, and she never recovered.  She lives with a perpetual suspension of emotions and is internally numb.

But I know another woman who lost one child in childbirth and another in a custody battle. She lives alone and is essentially childless.  Though she is acquainted with the valley of hopelessness and has flirted with feeling total despair, she leans on God for the grace and grit to get up each day and live.  She is a wise old soul who gives gifts of compassion, advocacy, and wisdom to those who feel that no one fully understands their pain.  She searches for those lost in themselves and is able to look deeply into their eyes, see their soul, and call them out.

Losses don’t just involve death.  There can be the loss of a dream.  The loss of a marriage.  The loss of a friend.  A loss of respect.  A loss of opportunity.  The loss of dreams.  The loss of years.  A loss of health.  Some are irreparable on this side of heaven. 

If what I’m losing, or whom I’m losing, is the center of my world, despair is close by.  But if God is the center of my world, He is the Anchor who promises to hold me together.  He sings over me and the song gives me strength.

There are days I see the edge of an abyss.  Before I fall, catch me and keep me. Amen

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  Psalm 23:5

There are two incredible things about these words.  1.) God, Himself, is setting a table for me.  And 2.) The feast is available while in the company of enemies. 

The Shepherd’s sumptuous meal is available no matter the season.  When I’m resting, there’s green grass to nibble on.  When I’m working, there’s fuel for my labor.  When I’m with kindred spirits, there’s fodder for rich conversation.  And when I’m with enemies, there’s a banquet while in hostile territory. 

The thing is ~ it’s the same Word ~ with the same power ~ from the same Shepherd.  What changes are my circumstances and degrees of spiritual hunger.

Do my enemies discern that such a spiritual meal exists?  Yes, and it confounds them.  If their intent is to bruise, even cripple, it frustrates them.  If they have inexhaustible energy to criticize and try to steal my joy, it confounds them when I sing through the pain.  They wonder why I don’t give up, why I’m not bitter, why I’ve not conceded in the battle, and why I have the strength to keep going when human strength should long have been exhausted.  While they may not actually see the banquet table, they know it’s there because they see its rejuvenating effects in me.

A few will lay down their weapons when they understand that this Shepherd is inviting them into the sheepfold.  For those who will repent to shelter in Christ, there is one thing we will all hold in common.  At one time, we were all enemies of the Shepherd.  And now, all His friends.   

Lord, the arrows may fly, but I smell the bread baking. Amen

He leads me in paths of righteousness . . . Psalm 23:4a

The beauty of walking slowly through a passage is being able to look at every little thing as if it were a new gift to unwrap.  As someone well-seasoned in Bible study, I can just assume that I understand a phrase like ‘paths of righteousness.’  I don’t, and I’m still learning!  

I have often asked, and perhaps you also voice these questions ~ Why does God make it so hard?  Since He promises to lead, and since He tells me that I am a sheep who cannot find my way on my own, why does He not speak louder so that the right path is unmistakable?

God is all about growing me up into the stature and maturity of His Son.  If I can take God by the hand and not have to think for myself at all, isn’t this the stuff of toddlerhood?  Infant faith begins with these kinds of baby steps, whereas mature faith encompasses the ability to engage my intellectual faculties to the glory of God.

I must learn to train my mind, to know how to build precept upon precept.  Sound decisions are made by a student of the Word who has set out to learn the mind of God, through the Spirit and through Scripture, with abject humility. 

Paths of righteousness are ever before me.  God makes them clear for every level of spiritual development.  Milk for the babes; meat for the mature.  And, in that light, I can know that God will grant me the humility to listen.  He encourages every intellectual pursuit that is harnessed to the truth of the Scriptures.

I can be lazy and want to be led like a baby.  Forgive me.  Amen

Our last dog was a beautiful golden retriever named Mollie. She was a rescue and was four years old when we got her. When we brought her home, I turned to her and said, “You just had your last bad day!” 

