Psalm 3: 1 O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! 2 Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” “Selah” 3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. 4 To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. “Selah” 5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. 6 I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side. 7 Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God!
Saying “Thank you” is one of the first lessons we try to teach our children. Some babies even learn to sign “Thank you” before they can talk. It’s an important lesson. Showing gratitude is a way of showing love, of showing that we appreciate the other person and what they have done for us.
But, I am convicted that many times I forget to say thank you. Sure, I pray a prayer of thanks when something major happens. If someone is miraculously healed or we unexpectedly get money we needed or someone I love finds a job after months of unemployment, I definitely pray and thank God!
As a mother, I feel this way quite often. When I haven’t had much sleep and I have to get up and take care of children, when I’m on day ten of sick children, or when I’m cleaning up messes…again, I often think… I can’t do this.
I hear other women say the same thing, too… “I think God may want me to (stay at home with my children, change jobs, homeschool, etc.), but I just don’t think I can.”
We often feel like we aren’t up to the task at hand. And the truth is we aren’t able.
This was a true story in my family. A distant cousin of mine was failing physically. He knew he hadn’t been doing well and probably had not long to live. He and my mom were talking about things one day and this cousin, who was a godly man and ready to go and meet His Savior, told my mom he wanted to be buried with his fork in his hand.
Why?
When he was growing up, they went to his Grandma’s for Sunday dinner. As the meal was being finished and plates were being cleared, sometimes Grandma would say the words everyone wanted to hear, “Hold on to your fork.”
What do you spend your time thinking about? We live in a society filled with many fun distractions: television shows that are designed to keep us watching, movies, Facebook, blogging, books to read. There is always something to do, something we can choose to think about.
Lately, I have have been convicted about the little amount of time I actually spend thinking about the things of God. Often I am so preoccupied with reading a good book or keeping up with my favorite television show, that I don’t spend much time reading God’s Word or praying.
Paul reminds us in Romans 8:
5.For
I’ve been around some Christians who seem to be constantly living in defeat. They are always reminding themselves (and me) what sinners we are and how undeserving we are. They seem to be in a perpetual state of sadness over their sins. We are a sinful people, but isn’t it rather depressing to say that and just stay there? Don’t forget there is more to the story.
I am convinced that the difference between living in victory and drowning in defeat is where we choose to put our focus. We are sinners who are saved by God’s amazing grace. Are we focusing on who we are or on what Christ has done?
Self-esteem. It has almost become a buzz word for our culture. We are to teach our children to have good self-esteem. Bad self-esteem is blamed for a myriad of problems ranging from bad behavior to serious psychological disorders.
While I agree that we are very special to God, created in His image, and loved unconditionally by Him, I also think we have sometimes “messed up” on our ideas of self-esteem. Too many times I find myself too focused on myself, whether it is to think positively or negatively about myself, I find myself too self-absorbed. I find the same pattern in my children.
I was reading through Exodus recently, reading the account of Moses and the burning bush. Here is Moses, once an Egyptian Prince, now an outcast shepherd. He’s taking care of the sheep on an ordinary day when something very extraordinary happens. He sees a bush burning, but it never burns up. A voice- it is God speaking to him out of the bush! Not only does God speak, He gives signs: a rod that turns into a snake, a hand with leprosy restored. And then Moses receives a call, an instruction, to go to Pharaoh. God promises that He is going to deliver Moses’s people who have been in slavery all these years!