Psalm 18 Ramblings

 

"I love You, O Lord, my strength." 

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, 

My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;

My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, 

And I am saved from my enemies.

I'd been reading Psalm 18 and at verse 3, I stopped to write down what I considered to be a few of my own recent personal "enemies." They weren't physical things of course - certainly nothing like what David describes in verses 4-6 - but they were definitely some tough emotional "enemies," and they definitely felt threatening to my heart and peace of mind. However as I was recording them, I started thinking that I really needed to change my perspective a bit. The things I was dealing with weren't just special and exclusive to me but are faced by all humans at one time or another in life, and maybe I needed to look at the damage Satan was trying to do to my heart through them as the real enemy, not the emotions themselves.

No one wants to take difficult emotional situations by the horns and commit to walking through them with intentionality -- at least, I sure don't. And I don't think I'm very good at it at all. But I know God can use those things for good in my life if I commit to walking through them in faith. Honestly though, that's a way more scary proposition than just trying to stuff everything down and avoid and ignore, because it's gonna hurt all the more deeply if those situations don't go the way you hoped, and you've invested fully in walking through them rather than avoiding them. But the scriptures are FULL of reminders of the waste that is when we don't! A waste of opportunity to endure to spiritual completeness (James 1:4); to be approved for the eternal crown of life through this expression of love for our Lord (James 1:12); to share in His holiness through His discipline (Heb. 12:3-10); to gain the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Heb. 10:11); to share in the sufferings of Christ (1 Peter 4:13); and to really rest in and EXPERIENCE the care of God, whose mighty hand promises to lift us up if we only trust Him in humility and love. (1 Peter 5:6-7) I listed these thinking um WOW, those are a lot of amazing blessings God has promised to those who purpose to endure in faith. And I want those things!!

The thing is, the blessed assurance we receive from Psalm 18 is that when we decide on seeing the hard things through in faith, God rises up to help us. We may not see it or feel it in the moments of pain, but David describes a God in Psalm 18 who fights for His children in a very powerful and real way. We don't live in the age David did and the ways God fights for us are different now in certain ways, but the same God Who delivered David promises to deliver us. He may refine us through our circumstances. He may still let us experience heartache and some incredibly painful situations. But whatever He allows we can trust will not only be for our good, but will NEVER be a waste - and that is such an amazing, compassionate, and beautiful promise. And whatever He makes us walk through we can know that, if we humble ourselves to Him, He will fight for us -- our rock, our fortress, and our deliverer. Blessed be the name of the Lord!!  

The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock;

And exalted be the God of my salvation,

The God who executes vengeance for me, 

And subdues peoples under me.

.......

♥ 

 

Winter Happenings

............

O taste and see that the Lord is good;

How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!

O fear the Lord, you His saints;

For to those who fear Him there is no want.

Psalm 34:8-9

We've been enjoying lots of winter time teas since we've been dealing with a lot of sickness (like the rest of the US it seems!!).

And enjoying some wintery holiday baking :)

Working with dough is one of my faaaavorite things :) :)

And so is making cinnamon rolls, hah ;)

We tried our hand at making homemade vaseline and lotion bars! This was so much fun and the lotion bars work SO well, I never want to go back to store-bought chapstick!! ;) We used Melissa K. Norris's lotion bar formula HERE, and Homestead Corner's 2-ingredient vaseline recipe HERE. Highly recommended!! :o)

The deer have been out foraging ...

... and the winter sunsets have been breathtakingly lovely. :)

I hope you are having a blessed beginning to your year my friends! :)

♥