Getting to know Mollie’s quirks took some time. For four years, Mollie had been neglected and shoved in a back yard. She had no shelter from the weather. She was a captive to the heat, cold, rain, thunder, and lightening. Though safe and with us, her fears continued to play out. When Mollie went to the door to go out, we’d open it and she’d turn and run away. When we’d call her to come back, she’d run further down the hall. 

It took us a good eighteen months to understand why she was so conflicted. Though she wanted to go out, she was afraid we’d trap her outside. We tried a bunch of things but here’s what finally worked. We opened the door, stroked her, then turned our back to her so she felt no pressure from us. With the choice truly being hers, she cautiously walked outside.

Quirks can be a nuisance without love. Think of what happens while we wait for Mollie to decide whether or not to go outside. With the door open during a Georgia summer, the heat poured in the house. In the winter, the heat escaped and cold poured in ~ all because our dog needed time to make up her mind.

Each of us have a story. We come to God with triggers. Some are afraid of silence; others, of noise. Some have a fear of crowds; others, a fear of being alone. The comforting thing is that God knows us intimately. He knows how to scale the wall with just the right words and experience so that we’ll lose our shyness and trust Him. He’s not stumped by our quirks nor do they put Him off. Patiently, He works with each of us. Cajoling and encouraging, He offers Himself as a companion.

Ever feel like you’re forever imprisoned by your past? Like you’re making no progress? God has the key to steps forward. Go to the open door.  

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.  Psalm 131:2

When a mother weans her child, she must deny him what he wants and then comfort him when he realizes he can’t have it.  She weans him because it is necessary for his growth into a new phase of life.  She appears cruel to the child, yet he doesn’t think twice about turning to her for consolation.  Because she loves him, she persists in the training but also aches at the pain she is causing.

So it is with God.  He weans me off things that are not good for me.  He often withholds healing for a greater good that is a mystery for a time.  He delays deliverance for reasons I might never know.  The life of faith is not for the fainthearted.

So when things don’t feel right, when my heart is churning, when I’m tired of waiting, when my old wounds don’t appear to be any less severe, when I’m sick of myself, when I want what I want, when I dig deep to try to will my soul to be quiet to no avail, it takes grace beyond what I can manufacture to run to the One who could fix everything that plagues me ~ but doesn’t.  I could be tormented about why He restrains Himself, why He withholds, why I continue to live in the period of the ‘not yet’, but at that moment, I need Him to comfort me. 

There are periods in every life when answers aren’t provided.  What can be counted on are everlasting arms.  He is about comforting instead of fixing.  The song of the One who rocks us as children can still be heard. 

Your grace carries me through to glory.  Amen

Hold not your peace, oh God of my praise.  Psalms 109:1

Has the Word of God ever tormented you?  Conviction is one thing; torment is quite another.  God is not a tormentor, and yet, when it’s the Word of God that appears to eat at you, it can play tricks on your perception of God. 

Paul warned believers of Satan’s cunning abilities.  But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  2 Corinthians 11:3  The Word, rightly revealed, brings me closer to Jesus. But Satan will quote scripture (as he did with Jesus) and use it in ways that trigger issues.  How will I know that it’s him working against me rather than the Spirit of God convicting me?  I will be led astray from my devotion to Christ.  I will find myself backing up and beginning to feel distrustful.  I’ll give you an example. 

Earlier in my life, Satan did a number on me by linking two spiritual truths together.  1. God loves me just the way I am.  And 2.) God’s will for me is to change to become more like His Son.  Combine those and the meaning can mess with you.  How can God love me just like I am if He wants me to spend my life changing to become like Jesus? 

The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart.  “You once lived in a world where you were only loved if you acted perfectly.” The light of Jesus poked through the fog. I recognized my skewed interpretations.      

Where are you shy of Christ?  What causes you to back up from Him rather than move closer? Perhaps God’s Words have been used against you. There’s no need to lose this battle. You have the Spirit of God inside to guide you into the way of all Truth, pinpointing the very junctures where confusion and unbelief were born.

