Why are you downcast, O my soul?

This morning when I opened my fridge I was hit in the face with a stuffiness and sultriness that smelt of food and spelt but one thing: The fridge has been off through the night. Our fridge’s thermostat is broken and is yet to be replaced. The makeshift plan for the moment is a timer connected to the power plug ensuring the fridge switches on and off with regular intervals but, with the weight of the timer, every now and then the plug gets pulled out just a little and loses contact. Thus my unpleasant surprise this morning.

 

Getting back into bed for that stolen minute or two before I continue the morning’s rush to get everybody at school on time, I felt a bit like my fridge. My power is off and my mood quite sultry. Moms are like fridges. They are plugged in and they keep the family fresh and going. Every day, day after day, nonstop. We get up, get everybody going, make food, buy food, clean house, drive kids around, do admin, run errands, wait for kids, check homework, prevent or solve arguments, make peace, do some work for the Lord and some more for the school, try and keep ourselves in good shape, go to bed and start all over again tomorrow. Yes, and in the process, the weight of it all pulls us back and we lose contact with the source of our power and we wake up airless.

 

Sometimes we can’t even quite understand why we are so airless. We might have everything going for us – lovely husband, kids, house, help, school, church, bibles and conversations with God. Yet, in spite of all this, everything can simultaneously feel all too much and all too little. Our mundane daily quest to survive overtakes us. 

 

Have you ever at times felt like this? When this feeling hit me this morning, I thought of Psalms 42 and 43. The writer of these two Psalms finds his soul to be downcast because he feels far from God. Scholars believe that he is writing these Psalms from a place of exile far away from Jerusalem where he and his countrymen used to worship God in the temple with joy and thanksgiving and festive throng. But now he finds himself in a foreign place, oppressed by his enemy. 

 

We too, because we are running from morning till evening, day after day, might at times feel far away from God. Though me might have conversations with Him and read our Bibles, we fail to drink deep from the Well that satisfies the soul’s thirst. That might be why we are so airless and it might leave us with the same type of questions in our hearts than that of the writer of these two Psalms:

 

• My soul thirsts for God.
• When can I go and meet with God?
• Where is your God?
• All your waves and breakers have swept over me.
• Why must I go on mourning, oppressed by the enemy?

 

I know that whenever I find myself in this position, I long for a complete time out. I want to pause life for a day and restore order around me and in me and then reconnect with God before pressing the play button again. But that is not truly the answer. Rarely can we press life’s pause button!! The better answer lies within Psalms 42 and 43. The Psalmist told his downcast soul: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Before he did anything else, the Psalmist decided to put and keep his hope in God his Savior and to praise Him. As physical exercise is an anti-depressant to the body, praising God is an anti-depressant to the soul! It lifts the soul’s focus to its Creator and Savior, its Living Hope!

Furthermore, the Psalmist realized an important fact – he didn’t need to be in Jerusalem in the temple - the perfect circumstances - in order for him to be ‘close’ to God and worship Him. No, God came and met him where he was: “By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life”, “Send forth your light and your truth, let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.” God is always with us! His light and His truth is available to us everywhere all the time. Realizing that God is with him always, irrespective of how ‘far’ he was feeling from Him, the Psalmist affirmed – “…God, my joy and my delight.”

About fifteen minutes after I had reconnected the fridge’s power plug this morning, it again had a coolness and a freshness inside when you opened the door. After reconnecting and redirecting my soul to my beautiful Savior, without my daily routine having changed the slightest, my soul again has a freshness and a joy to it that sends me forth on my tasks with a festive song in my heart! 

May you too put your hope in the Savior and praise Him with all your soul and He will not fail you!

God bless,

Lize

When God does not 'rescue' us...

A couple of mornings ago I was reading in a daily devotional about the Israelites being chased by the Egyptian army. They were seemingly trapped between the Red Sea and the mountain and they were in despair and angry at God! Yet Moses told them to be still because God will come through for them…and He did.

Reading this scripture, I felt a pang of rebellion in my heart. I thought of all the situations given us in the Bible where God’s people were in trouble and He rescued them. Far from being comforted thereby, my rebellious heart cried out: But Lord, You do not always rescue. You do not always answer prayer. You do not always heal or keep death at bay and what are we to do then? 

I tried to think of people in the Bible whom God did not rescue…

Job came to mind first. He did lose everything and to me, much worse than his health, he did lose his children and, though God blessed him after his trials and gave him many more children, those he loved and lost could never be brought back. Yet he praised God. Next, I thought of Daniel’s three friends and Habakkuk who all proclaimed that even if God did not help them, they would still praise Him.  

