My reading from the Psalms tonight was from Psalm 142. It starts this way: “I cry out to the LORD; I plead for the LORD’s mercy. I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.”
Wow. Sounds like God has really big, soft shoulders or is the repository of all of our cr*p. But, He can really handle it. It’s OK. He’s God – great awesome power and all that. I mean, there’s a lot worse stuff going on in the world than my headaches so I expect He can manage some pain.
But, in verse 5 the psalmist says, “Then I pray to you, O LORD, I say, “You are my place of refuge. Your are all I really want in life.”
Cool. God is my refuge. He’s all I want – really!!! He can handle all the junk that I cry out to him – the headache, messy house, loneliness, fatigue, etc. And when I’ve thrown all my junk at Him, I can just rest right there. I can know that He’s protecting me. Maybe not from my headaches, but from despair, evil, anger. And, that’s all I really want out of life. I just want you, Lord.
My Old Testament reading tonight was from 2 Kings 6 where the Aramean king sends his army to surround and capture Elisha. Elisha, though, prays for God to open Elisha’s servant’s eyes to see what is really there – horses and chariots of fire. These protected Elisha and the Arameans went to Samaria instead. There is a whole reality that we can’t even see (which my rather scientific brain can’t even handle) but it’s there. God uses His supernatural “whatevers” to make sure that His plan is what happens. It doesn’t mean that my life will be the way I like it, even if I always make the right choice.
It does mean, though, that God is big enough to handle the bad stuff that He lets in my life. And that I can then come curl up in that safe refuge He provides. Thanks be to God!!
1 comment:
Have you seen the Indescribable DVD yet? I think your dad got us both copies. Louie makes the same point that our God made the entire universe (of what we can see and cannot see) so he certainly can handle our daily problems. Initially, this made me feel insignificant, but once I understood the magnitude of God's power and remembered that He cares for even little ole me, I realized that He's so much more than my mind can grasp. And like you say, He even cares about the little things. We serve an amazing God for sure!
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