Reveal the misconstrued scriptures and set captives free, beginning with me. Amen

You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.  Psalm 77:14

In the Genesis account of Abram and Sarah, Sarah’s cycle of womanhood was long over.  Logic.  Science.  Both proved that it was humanly impossible to bear a child in old age.  She and Abram had spent the breadth of their marriage asking God to open her womb but at some point, she stopped believing.  When the announcement was made that she would have a son, Sarah laughed at the thought of such a physical impossibility. 

Miracles aren’t miracles without the ‘impossibility’ factor.  Is this not why faith is so difficult?  We are surrounded by circumstantial physical evidence that disproves feasibility.  If I have a history of not having seen God’s power move on my behalf, then I will always lean toward logic and move away from what seems ludicrous.  History begs to control belief.

What might I ask God for today if all reserve was moved out of the way?  Where would others laugh in my face and rehearse the evidence against faith-filled prayer? That points precisely, perhaps, to what God would, and can, do.  “But you can’t ask God for that!” Satan whispers.  His taunts, like arrows, come at me in thoughts but also through the mouths of friends and family.  He is not above using faithless believers to parrot faithless words.  So few walk by faith and I should remember that the next time a brother or sister in Christ comes with their ‘prudent’ warnings.

God has placed me in many impossible situations throughout my life.  There were times I had to pray for a miracle or there would be some horrible consequence.  For survival’s sake, I hung onto faith, stood in the Word, and prayed for a miracle.  Faith is hardest when I’ve invested years of prayer into my request.

God defies the odds.  He cares nothing about physics, past evidence, and present obstacles.  He who spoke to the earth, a planet that was once dark and lifeless, and but was transformed into a stunning environment full of limitless possibilities, is the same God who can do anything miraculous in my world.  There is something more critical to pray for than the request itself ~ it’s that my faith would remain if God said ‘no ‘– or ‘wait.’

  For what should I trust You that defies all odds?  I’ll go there.  In Jesus name, Amen

For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from Him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.  Psalm 62:5-6

Faith is a filter.  All thoughts and feels should be sifted through it.  This is the process of taking every thought captive.  This is what encourages a resolve to wait on God though a situation begs human intervention.

Faith reminds me that God is ruling when it appears mayhem is prevailing.

Faith reminds me that God is watching when I fear He’s lost interest.

Faith reminds me that God is active when I see no evidence of it.

Faith reminds me that God is omniscient, and I am not.

Faith reminds me that God is sovereign over all surprises.

Faith reminds me that God is redemptive when life seems full of wasted pain.

Faith reminds me that God is fiercely protective when His children are vulnerable.

Faith reminds me that God is just when evil temporarily prospers.

Faith reminds me that God is a Father who is never fatigued, distracted, nor disinterested.

God is the faith-giver wherever I’m running on empty today and wherever fear is on the throne.

Let faith arise!

Birth faith in new places.  Deep places.  Amen

Judgment will again be founded on righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it.  Psalm 94:15

Love and trust are the foundations of any relationship.  If either one is destroyed, a deep fracture threatens the future of that connection.  

Our enemy knows how relationships work.  He knows that if I’m secure in my Father’s love, I am dangerous to his evil enterprise.   I will burn brightly for the advancement of God’s kingdom.  I will give my life without much thought.  How can he win against such undying loyalty?  By devising a smear campaign. He levels accusations against God that make perfect sense to me if I rely on logic and circumstantial evidence to determine my perspective.  

There have been times in my life when God ‘appeared’ to be guilty. Satan had rallied his troops. Questions about God’s goodness came at me and tormented me.  Instead of shunning them, I fed them.  Distrust grew and weeds overtook the landscape of my heart and choked out all remnants of my faith.  

There was a cure.  When prayers weren’t answered the way I thought they should be, I had to be willing to stand in the truth that whatever God’s reason, He was still trustworthy.  In a climate of disappointment and against the backdrop of perceived damning evidence, the Holy Spirit fanned the winds of faith across the panorama of my faithlessness.  He inspired belief instead of doubt. 

My love for God is in tact and I’ve learned that love is more than feelings.  Love has an iron will that is fueled by faith.  I trust God even though His glorious resolution to my problems are out of my range of vision. 

Lord, the foundation of my faith rests upon the pillars of Your righteousness. Amen