Just a Spoon Full of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down

Yeah, that's right.  For whatever reason I have the song from Mary Poppins in my head.  And since I am home alone, I am audibly singing the song.  

I woke up this morning and read this for my devotion:

"Let me hear of Your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting You.  Show me where to walk, for I give myself to You."

~Psalm 143:8

This came from one of David's prayers in the midst of a time he was experiencing hopelessness and depression.

I don't find it a coincidence that I read this verse today.  I find myself with a little less hope at times.  Hope in the world, hope in life, hope in others, hope in myself.  I find myself seeing more of the negatives in things and in people.  I don't want to be like that.  For losing hope in the world, in life, in others and in myself is doubting God.  And why do I doubt Him?  Because how I think things should go, be fixed, work out as I think they should don't?  That's very selfish of me.  It's from this selfishness that causes me to be easily annoyed and aggravated.  It's in this that I catch myself literally yelling at other drivers on the road.  Sure I don't really want to die in a car wreck and would like for their attitude of what I see as "I am the only person on the road therefore I can do what I want" to lean more toward thinking of others and obeying traffic signs and laws.  But I can't get caught up in others behaviors.  I can't change people.  

We aren't promised an easy, unhindered life when we put our trust and faith in Christ.  Just look at the Apostle Paul and the life he lived based upon his writings from prison.  And the biggest example of this is the life of our perfect sacrifice for our sins, Jesus.  Right before he was arrested, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He cried out to God to take this (the physical and spiritual pain He was about to endure) from Him.  He told Him that if there was another way to accomplish this that He would like for that course instead.  But, He then said that if there isn't and this is the only way that you and I can have the opportunity at forgiveness and being able to spend eternity in heaven then so be it.  He told Him, "Not what I want but Your will be done."  

So I need to worry.  I need to get caught up in what the secular world has placed all of its importance on.  I need not feel as if my life is in a downward spiral.  We go through things to help us out in the bigger scheme of things.  I am going through this to let me see thoughts and personality traits that I have that need to be changed.  I am going through this to grow in my faith.  I am going through this to grow in my knowledge of who Christ really is.  I am growing in my relationship with Him as well.  I am getting to see how He does love and care for us by meeting our needs and providing the essentials (just like He says He will).  There is good that can come from anything.  We have to want the good and sometimes choose to seek for it.  

I know He has a plan for me.  There are gifts and talents that He has equipped me with that He is using now (unbeknownst to me).  He knows my many interests that I have.  I don't want them to become my main confused focus because I still do not know what I should do.  I want to do too many things I think.  What matters to me is what we read two verses later in Psalm 143 in verse 10, "Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God.  May Your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing."  That is where I need to put my hope and focus.  It isn't in a FT job, a house with some land so my wife and I can have a dog.  It isn't in having more money so I can take my wife to the beach for a week and take my mom or dad or brother & his wife out to eat.  Sure that would be very nice but it's not what is most important and what truly matters.  What matters is that even in what is perceived as a rotten situation, I do my best to keep hoping and trusting in Christ.  That I let His will to be done and not what I want.  For it is in this that others will benefit.  Look at the good that came from Paul's time in prison.  Look at the good that came from Jesus' arrest and death.  Good can come from, what can easily be perceived as, a crappy situation.  But it is only perceived that way when we look at it & think on it in a selfish light.  My life and my situation is not about me.  It's about my wife, my family, my friends, people I come in contact with, and most importantly it is about God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It is when we make our time worthwhile out of loving service for others that is key, regardless of the circumstance/situation...good or bad, positive or negative.  It is here we lose sight of self and focus on God and others.  It is here His light shines.  It is here His love endures forever.