God is my Victory!!!

Reflections on Psalm 44

Just as the psalmist states in vs 6 and 7 of psalm 44 that he has no victory without God, I too have no victory without God. This point seems to be a recurring theme for me. While my daughter and I read through the Old Testament, I am reminded over and over again how easy it was and is for people to forget about God when times are good. In Deuteronomy, Moses spends numerous chapters hammering home the importance of loving God, obeying God, remembering God and teaching your children to do the same...
Why does Moses have to repeat himself????
Because the Israelites and Kristina and ___________ (insert name here) have a tendency to forget. It's easy for me to turn my nose up at the Israelites and think that I am better than them, after all, if God has performed all those miracles for me, I wouldn't be so quick to allow idols into my life....
HMMMMM... Nice idea but totally incorrect! Perhaps the miracles in my life are not as flashy as the parting of the Red Sea but God has performed wonders just the same and I too have the tendency to forget God, take credit for all the goodness myself, and start erecting altars to my very own modern day idols.
Human nature has not really changed that much over the years, at least as far as I can see in my life. And God still has to continually hammer home some main points that I seem so willing to forget: Love God, Fear God, Obey God, Thank God, and teach about God to my child so that she can do the same.

Thank you Lord for your patience with me. You continue to teach me the same lessons over and over again, never giving up on me. I pray that one day, I will have this lesson committed to heart, etched in so deeply that I will forever be cognizant that without you I will never achieve victory. You and you alone allow me to be victorious.

Shout for Joy!!!

Psalm 42
"Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,
my savior and my God."

When my hope is truly in God, how can I walk in sorrow? This mighty God I serve has promised to be my refuge, my shield, my source of strength. When I keep myself rooted in Him and His promises to me I can do no less than shout and sing for joy because with Christ for me, who can be against me?

Now, I don't believe that I shouldn't have times of sadness... God made me with tear ducts and tears for a reason. My heart will be broken, I will get disappointed, frustrated, lonely, and I will cry, sob, wail and hopefully I will remember to call out to the Lord for the comfort I so desire. ONLY God in his unfailing love can bring me the peace that my soul, my heart, my body desires. When I cling to His Word, His promises to me, my sorrow soon turns to joy because I am NOT alone. God knows where my hurts are, He knows what my heart is concerned about, He sees the burdens that I carry and when I get "real" in front of Him, laying it all down, with honesty and humility, He picks it all up and He carries it for me. What an AWESOME God I serve!!!!

Let Heaven and Nature Sing

Dear Jesus:
You are a mighty king. With mere words, you created the world and all things in it. Thank you Lord for your giving and gracious nature. You give to us the beauty of the earth around us.
There are thousands of shades of green in the summer to captivate the eye. Those greens are matched up to the radiant array of colors captured by the flowers. Lord is any bird more colorful or creative that a parrot or more blue than a bluejay. How about the electric colors of some of the fish swimming in the sparkling blue ocean.
In the autumn Lord, you paint the trees with an unmatchable palette. You designed the trees to glow in the majestic colors of red, orange and yellow. You chose fall to be a season aglow with color. The universe is your canvas, and you tint it with an unceasing, indescribable selection of color.
Even winter, Lord sparkles with your creativeness and your flair. All things shine with your frozen frostings, more radiant than any diamond. And finally Lord in your wisdom, you gave us spring which is a glorious reminder of your grace and our salvation by the renewing of life in the nature that surrounds us.
Father, this world is awash in reminders of a mighty and powerful God at the center. Could anything but a magnificent, creative and loving God have made it? No!!!, the glory of the Lord shines in His creations!!!!
Thank you Lord, that I too am your creation. Hand crafted by the master artist. Help me Lord to be a willing vessel, reflecting your love to those around me. Jesus, lover of my soul, let your glory shine through me.
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3: 20-21

The Lord is MY strength

Psalm 28
The Lord is MY strength!!!! I can do nothing apart from HIS strength except get myself into trouble, get myself deceived by the lies of this evil world, fall into habits of sin and generally make a mess of it all...
How do I avoid this pit of destruction? By making God the CENTER and then letting everything else fall into place. Nothing is in the right place if God is not at the center... This is reality.
Only when my strength comes from God will I be where I need to be, able to resist, able to flee the temptation of the world because without HIS strength my will is about as strong as a wet noodle... easily conformed to the shape of the world, instead of straight and strong in the Lord.