Faith and life meet in a story
Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. Psalm 126:5
Sometimes the beginnings of something great are wrapped in hardship.
Sow anyway.
Sometimes it seems pointless to bother with sowing at a time like this.
Sow anyway.
Sometimes we wonder if the joy will ever come.
Keep sowing.
Joy will come and it will be better than we ever imagined.
And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak. 2 Corinthians 4:13
The apostle Paul had a hero. If not a hero, he had someone whose faith he wanted to emulate, a faith that inspired and encouraged him to keep going in the face of life-threatening opposition. Paul hints at his hero here in this verse.
“I believed therefore I spoke,” is a quote from Psalm 116:10. It was common practice for Jewish speakers to cite a fragment of Scripture and his listeners would naturally grasp that he was referring to the entire larger work. Paul quotes this part of a verse to connect his readers to the entire psalm. He shows us that he looks for comfort and encouragement in the psalms just like we do.
The psalmist speaks of being delivered from certain death,(v.3-4) of testifying to God’s intervention, (v.8) but with the understanding that the death of a believer is not the worst possible outcome (v.15).
In Second Corinthians, Paul echoes those ideas – being delivered from certain death (1:8), testifying to God’s intervention (1:10) but with the understanding that the death of a believer is not the worst possible outcome (5:1-3).
Paul saw himself in the experience of the psalmist and in those inspired words, he found a resolve not to let the threat of death, or opposition, or any other difficulty silence him. The message was too important, and God was too good to keep quiet.
Both Paul and the psalmist determined that circumstances were not going to determine the depth or strength of their faith. Instead the depth and strength of their faith allowed them to reframe their circumstances with an eternal perspective.
Do you have a Scriptural hero or a psalm that especially encourages you?
Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, For in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, For I lift up my soul to You. Psalm 143:8
When I run, I use an app on my phone that tracks my distance, time and pace. In preparation for an upcoming race, I started using the coaching feature. I set it for the pace I want to run and every minute it lets me know how I’m doing. “9:52. You’re ahead of your pace. Slow down. Great job!” Or, “12:15. You’re behind your goal pace. Speed up. Awesome workout!”
Now the programmers could have left the ‘awesome workout’ part off when I’m behind pace. But I think they left it for a purpose. I tend to get focused on results, on my ability or failure to meet one goal or another. The ‘awesome workout’ reminder points me to something broader. Being out alone in the morning quiet is a good thing. Not only that, being able to run is a gift and a blessing. I shouldn’t lose those simple pleasures because the number on a pace meter wasn’t what I thought it should be.
I get that same kind of narrow view in my Christian walk as well. I set standards for how I think I should be progressing. (Notice, I set them, not God.) Then I have to start monitoring. Am I on pace with the right number of quiet times? Did I read enough chapters? Did I meet my goal for prayer? Or study? Or growth? Am I closer to God than I was last week? Am I on pace or behind?
Now I believe a periodic spiritual inventory can be a good thing, but not an end in itself. For me, I find that in the quest to meet some goal or achieve a metric, I completely miss the joy, the gift, the blessing that comes with a relationship with Christ. It’s a relationship guided by His timing and not my schedule, on His grace and not my performance.
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Psalm 84:10
Access to a king is tightly controlled.
It is a rare favor for someone to enter the king’s presence, to present petition and have it granted.
David served in the court of King Saul.
He knew what it was to be intimately acquainted with the king.
David then presided over his own royal court.
Still, he says a day serving the King of Kings is better than a thousand days elsewhere.
Even better than being the king.
I’m not as familiar with kings.
Maybe that’s why I tend to take for granted the gift of God’s presence.
I don’t always fully appreciate the relationship the King has invited me into.
But instead of withdrawing the privilege … the King calls me closer.
Cast your burden on the LORD, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:12
Cast
Have you ever fished? Or watched someone fish? Fishermen cast the line.
If someone is a castaway, he is cut off from society.
If something is cast off, it’s undesirable and we get rid of it.
Sustain
God promises to trade burdens for support, relief and refreshment.
We can keep our burdens and sustain ourselves,
Or we can throw the burdens on the Lord and He will sustain us.
Permit
Never. He will not allow, He will not consent to, He will not make a way.
Nothing happens outside His will.
This is confidence that the things entrusted to Him will be completely kept and handled.
Casting your burden on Him is the right decision.
Moved
We can’t fall away. We can’t slip away. We can’t be stolen away.
If we cast the burden on Him, He won’t allow our faith to be shaken.
So why is it such a hard decision to cast the burden on the Lord?
(This marks 1001 blog posts. There would be no milestone without you. Thank you!)
Be my strong refuge, To which I may resort continually. Psalm 71:3
When we were kids, maybe it was a tree house, a fort, or another secret special place.
Now maybe it’s a porch swing or a gazebo.
Or an easy chair in a comfortable corner.
A quiet place.
Someplace to get away.
To escape.
To catch our breath.
To clear our minds.
Let Him be that place.
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