These three instances show a very different attitude in faith than that of the Israelites of old. I could not help to wonder what would cause such a huge paradigm shift in one’s faith and where would I find myself on a scale between the demanding faith of the Israelites and the submissive faith of Job, Daniel’s friends and Habakkuk?

My thoughts further took me to Hebrews 11, also called the ‘hall of faith’. There we find two groups of people mentioned in verses 33-38. The first group was victorious in their trials and their faith. Through faith they “conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised.” They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the sword. The verse says their weakness was turned to strength.  But there is also the second group who, though also worthy to be mentioned in Hebrews 11 for their perseverance in faith, did not share the same victory. Rather they were tortured, faced jeers and flogging, were chained and put in prison, stoned, sawed in to and put to death by the sword. They wandered in deserts, mountains, caves and holes in the ground. They did not gain what was promised. Their faith (and God) did not save them from their earthly dilemmas yet, they kept their faith! Two groups of people, two very different circumstances and outcomes but the same strong faith for both groups.

This morning I was again pondering all of life and faith, victory and apparent defeat, God rescuing and God not rescuing and what we are to make of it and where it leaves us in our faith…

“Lord,” I said, “I am trying so hard to perceive the voice of the Holy Spirit, to be filled with Him. I am trying hard to be wise, to understand and to know your truths and to be able to encourage others with it. Yet, for all my efforts, I still have to conclude with Job: “I spoke once, but I have no answer…” (Job 40:5) I do not have the answer for every situation in life and this perilous times we live in or for every issue of faith. 

But, as I acknowledged my frustration before the Lord, I became convinced above all doubt about one thing, the thing it all boils down to:

More than anything else, more than wisdom and understanding and knowledge, you and I need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We need to communicate with Him on all occasions, giving Him our heart at all times as it is…whether confused or angry or broken or happy and peaceful. It is in the personal relationship with the I AM that we find His sufficient grace enabling us to live on even if He does not and even if we don’t have the answers. It is in this personal relationship that we find He will reveal Himself to us and we will behold Him and we will find Him faithful, beautiful and the sole Lover of our souls.

As I confessed this belief to the Lord and prayed, “Lord help us to have such a relationship with You,” I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit calling out with my own spirit: “Abba Father, I will praise You!”

Amen! I found I could take another step forward into the new day.

Crossing the Sea

Exodus 13:17-22

Having lost a dearly loved family member at the end of 2015 and finding myself at the beginning of another year of which the path is yet unknown, God could not have directed my vulnerable self to a more reassuring Scripture than that of Exodus 13:17-22.

Even the title given to this text could not have been more appropriate to my situation: Crossing the Sea. Indeed 2016 lies ahead of us like a sea to be crossed. Having recently visited the coast, I still have a very vivid picture of the ocean in my mind – masses of deep water as far as the eye can see. If you were given the task of crossing that sea whilst standing on its shore all on your own, you would know that it is an impossible task.

We all have different seas to cross. Our sea could be that impossible situation at work, a broken relationship, a financial crisis, sickness or the loss of a loved one. It could be this day or this year that lies ahead of us. In a way, it could be our whole life here on earth – crossing the sea could be our journey from our earthly birth through this life to reaching the shore of our heavenly home. Whichever one, this we know - it is above our ability.

Therefore I found deep assurance and comfort from the above Scripture. Four aspects stood out for me, reassuring me that indeed I do not have to do it on my own and that I have an almighty, sovereign and loving Father that will keep me on my journey and bring me safely across my sea. Allow me to share these with you:

Firstly, though the Israelites had to be and were armed for battle, the Lord did not prematurely lead them into warfare. Though the road they had to take seemed to be the worse one - a long way through desert country - it was in their best interest and to avoid a sure battle that would have sent them back the way they came. God had a plan and it was a good plan…it was the best plan.

Secondly there is the testimony of Joseph, a man who had a most challenging and difficult life. But, through all the hardship that Joseph had suffered in his life, he had found God to be utterly faithful so that on his death bed, he confidently put forward this request: “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.” 

Thirdly, the Lord Himself was with the Israelites and went ahead of them. God was not going to leave His flock to themselves. He was never going to leave them. He was going to guide and lead their every step.

Lastly, the presence of the Lord in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night ensured that the Israelites “could travel by day or night.” From this verse we can gather that, at times, the Israelites would have had to travel by night when it is dark and one cannot see where to put your foot. Yet God provided a light in the darkness…His presence was a lamp to their feet.

As you and I embark on our journey to cross our seas we can be sure that God will also be there for us in the same loving and caring way that He was there for the Israelites. We can go forward with the promise Jesus gave His disciples:

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20b)

God bless and all the best for 2016
Lize