Hello Everyone!
Today we are reading Psalm 109. I am a bit late in the day getting this posted, but I have family visiting currently so my usual routines are all a bit different currently. But it is nice to be able to catch up with family!
I did find a few minutes to squeeze in reading today's Psalm. Right away I knew which verse was really speaking to my heart. It is verse 4, and reads like this:
"In return for my love they are my accusers, But I give myself to prayer." Psalm 109:4
Did you catch that? I give myself to prayer!
When falsely accused--we need to give ourselves to prayer.
When having difficulties--we need to give ourselves to prayer.
When we lack wisdom--we need to give ourselves to prayer.
This verse reminded me of something I read a while ago and really surprised me. I had to really think about this quote I am going to share with you for quite some time, pondering and praying about how I am supposed to apply it to my life. The quote is as follows:
"When perplexities arise, and difficulties confront you, look not for help to humanity. Trust all with God. The practice of telling our difficulties to others only makes us weak, and brings no strength to them. It lays upon them the burden of our spiritual infirmities, which they cannot relieve. We seek the strength of erring, finite man, when we might have the strength of the unerring, infinite God.
You need not go to the ends of the earth for wisdom, for God is near. It is not the capabilities you now possess or ever will have that will give you success. It is that which the Lord can do for you. We need to have far less confidence in what man can do and far more confidence in what God can do for every believing soul. He longs to have you reach after Him by faith. He longs to have you expect great things from Him He longs to give you understanding in temporal as well as in spiritual matters. He can sharpen the intellect. He can give tact and skill. Put your talents into the work, ask God for wisdom, and it will be given you."
Christ's Object Lessons, by E. G. White, p. 146
Isn't this a powerful quote? The reason I had to really think and pray about it for awhile is to decide how I am to apply this to my own personal life. Especially as a female, I enjoy being able to share with my girlfriends, both positive things in my life as well as negative things. And I finally arrived at the conclusion that it is just fine to support one another as Christians--but we need to not be looking to our friends to solve our problems. That is what we are to look to God for! But I do not think this quote means that we cannot support each other and pray for one another, lifting each other up in prayer to the One who CAN help. But often, when we start telling others about all the things going wrong--well, let's be honest--it can easily turn into one big complaining and "poor me" session! Let's remember that God is the One who can help us, not our friends. But when we are feeling weak, I do think it can be appropriate to ask our friends to pray for us and about our situation--remembering where our help comes from.
So let's make this a practice in our lives, remembering that God is near and He longs to help us.
And talk with Him every day!
~Susan
No comments:
Post a Comment