Once again, He's done his stuff and worked what seems to be a miracle. A long time ago, probably about a year ago now, I was feeling far away from God. I got a Psalm number in my head one evening, and when it wouldn't go away, having no idea what it contained, I looked it up, only to find it captioned 'A prayer for God to be near'. I read through it, it gave me comfort, and the next morning, I couldn't remember what it was.
Turns out it was Psalm 13.
I put a facebook status up today, indicating that I was fed up with other people's answers, and wanted some from God. Sue sent me a message, asking what answers I was looking for, and I replied. We had a chat, and she asked if I'd like to go to Clare's birthday dinner. All of a sudden, after dinner, I found myself telling Clare and Jean an idea that had come up out of the blue, through a situation with Canterbury College. We chatted it through, and agreed a course of action.
I got in Sue's car, and one of the songs was called 'Psalm 13' At this point, I had absolutely no idea what that Psalm was, but the song seemed to make sense, so I thought I'd look it up when I got home. And there it was.
2 How long must I plan what to do in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will those who hate me rise above me?
3 Look on me and answer, O Lord, my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death.
4 Or the one who hates me will say, "I have power over him." And those who hate me will be happy when I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in Your loving kindness. My heart will be full of joy because You will save me.
6 I will sing to the Lord, because He has been good to me.
This version really caught me... For a long time now, I've been struggling with what I'm supposed to do with the next few years, and it seems everyone but God has been telling me what plans to make for my life. The one idea that feels right is the one that nobody else told me to do. I got a feeling, I applied to go back to college, and the form got lost. So I'm redoing it, but I'm now reconsidering my course choices, and I'm going to talk to someone at the college about which choice is best for me.
That is fast becoming one of my most used verses... Realising I need to keep giving it all back to God, I was again reminded of the (slightly cheesy sounding, but very good) quote at Disciple College the other night.
When the going gets tough, the tough get GROWING. (Do you see the pun there? It's really quite amusing!)
This made me think about what feels comforting when things get a bit difficult in my life. It's easy to make excuses, and blame it on things that aren't under my control, but when I remember it's all under control, and that God has the whole world in his hands, I relax. And get praying.
Because Jesus' blood NEVER fails me.
He is capable. I'm not, and I'm forever forgetting that... Just one of life's lessons I need to learn again, and again, before finally understanding it.
The enemy has been defeated, and death couldn't hold You down. We're going to lift our voice in victory, and make your praises loud!
Through it all, we need to keep praising God, because happiness isn't the same as joy. Happiness is temporary. True joy can only be found in one place, and that's when you are truly at home with God.
Shout to God wtih a voice of triumph, Shout to God with a voice of praise!
Take my life, and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to thee.
