[Click on photo to read poem]
Passage of the Day: Psalm 143: 7 - 10 [NLT] …
7 Come quickly, LORD, and answer me, for my depression deepens. Don’t turn away from me, or I will die. 8 Let me hear of your unfailing love to me in the morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I have come to you in prayer. 9 Save me from my enemies, LORD; I run to you to hide me. 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.
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Contextual Study of today’s passage: Psalm 143 [NLT] … Go to this link …
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Reference Passage #1: Proverbs 3: 5-6 : [I know; … here we go again! ] …[NKJV] …
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
My Journal for Today: Have you ever noticed how many of David’s songs (i.e., the Psalms) begin in self-directed anguish and end in God-uplifting hopefulness. Psalm 143 is one of those; and when I was meditating on that Psalm this morning as Os Hillman’s devotional highlight passage, I thought of the oft quoted poem of confused authorship, ”Footsteps in the Sand,” depicted in the attached photo. … How often, like David in so many of his Psalms do we come to God in anguish; but in our surrender in the face of our disappointment or discouragement leads us to the hope we can ALWAYS find in the One who picks us up and carries us … our Lord and Redeemer, … Christ.
David was an interesting study in his life-long pursuit of the understanding this truth. And even his son, Solomon, who wrote the Proverb I probably end up quoting more than any other in my daily journal entries, Prov. 3: 5-6 (above again!), also had to go on a life-long quest of this truth, only to write about it in the Book we know of as Ecclesiastes.
It’s an elusive truth, isn’t it; … that we can come to God in anguish … anytime, anywhere, and in any set of circumstances, … honestly bringing our surrendered heart to our Lord; and He will do what Carolyn Carty wrote about in her poem, … pick us up and carry us until we can get back on our feet again to walk with God, following Him in purpose and direction.
Where are you now? Are you in a place of discouragement or defeat, needing to come to God in honesty and surrender? … Or are you in a place where He has carried you further down the beach … to a place where you can now walk on your own, but following closely in the footsteps of the One Who picked you up and carried you for as long as you needed Him to be there for you? That’s why I wish that the picture attached here depicted the two sets of footsteps again on down the beach … with the smaller prints, not walking beside the larger ones, as in the outset of this foto, … but later in line with and closely following the larger ones.
I’ve been where David was in Psalm 143; and right now I’m walking down the beach with my Lord, doing all I can to put my footprints right in line with my Lord’s.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, I step where You step. … Amen
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