Daughter fed, watered, changed, and napping. Check.Husband fed, laundered, given TLC, Aleve, warm rice bag and propped on couch correctly (his back is out). Check.
Fish fed, tomato plants watered, kitchen cleaned, laundry folded, groceries put away, bills paid, phone calls returned. Check.
Where's my coffee? There...double check.
Email says...oh my. Forwards about crime, news reports about Islam, the government is doing WHAT? They found the body where? Urgent prayer requests for who? Ugh...
"Lord? I'm so thankful the Holy Spirit knows how to interpret my groans. I also thank You that I know You in these unbelievable days. I can't quite wrap my mind around all of this atrocity in the world. I know what your Word predicts...but it's so hard some days to read, hear, and watch all of the lies, deception, greed, murder, abuse...and then be touched in different ways from the suffering, pain, weariness, and such in those that I love. Please speak to me Lord. I want to hear from You."
Psalm 18:4-6 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
Such were my thoughts only moments ago. I opened up my devotional and had to copy it here for anyone that may have a day similar to what I was having. And if you aren't, you STILL will be blessed by this incredible truth for days that lie ahead. God bless you...
Christian, you ought not to dread the arrival of evil tidings; because if you are distressed by them, what do you do different than other men? Other men have not your God to fly to; they have never proved His faithfulness as you have done, and it is no wonder if they are bowed down with alarm and cowed with fear: but you profess to be of another spirit; you have been begotten again unto a lively hope, and your heart lives in heaven and not on earthly things; now, if you are seen to be distracted as other men, what is the value of that grace which you profess to have received? Where is the dignity of that new nature which you claim to possess?
Again, if you should be filled with alarm, as others are, you would, doubtless, be led into the sins so common to others under trying circumstances. The ungodly, when they are overtaken by evil tidings, rebel against God; they murmur, and think that God deals hardly with them. Will you fall into that same sin? Will you provoke the Lord as they do?
Moreover, unconverted men often run to wrong means in order to escape from difficulties, and you will be sure to do the same if your mind yields to the present pressure. Trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Your wisest course is to do as Moses did at the Red Sea, "Stand still and see the salvation of God." For if you give way to fear when you hear of evil tidings, you will be unable to meet the trouble with that calm composure which nerves for duty, and sustains under adversity. How can you glorify God if you play the coward? Saints have often sung God's high praises in the fires, but will your doubting and desponding, as if you had none to help you, magnify the Most High? Then take courage, and rely in sure confidence upon the faithfulness of your covenant God, "let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
Again, if you should be filled with alarm, as others are, you would, doubtless, be led into the sins so common to others under trying circumstances. The ungodly, when they are overtaken by evil tidings, rebel against God; they murmur, and think that God deals hardly with them. Will you fall into that same sin? Will you provoke the Lord as they do?
Moreover, unconverted men often run to wrong means in order to escape from difficulties, and you will be sure to do the same if your mind yields to the present pressure. Trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Your wisest course is to do as Moses did at the Red Sea, "Stand still and see the salvation of God." For if you give way to fear when you hear of evil tidings, you will be unable to meet the trouble with that calm composure which nerves for duty, and sustains under adversity. How can you glorify God if you play the coward? Saints have often sung God's high praises in the fires, but will your doubting and desponding, as if you had none to help you, magnify the Most High? Then take courage, and rely in sure confidence upon the faithfulness of your covenant God, "let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
Now how excellent is our God? How excellent is His Word? How excellent is His name in ALL the earth!!!
