The Amazing Word

Scripture

How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand?

~Psalm 13:2, NLT

Quote

God’s grace, through the person and work of His Son Jesus Christ, is the only salvation from sin and evil.

~Ya’akov

No one agrees on the exact number of human emotions we experience but most agree that there are eight or nine. I found one chart that I like. It list eight basic emotions and then those that spring from the eight basic.

Image result for charts on emotional responses from Christian point of view

One reason we all love the Psalms is that it deals with every emotion on the chart. This means that reading the Psalms becomes very personal. I read at least one per day and sometime two. Today I read Psalm 13 and it was as if I have never read it. God’s word amazes me. I have preached sermons from Psalm 13 and yet it was as if I had never read it before. When I got to verse two, I had to stop and wonder. How long must struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? I could stop with the first five words...How long must I struggle? A big part of my struggle is the fact that my enemies have the upper hand or so it seems. When I think about enemies, I am not limiting that to the dems, Marxist, the Social Justice warriors, etc. I am thinking about my stinking flesh, my vanity, pride, lust and greed. I loathe these enemies as much as any. I don’t know if it is my age or what but 2021 was a bit of a struggle. I am sick and tired of bad news. These days, all the news {TV} is bad. But is not just the TV news that bothers me. It is very disturbing to me to find out that a friend has cancer and more disturbing that they are younger than myself. Hey, if we live long enough, we will get tired and long for our departure. Mrs. Annie Murphy {Larry and Don’s mother} prayed everyday for the LORD to take her on to heaven. She would even asks me to pray that prayer and I did. My mother lived to be 95 or at least very close and she simply got tired of the struggle. She attended a son and a son-in-laws COLS in 13 months and she told her pastor, “I do not want to live to see another burial of a son or daughter.”

Jesus summed up my purpose statement in John 4, “My purpose is life is to be obedient to the One who saved me and to finish the work He has called me to do.” Since I am a very emotional creature, I need to spend a lot of time in solitude. The negative emotions have to be dealt with before I get into the public arena. If I don’t kneel before God, I can’t stand before men. I have to deal with the anger, fear, doubt, grief and loathing before I get with people. My grief, fear, anger or loathing is not going to be edifying to anyone. May God help me leave all the negative emotions with Him so I can bring a bit of cheer to others. I don’t know that I always practice what I preach but spreading a let cheer is my intent. Hey, you never know when a smile, a hand shake, a hug, a card, an encouraging text or a compliment will make a person’s day. I highly recommend that every believer read at least one Psalm a day: it will make your day. A Psalm a day will keep discouragement at bay.

 

Extra

It is 24 degrees but not a lot of wind. The ground was dry between the house and the office. I waited for daylight to come to the office, didn’t want to slip on any ice but there was no ice. Porch, sidewalk, everything dry as a bone. Our central is working for now. Two days in a row, we woke up to 58 degrees inside but it was a toasty 69 this morning. We are still getting tomatoes from our green house: they are small but the taste is good. If they can survive this week, I think they will make it.

Keep praying for those in crisis and begin praying for the services this Sunday. Have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.

In reading the IMMERSE in Hosea chapter one {IMMRSE does not have verses} I read…I will free them {Judah} from their enemies–not with weapons, armies, horses or chariots–but by My power as the LORD their God. We cannot free ourselves anymore than our automobiles repair themselves. We are helpless and totally dependent on the LORD.

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