Some seasons in life are down right hard…
My family is in one of those seasons. We came through a very rough season in 2010 and here we are 2014 and we find ourselves in another one. I’ve been spending every morning in the Psalms… because that is just where you go when you need to be reminded that it is okay to wrestle with God and with emotions and with decisions, and with just life in general. Today I am in Psalm 65. It’s the 5th day of the sixth month and so today I breathe in the words of this song of David…
How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You
To dwell in Your courts.
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Your holy temple.
By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;
Who establishes the mountains by His strength,
Being girded with might;
Who stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;
You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.
Psalm 65:4-8
When things in this life are hard… it’s comforting to remember that my blessings are not measured by the ease of this world. The one with the less cares does not equal the one who is most blessed. My “blessings” have nothing to do with this life.
True blessings do not have anything to do with the material things in this world.
How blessed is the one whom You choose…
So if we stake our blessings on them, the things of this world, then our blessings are conditional and they are temporary. We are not to be satisfied with the goodness of our house (including all that is in it or how much land we have with it) or our temple (our bodies including our health, height, weight, or IQ)… but we are to find our satisfaction in and with HIS.
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Your holy temple.
When we are satisfied in Him then it doesn’t matter what season we find ourselves in… because we know that He is there in it with us and we know that somehow He will show Himself glorious in it. He makes the dawn and the sunset shout for joy. The beginnings praise Him and the endings praise Him. There is reason to rejoice in every season because our blessing is in the knowledge that He has chosen us to be His. He is our trust.
When we find ourself before a mountain… a mountain that if we look at only it, there seems no way to get over it or around it… let us remember that He is the One who establishes the mountains and His grace finds us even there at the base of it.
When we find ourselves in the midst of the noise of the roaring seas and the waves crash so loud around our ears that we just want to grab our head and see if we can at least scream over their sound… let us remember that He is the One who has the power to still the seas and quiet the waves.
When we find ourselves at the base of the mountain or in the midst of the roaring seas let us remember to always breathe, just breathe… breathing in His grace… breathing out His praise… breathing in His grace… breathing out His praise… forever beloved, forever.