When I am ...

There are a number of beautiful Celtic Prayers in circulation, but I came across an unfamiliar prayer today. 

"Lord, when I am disturbed
When I am distressed
When I am divided
When I am disgusted.
I come to you for healing
I come to you for peace
I come to you for restoration
I come to you for dignity.
Help me, Lord,
To do what you would have me do, to become the person you want me to be." - One in Him (Celtic Prayer)

Thought: I found it interesting that the word 'disgusted' caught me unawares. And of course, there are times when I feel 'disgusted', however I had not linked our need for 'DIGNITY' to this emotion. Which part of the prayer took you by surprise?

Psalm 56:3 - "...when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you."

Living in Grace

D3LM3

When I am afraid

If you have ever felt afraid, then these verses from Psalm 56 are for you. David reminds us to shift our focus from the things that make us afraid, to the One who has conquered ALL things.

"But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.
I praise God for what he has promised. 

 I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?
What can mere mortals do to me?" - Psalm 56:3-4

Rudyard Kipling - "Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears."

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Keep your Fears to yourself

Robert Louis Stevenson has this quote that leaves me feeling a little troubled. He writes:

"Keep your fears to yourself;
Share your Courage with others."

I understand why he says we should keep our fears to ourselves, because we can easily drag others down with us, or end up making them more troubled by our fears. However, when I am afraid, I find I need to speak to someone about it, as this helps me gain perspective on these things. I believe that keeping my fear to myself (entirely) could be more harmful in the long run. What do you think?

Anyway, for today, remember that we can always turn to God for help and when we have been encouraged through the Spirit, we can then "share our courage with others."

Psalm 56:3 -  "...when I am afraid, I put my trust in you."

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Looking beyond

"Trusting God means looking beyond what we can see to what God sees." - Charles Stanley

My vision of the future is very limited. I can only see "so far" and this limits my ability to trust in the Lord. When I can see how things will work out in the future, then I settle into a place of trusting in my abilities to make things work out. However, when the future is blurry, then I have to trust in the Lord.

So, I guess that sometimes "Not knowing" is the starting point of putting our faith into practice. It teaches us to rely on the goodness of God and in trusting that God will make things work out for us.

Psalm 56:4 - When I get really afraid I come to you in trust. I’m proud to praise God; fearless now, I trust in God. (The Message)

Living in Grace
D3LM3

Tears in a bottle

With the growing scarcity of water in our country, people are putting up JoJo tanks to capture whatever rain water they can. It is amazing how much water you can collect off your roof in a single rain-storm.

But speaking of collecting water, can you imagine if God collected our tears in a bottle/tank? The Bible actually speaks about how God actually does that for us.

Psalm 56: 8 - "You have kept count of my wanderings;
store my tears in your water-skin."

I find this an amazing thought - don't you?

There was a poem written by Deborah Ann Belka - it goes like this:

There is a bottle up in heaven,
filling up with all your tears.
Drop by drop the Lord collects,
the full harvest of your fears.

There is not a tear that falls,
where He is not aware.
For He understands each drip,
and the cause of your despair.

When tears of unhappiness,
are followed up with grief.
He garners them in His vial,
and sends peace for your relief.

He knows the real reason,
as He gathers up your pain.
And all your hurtful tears,
to Him become like rain.

He reaps each tender trickle,
with His mercies from above.
Collects them in His bottle,
and caps them with His love.

Living in Grace
D3LM3