day no. 14,387: the difficulty of being downcast

Psalm 42

Jesus said that the thirsty and hungry are blessed because they will find refreshment and food from their Heavenly Father. Yet when your tongue is stuck to the roof of your mouth and your stomach feels like it is devouring itself, it is hard to imagine it's a blessing. When it is dark and you desire light, cold and you beg for warmth, lonely and long for love, stressful and the finish line seems so far off, it is easy to feel downcast. I love how the Psalmist speaks to his soul. It is so difficult to reason with feelings. They don't respond to logic. Which is why we don't let them lead. We lead our hearts into the truth and beg it to respond with new feelings, new affections, and new hope because there's new mercy available daily even when everything seems to be going wrong.

day no. 14,386: to dine or to destroy?

Exodus 24:11

And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

The people communed with God and He did not lay His hand on them. The implication is clearly that He could have, but didn't and instead made the decision to dine with them in this moment rather than destroy them.

day no. 14,385: pleasant words

Exodus 24:7-8

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” 8 And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

"All this we will do,"are pleasant words for a parent to hear… unless it is followed by doing what was forbidden and foregoing what was required.

day no. 14,384: strengths and weaknesses

Psalm 41

The one who considers the poor has reason to believe that God may help him endure life's difficulties, if only to restore them to their work of looking after the weak and powerless. Those of us who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak (Romans 15;1). Those who use their strength to serve will be renewed by the strength that comes from God

day no. 14,383: on your marks, get set, God!

Exodus 23:27-31

I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. 31 And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

God knows how to get us where He wants us to go. He is not just the starter pistol, He is the cup of cold, fresh water along the way and He is the finish line. He doesn't just give us direction, He guides us. He has thought it through and is never caught off guard. He brings us from one glory to another, little by little, as we fix our eyes and follow Him (2 Cor 3:18)

day no. 14,382: bogged down

Psalm 40

I've never been in an actual bog, but I imagine one of the most disconcerting things about it is its bogginess. It encompasses you and provides you nothing sturdy against which you might push yourself. It objectively envelops you with its abstraction. But God is a Rock. He is sturdy and can be counted on, stood upon, relied upon. Conversely, you can push off of Him. You can distance yourself from Him. One of the best things about the Lord is his immutability. But for some, the fact that He does not evolve is perceived as old-fashioned, out of touch, or irrelevant. But for us who glory in His unchanging, we sing new songs about His old ways. We find new ways to praise His faithful Name. We create opportunity to worship our Creator and His consistency. 

day no. 14,381: don't worry

Psalm 39

Something about a proper perspective puts everything else into place. Worry and anxiety are often cured by fast forwarding all the way to the end. Once it is affirmed that you will die, despite your best attempts to live forever, you can make much of what is most important and focus less on what is evaporating. There is less reason to worry or be anxious since most worries are about prolonging one's life as long as possible.