Contemporary Psalms

12-18-13

O LORD, cause me to hear Your loving kindness in the morning, for in You do I trust. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk...

Psalm 143:8

LORD, I awoke from another "struggling dream" that I can't remember in detail -- only that it was me again, trying too hard. It brought me back to the slogan You gave me that all I can do is all I can do -- and that all I can do is me. I am accountable for whatever light You have revealed to me, LORD, which includes:

I want My people to "get real" with Me, with themselves and with each other.

Tell of My works and sing My praises.

Do not ask what the others are doing; you, follow Me.

I hear You saying, LORD, not to look for visible proof or progress, as it is not mine to measure results of what You have asked of me. Mine is only to walk the walk, holding Your Hand and stepping into the next patch of light as You light the way. I hear You saying, "You can't force the forsythia."  I am not responsible for other people's choices or decisions, only for my own comings and goings, remaining true to what You are doing with me without even asking why You are doing it. I will follow You, LORD, into Your purposes, praying only for knowledge of Your will for me and the power to carry it out. I hear You saying,

Remember that it is I Who brought your life from the pit  -- I, your LORD, your God. Go ahead and weep, child, crying mightily to Me that everyone would turn from his evil way and, by My wisdom, be made able to discern between clean and unclean, right and left, holy and unholy. 

Go ahead and wail for their rescue and deliverance from troubled waters, from the hands of liars whose mouths speak lying words, whose right hands are the full of falsehood.

Yes, LORD, I hear -- and I pray You will remove falsehood and lies from me and all who hear and heed Your gentle callling. You are my Rock and my high tower and my deliverer, the one in whom I take regfuge. I fear not because I remember the evidence from my past that comes as far forward as yesterday and ten minutes ago. Yes, the waters will surround me -- and they do! The deep closes around me and weeds wrap around my head. But I went down so low once, that I thought I was a goner. I was down so deep that I reached the moorings of the mountains and felt the earth far from me as I cried from way down deep in the mire. Yet You heard me squeaking from a distance so far that it seem like of light years from Your people and Your world on the surface of the earth. You stretched out Your hand from above; You sent Your people to lower down a rope they made from their own dirty laundry -- rags! They lowered those rags and I held on on for dear life as You pulled me up and out out of that skinny spiral into the light of day.

Now I live  to thank You by telling of Your works and singing Your praises, being as "real" and as honest as I can possibly be, even sharing my "dirty laundry" because I now know that it is through broken jars that Your Light shines forth. Thank You for this jar of clay, inhabited by You, to carry You forth, everywhere I go until I come fully into You in the heavenlies to glorify You forever and ever... Amen!

This post is based on Jonah 1:1-4-11; Psalms 143, 144:1-8;  Proverbs 30:6-9; Revelation 8:1-13.

The photograph is the vibrant work of Carin Roaldset. Google her!