Scripture: Make me understand the way of Your precepts, So I will meditate on Your wonders. My soul weeps because of grief; Strengthen me according to Your word. (Psalm 119:27-28, NASB) Observation: -God is the one Who will give us understanding His precepts (statutes, the way He wants us to live) -Meditating upon those precepts is important. -God's Word is able to strengthen us even when we are burdened by grief, even when wrapped in depression, even when tears make it difficult to see clearly. Application: I am going to continue my analogy from yesterday's Confessions of a Tree Hugger. There are days when it is like the fog has descended. The King James translates it: "My soul melts from heaviness." The NIV, "My soul is weary with sorrow." Whatever words we use, this kind of grief ways us down and makes it hard to see clearly the way in which we should go. It threatens our peace and challenges our security. I spent one of those sleepless kinds of nights last night. When I tried to sleep my dreams were all filled with people and even my pets dying. It is not very restful to have your nights tormented by thoughts of having everything you have come to care about being ripped from you. This is what a "soul melting from heaviness" looks like. I spent the wee hours of the morning asking God what I should do? How to move on from here in this place of broken trust. People can let us down in very painful ways and sometimes all it takes is an unkind word. But God's Word has a way of letting the light in. His word has a way of driving away the fog that makes it hard to see clearly. Slowly the fog begins to lift. Our way becomes clearer. The sun breaks through the fog and eventually drives it away. And it is not that the grief is driven away- for just like the trees in the woods- that which brought the grief is still there. But my vision is cleared enough to see those trees for what they really are; to see where they stand in my way and where it is safe to travel. By meditating on God's Word I can walk through the forest of grief now with confidence in Who He is and what He has accomplished in my life and know without a doubt that His love for me remains and I do not walk this path through grief alone. Today is a day I need to be strengthed by God's words. I may even find my perspective changed as I allow Him to carry me on His shoulders for awhile.
Grace, Peace, and Mercy, Deb
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Scripture: My soul cleaves to the dust; Revive me according to Your word. I have told of my ways, and You have answered me; Teach me Your statutes. (Psalm 119:25-26, NASB) Observation: -God's word revives us. -God hears us and answers when we come to Him openly and honestly. -We must rely on God to teach us His ways. Application: I love our journeys out west. I am an Oregon girl who loves to be surrounded by trees, to camp out under the stars, to listen to the rushing of a stream through the woods. So when we mapped out our jouney back to Texas last summer I was looking forward to getting another taste of the woods before the barren plains, but when we reached the National Forest that was on our map this is what greeted us. And it did not improve. This is the kind of image I have in my mind when I read "my soul cleaves to the dust." There is nothing in the dust that allows one to thrive. You cannot grow well if you are clinging to the dust. And just look how lonely it is. What a difference. This photo was taken in a National Forest in Oregon near Diamond Lake. You are bound to meet people traveling along this trail, not to mention a wide variety of wildlife. This is an area full of life in vivid color.
When God revives us with His word the change is just as dramatic as the difference between these two national forests. Pretty much every year Ken snaps a picture of me hugging a tree. I confess, I am a tree hugger and I have taken a lot of grief for it over the years. People do not understand the relationship I have to trees. But we should all be tree huggers for it was on a tree that Jesus died for the sins of all mankind. A tree fashioned into a cross. To know HIm and the power of His resurection is to go from one who clings to the dust to one who clings to a tree of life. Now there's a reason to hug a tree. Grace, Peace, and Mercy, Deb |
AuthorI am a woman with a Mary heart and these are my musings as I read and study God's Word Join me on facebookArchives
October 2014
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