Psalm 18:30

Psalm 18:30
“As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”

Webster’s definitions:

Perfect: entirely without flaws, defects or shortcomings; accurate, exact, correct in every detail

Proof: to establish genuineness or validity as by evidence, to give demonstration of; to show oneself to have the character or ability expected through one’s actions; to be found by experience.

Shield: device used as a defense against blows or hurled objects; to serve as protection for, to hide or conceal; protect by hiding

Trust: reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety of a person or thing; confident of expectation of something, hope; one upon which a person relies; the obligation or responsibility imposed on a person in whom confidence or authority is placed; to believe.

God’s way is without flaw or shortcomings. It is accurate, exact and correct in every detail. God’s word has been proven through the demonstration and fulfillment of actions-Christ’s death on the cross, Bible prophecies fulfilled, promises satisfied-and through personal experience.

God is a shield against the heavy blows and fiery darts of the enemy. He Himself is the shield that hides us in the shadow of His wings, concealing us from the wounding of the enemy.

Therefore, we rely on the integrity, strength, and ability of our God. We are confident, waiting in hope and expectation for God to do what He says He’s going to do. We believe Him.

Calvary

Jagged edge, blade of sin
Cuts my soul's life vain
Bleeding, wasting, spilling out
suffering and pain
People judging, my feet trudging
trying to walk the line
Strength is seeping, grief is keeping
me along this darkened path

Splintered tree holds nails of grace
that pierce my Savior's hands
Bleeding, loving, flowing out
suffering salvation
People following, Jesus leading
free from condemnation
Victory and freedom to those
that are believing

SLB 10/30/10

Bloom

A delicate flower is
Closed tightly around herself,
She protects her heart from the world around her
Letting nothing in or out
Each day is the same, with no new experiences or adventures
No bees or wind able to gather pollen
To spread the seeds of life
No dazzling view of the Sun; only darkness
But that same Sun pursues the little flower
Day after day, coaxing it to open its heart to him
So he can shine his light on her and in turn, give life
She feels the warmth from the outside in
And her curiosity is peaked
She slowly and cautiously opens one of her petals
To peek out at this familiar friend whom she has never seen
She gasps as she is met with a blinding rush of light;
Her eyes are not accustomed
To such radiance
After living in her dark cave for so long
She wants to shut herself up again, but the warmth she felt from the outside
Is nothing compared to the soothing, almost musical touch of the Sun
She feels at her core
Slowly, so slowly,
She releases the rest of her defenses, fully blooming and basking in the light
She surges with new life and new peace,
and shares with those around her not only by giving off a beautiful fragrance
But by the new growth of pollen she’s suddenly developed by exposing
The deepest part of her to the Light.

Continual Praise

I've been meditating lately on one theme verse that the Lord has given me for this season of my life...normally I would just start writing and pouring out my heart on my blog, but I decided to wait to see if the Lord would lead me to share. For what I'm personally experiencing right now in my life, this verse has lifted some heavy and painful burdens.

‎"But I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more." Psalm 71:14

I'm not going to share the exact cirucumstances in my life that have been so difficult because that's beside the point anyway. Those who are close to me know exactly what they are...needless to say I think when we as Christians go through something difficult, our first inclination is to ask God "why"? We can't reconcile the idea of suffering or waiting or pain with our Lord Jesus because to us He is always good, always perfect, always powerful. In Randy Alcorn's "The Goodness of God" he talks about the fact that goodness and love cannot exist without the presence of evil and suffering in the world. If God took away the suffering, he would also have to take away our free will. This book has too many layers to explore here but it opened up this subject for me even more.

The bottom line is God loves us. God has plans for us. If we've made the decision to commit our lives into God's hands, we've also committed our plans, desires, dreams and future into His hands. We have committed to living His way. While I think God openly welcomes our questions when things don't go our way, or we're hurting, or we're grieving (he wouldn't be a very good parent if we couldn't talk to Him openly and honestly), He also wants us to trust Him that He is going to work together "all things for good."

My conviction lately and especially after coming across this verse in my quiet time is that I want to be a child of God that rejoices and praises Him even though I don't understand what He's doing. What honor is there in throwing a child-like temper tantrum and stomping my foot and pouting that the Lord isn't giving me what I want? And then, just like a child, when He finally does give me the desires of my heart, suddenly I am happy and can praise Him again. I don't want to be a child in my faith, still feeding on spiritual milk. I want to eat the meat of adult Christianity and PRAISE HIM YET MORE AND MORE, despite what's going on my life, despite the pain and the confusion I feel, despite the pain. For He IS worthy to be praised...just for being who He is and for no other reason. We do not have a relationship with our Lord only to praise Him when He gives us what we want and things are going well. We praise Him for His endless love, blessing, sacrifice, mercy, grace, joy...for the gift of life, for sunsets, for majestic mountains, for beauty, for friendships, for meeting our needs in every way. We praise Him because He first loved us, because He sent His Son to die for us while we were still in the darkness of our sins. We praise Him because HE IS GOD.

God has promised to give us the desires of our hearts and it's up to us to believe Him. It might not take the form that we're expecting, we might not understand the current struggles we're experiencing for future events to come together. God does-He sees the big picture. So, we HOPE CONTINUALLY. We wait in expectation for our God to do what He says He's going to do, regardless of what our limited finite human minds whisper to us in the desolation of our suffering. We hope. We love. We serve. And we wait...with joy in our hearts, praising the God of everything yet more and more.

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Shanna