The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to Him in song. (Psalm 28:7 ESV)
How many times are we overwhelmed with the circumstances within which we find ourselves? New job, career change, budgetary issues, health and parental care concerns, children, job pressures and the list continues.
What do we do in these times of crisis? Do we bask in the muck of indecision and helplessness or do we consult the One in whom we find our help? All too often I go to the mud pit first before looking up to our Heavenly Father who knows all and sees all. I become consumed with my problem as I forge on in my strength to solve it, which usually doesn’t end as positively as I had hoped.
It is in the miry thick of things when my head is bursting, muscles tensed, and my thoughts filled only with anxiousness that I finally reach a wall; a wall too steep to climb and too wide to go around. There in the midst of exasperation and utter exhaustion, I find the strength I need—only when I look up and offer my feebleness into the hands of One far greater than my circumstances. He alone offers me hope in my deepest hour of need.
He doesn’t fix things and make my problems disappear, although that would be much preferred. However, it is in the thick of the disparaging struggle that God reveals His sufficiency to aid me as I walk through the darkness. He doesn’t remove the darkness…just offers me a candle to light one step ahead as I trust and follow. After surrendering the moment, the task, the exasperation, the unsettled situation to Him I find PEACE….Not absolution…Not a quick fix, but His PEACE in the middle of my crisis.
Then, I can give thanks as the Psalmist says and SING to Him! The LORD is my STRENGTH!
Keith