Psalm 144:7-9 “Stretch out your hand from on high; set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false. I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,” This episode talks about how we all go through hard times and it is easier when we focus on the positive in the situation. It also talks about how we can praise God even before He answers our prayers. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Road Trip
Psalm 144:7-9 “Stretch out your hand from on high; set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false. I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,”
When I read this verse I thought it was appropriate as I talked with a friend this morning and she is going through a difficult time right now. I wish I could say she was my only friend going through a hard time right now. I wish I could say that those I knew that are suffering right now are in the minority. Unfortunately it is hard for me to think of someone that I know that isn’t suffering in some way or another right now. I know so many people that I know have asked for prayers because they or a loved one has cancer. It is out of control how many people have cancer right now. Also, after a year and a half of staying inside, a lot of families are struggling. Children don’t want to be back in school, or they are more anxious or more depressed.
I don’t want to be all doom and gloom and I’m not meaning to sound like that. I just know that there are so many people suffering right now. I am on a few different prayer lists and the requests for prayers is non-stop and those that need them are really suffering. I long for the days when the worst people have to worry about is whether they will pass their English or Math test at school. However, I don’t know that those days will come. I think as long as we are on this side of heaven there will always be tough times, we will always have struggle. I do think that we get a break from it. I don’t think the struggle is constant, although I know it can feel that way when we are in it. I think we just truck along doing life and sometimes we encounter circumstances that are really difficult and then sometimes we don’t.
I view it as a long road trip. If you have ever been on a long road trip you know that some stretches of road are easy. The traffic is flowing, the road is well taken care of, the weather is nice, maybe there is nice scenery to look at out the window. There are some parts of the road trip that you really enjoy. Then there are some parts that are not great. There are parts of every long road trip that aren’t fun, there might be more traffic then we like, it might be a really long and boring stretch of road without much to see, or you may even have weather that is not great. Then there are times in a long road trip that can be awful. You can be stuck in traffic for hours and not move far at all, you can be stuck in a torrential downpour or a snow blizzard. Your car could even break down while you are on a road trip.
This is similar to our journey through life. Some times are going to go by quickly and you are going to enjoy the ride and the view. Other times life will feel like it is crawling by and you aren’t getting anywhere. And sometimes nothing great will be happening and also, nothing bad will be happening. You will just be coasting through. Thinking of my journey through life like this has helped me to remember in the hard times, that they will not last forever. This is just a season I am in and brighter days are coming.
I think our attitude and our thoughts play such a huge role in how we feel during the difficult times. When we are going through a difficult time we get to choose what we focus on. We may not know that at the time, but we always get to choose what we focus on. In every scenario there are many different things happening and which you decide to focus on, or what you decide to tell yourself about that situation will play a huge part in how you feel and your attitude towards it. For instance, if I am struggling with my boys there are many things in that struggle that I can focus on. Let’s say I am unhappy that my son got a D in algebra. I can focus on the fact that he got a D and that he may fail that class for the semester if he doesn’t try harder this quarter. I could focus on the fact that he attended school more this semester than last. I could focus on the fact that he did really well in his other classes. I could focus on the fact that last year was really hard and he is doing better this year. Do you see how there are numerous things that I could focus on?
I get to choose which one I am going to focus on. I can choose to focus on a negative one that will make me angry and keep me upset, or I can focus on one that is more positive and will help me to see that this one D is not the end of the world. I am not saying that you can’t care about the problem you are facing. Of course you can care, and I am also not saying don’t think about it. What I am saying is that if you are going through a hard time, try to find something positive in the situation and focus on that instead of obsessing about the negative things in the circumstance. This is especially important if you can’t do anything about the negative things. If I chose to focus on my son’s D, what would that change? Would my being angry about it change the grade? Would my being angry at him make him want to study harder? I can think of many reasons why me focusing on something that makes me angry will hurt me, but I can’t see how it will change the situation.
The verse above says, “Stretch out your hand from on high; set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false. I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,” This is something that I think we have all been praying for lately. At least all those that I have been talking to. They would love for the Lord, our God, to stretch out His hand and rescue them to set them free. I have several friends that feel like they are sinking in the mighty waters and are waiting and praying for God to save them. I like how in this verse, immediately after they ask God to stretch out His had to save them, they then say they will sing a new song to Him and upon a ten-stringed harp they will play to Him. Immediately after they ask for help they start to praise Him. This is where a lot of us struggle. We wait for God to help before we praise Him. We wait to see God show up and fix things before we begin to praise.
What if we began to praise immediately after asking? What if we thanked God and praised God for helping us before we saw Him help? I wonder if anything would be different? I wonder if we would see help sooner? I wonder if we would feel any different? In John 20:29 “Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” I wonder if we would strengthen our faith if we not only believed that God would answer our prayers but we thanked Him and praised Him before we saw any proof that He was going too? I am going to try this and see what happens. I invite you to do that same. Let’s join together and thank God and praise God for answering all the prayers we have asked Him to answer right now, before He has answered them. Let’s not wait until after our prayers are answered to thank the Lord. Let’s show Him that we believe in Him as He believes in us.
Dear Heavenly Father, I pray for all those listening to this episode today. Lord we ask that help us to know that we will make it through this difficult time. Lord, give us a supernatural sense of peace and comfort knowing that you are here with us always and that you will help us through whatever we are facing. Lord, we ask that you help us to see that we can choose what we focus on. Help us to focus on the good and the positive in each situation. Help us to remember to thank you and to praise you Lord. Help us to not wait until we see your answers to our prayers. Help us to thank you and praise you now, while we are still waiting for those answers because we trust that you will answer them. We love you Lord and we know that you are amazing. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!