It’s Psalm Tuesday again…
Here’s today’s thoughts and notes:
Psalm 3:3 (NLT)
3But you, O Lord, are a shield around me;
you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.
The imagery of God being a shield around us is pretty awesome… how we can hide in Him, find refuge from the storms of worldly circumstance… but mostly, let Him grant us peace through resting in His strength.
In case you’d never heard it before, FFH has a song based on this verse, “Be My Glory”. You can find it on Track 8 of their album, Found a Place.
Psalm 5:1-3 (NLT)
1O Lord, hear me as I pray;
pay attention to my groaning.
2Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God,
for I pray to no one but you.
3Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord.
Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.
At the beginning of Psalm 5, David cries out to God to hear his prayer… and that he waits expectantly for an answer.
I’m challenged by this, as prayer often seems a wholly one-way street… I offer prayers to God, not waiting for a response. I wonder how many of us really do wait EXPECTANTLY for answers to prayer, with full faith and confidence that God WILL respond… that He WILL meet our needs in accordance with His will?
I know I need to learn to pray with more of such faith.
Anyway, that’s it for today. I feel kind of guilty that I’m not finding more to write about, but maybe that’s happening so that some of you following along can post your thoughts.
So… let’s hear what you have to say. I’ll wait expectantly. 🙂
Hi, John Stickley. I was just peeking in because I saw that my husband commented in an earlier post of yours. You’ve probably seen me on Micah’s blog. I hope you don’t mind me visiting. I am not by any stretch as educated as you guys are, so sorry if my comments are mostly anecdotal.
Well in regards to prayer. I never hold back from asking God for anything, but I rest in the fact that there will always be an answer. Perhaps, it won’t be the answer that I’d like it to be. But my prayer is that my desires will match with His plans for my life and that He’d take away the desires that don’t.
Monica,
I’m always glad to have people visit and chime in with their thoughts. There’s nothing to apologize for in that, no matter how educated one may be on these matters. Of course, I have no formal theological training, so I’m not sure you can really count me as educated either.
To be honest, it’s my personal opinion that we learn a whole lot more about walking with Christ by sharing personal experiences than by posting lengthy theological dissertations. Nothing against theological dissertations, of course, but most of us live in the “real world” where the application of Scripture is more meaningful to us than the debate and analysis regarding it.
Anyway… glad to have you here!
John,
Thanks for being understanding. I am just really disappointed with myself that I wasn’t able to complete the education that I was pursuing. I know it’s not too impressive but I’m only 12 units away from an A.A. degree in child development.
I was having seizures during that time and I had to stop going to school because they were coming more frequently They’re not the really bad ones that are called grand-mal seizures but they’re the less serious ones called petite-mal seizures.
The seizures are now controlled, “praise God”, and I could go back to school but I have two children now. I couldn’t give up raising them for my education. That quality time with them is more important than a career for me. I believe that in the long run it will be worth it. Now I’m not saying that women who don’t stay home with their children will end up having bad kids because that’s not true. I think it’s just rewarding for me and my children to spend time with eachother and God has provided for us to do so.
Monica,
Sorry to hear you’ve dealt with some health issues… seizures have got to be scary. I’m glad to hear God has brought those under control though.
I also think it’s great that you’re devoting your time and energies into raising your kids. My wife is a stay-at-home mom as well… she and I are both big fans of the concept. 🙂