His Encouragement #191

Welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.

---

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

Psalm 37:5-6 (ESV)

This past month has not been an easy one for me. Work is really difficult right now. I’ve lost four friends who I thought were pretty solid. I’ve discovered that there are some Christians in the blogging/publishing world who are actually selfish jerks. My family got a diagnosis a couple of week’s ago that has left me quite sad. So, yeah, it’s been a rough time.

I find myself feeling disheartened by all these things.

Actually, I’m struggling to find the energy to type the words for this post or to read my review books or grade my papers. I feel like giving up. Then I feel so disappointed in myself.

But I digress.

God knows what I need when I need it. And guess what? This week, I really needed Psalm 37:5-6. God is so cool!

“Commit [my] way to the Lord, and trust in Him and He will act.” You know how amazing this verse is? In the Hebrew, the rabbis understand this verse to mean, “Commit all your needs to Him.” Interesting.

God has my heart, for sure, but what about my needs? Do I give those to Him, or do I try to fix things myself? What about you, dear reader, do you give God your needs or do you go on a fix-it spree?

If I’m honest, I go on a fix-it spree. For the past few weeks all I have been able to do is stress over solutions to all my issues. How can I fix my daughter? Can I get a new doctor or a new medicine? What about work? How can I fix the struggles going on there? Can I put in more hours? Can I talk to someone in admin? The friends I’ve lost — how can I make things better? And the blogging/publishing world? Should I give up on my blog and move on with my life? Should I ditch these frauds for being such heartless jerks — cause nothing is more important than a stupid review, right? Who cares that someone’s world may have some struggles right now cause it’s all about the bottom line, right?

Do you see all those “I”s? There’s something very wrong with this picture here. And what is wrong is that I try to fix everything instead of giving it to my Father in Heaven who is probably really frustrated that His kid is getting kicked around so much right now and is fully equipped to handle all my problems, but I won’t give them to Him because I think I am small and not a big deal and should be able to figure this all out on my own. Yes, all this junk is happening, but I MESSED UP. I messed up because I have committed none of my needs to God. Actually, I’ve been so overwhelmed, I forgot to pray most days — I know, I’m probably in the doghouse with God right now!

Here’s what Psalm 37:5 tells us: when we give our needs to God, HE ACTS. When I trust Him with my heart and all the worries bogging it down, HE ACTS. How much inaction have I forced upon God because I went into fix-it mode?

Verse six tells us that when we trust God with our concerns, HE ACTS and illuminates our righteousness and our judgements. They become as bright as the noon sun. How sad I feel right now. Maybe, just maybe, doctors, friends, blogger/publisher peeps, my daughter, and/or my fellow coworkers would have seen JESUS more clearly if I had just brought my problems to Him first and let HIM ACT. But I didn’t. I failed to let God work through me and I didn’t even realize it until I sat down to write this very long post.

But it’s not too late. I am not dead yet, which means God has given me time to correct my ways. So, right now I pray to Yahweh for forgiveness. I did not come to You, God, with my needs. I thought I could fix everything on my own. In doing that I forced you to sit out the game. Forgive me, Abba. Holy Spirit, I pray that from now on it’s my second nature to bring everything to You. I love You, Lord, and I am sorry for my error. I pray this in Your Name, Yeshua Hamashiach. Amen.

Dear reader, if you are in the same boat as me, fret not! Stop what you are doing right now and pray. Give all your needs to God and He will ACT!

---

NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN!

WHAT BIBLICAL VERSE IS ENCOURAGING YOU TODAY?