I keep thinking I should post blogs about fundraising statuses and equipment item needs, but every time I sit down to write, my words go a different way. This time, God keeps bringing me back to Psalm 37: 3-7.
Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of you heart.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of our cause like the noonday sun.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Trust. Delight. Commit. Be Still. These are not only the road map to blessings, they are given as commands.
Some days, it feels like I may loose my mind with all the preparation, all the stressors, the lack of daily schedules, and the ‘faith building’ that is continuously before me. Some days it is hard to believe how different (and normal) my life was only a few short weeks ago. Then in a whirl, God stepped in to completely redirect my path.
When God turns your life on its head, even if it is for the better, it can be hard to believe that the road you have been set on is the right one…because if feels wrong somehow, this unknown, less traveled path. Yet he promises safe pasture for those that trust in Him – safe pasture, the place where wolves and lions cannot encroach to steal you from His care. Sometimes when we cannot feel Him – it is because He is standing in the gap, providing protection. He is the one that fights for you.
Delight. A beautiful word which always seems to me to describe a tender love that is filled with joy. Those moments when you think your heart will just burst over a loved one – how you love them so much you do not even know, but you cannot erase the joy they create in you.
I have come to realize I do not know my own heart. I know the lies well, I know the aches and bruises well. Yet when I listen to God’s heart, I realize those things He calls me to surrender – these things that I have held onto as my heart’s desires – look like dust amidst the jewels He has planned. He always intends to write a story with our lives that we could not have predicted. He will bring each good thing in its time, even those things we have once held too tightly, but listen for the bigger story. Within our delight of Him, God leads us to the true desires of our hearts.
Commitment. Oh dear. A scary word that makes my stomach sink. In commitment to the Lord, we are refined in both righteousness and justice – formed into a warrior of His making. Yet why would God cause our justice to shine ten times brighter than our righteousness? It seems backwards at first. Isn’t it our righteousness, our reflection of Christ, that should shine brightest?
The righteousness God builds in us is not the noonday sun, the type of Pharisee ‘righteousness’ our world abhors. The light at dawn is not harsh although it announces the sun – it awakens gently, it challenges softly. To honor God while extending grace and love is true righteousness.
Unlike righteousness, the craving for justice is innate. Regardless of your opinions about God, we all desire true justice. Good guys win, bad guys loose….this is how it is supposed to be, but is so often not what we see. We all feel how wrong it is when the wicked go unpunished. When the oppressed continue to be oppressed. When wickedness is accepted or even rewarded. God will not only defend our causes of justice, but He calls Himself the Ancient of Days. He is the Just One, and nothing escapes His notice. Justice is as much a part of who He is as love. The good guy, the true hero, does win in the end – and so do then ones who follow Him.
We can rest in the shadow of the Ancient of Days and wait patiently. He does all things well, and if we are willing, we can be part of the victory stories He is writing. Even greater things than what we have already seen.
