Where do you go for encouragement? Where do you go when it seems tough and dark ahead? Where do you go when the way seems monotonous? Seek the Lord. Seek His Presence. Quiet your soul and mind before Him.
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalms 118:24
This often seemed like an admonishment to me as I heard it from my mom quite often when I was very young and when she saw I was struggling. Yet… as I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to push that thought and negative feeling out of me and found that this is a call to … love. I’ve realized that God has set more opportunities this day to serve Him. That He loves and trusts me to work WITH Him this day. That He wants to show me things today if I will let Him. My parents had almost no knowledge of the Spirit of God in their faith being the strict Mennonites that they were. Since my life changing / healing / indwelling with the Holy Spirit at the age of 14 — my relationship with God has changed and grown in such a non-religious way. It has become the way of ‘friends’ and with a ‘wisdom counselor’, and adventurer. Now when I look over the landscape of things and I see what is coming — I often then need to encourage myself in Him and Psalms are often a safe place to find that foundation. Today I was led to Psalms 33.
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
he puts the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
The Lord looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver their soul from death
and keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you. Psalms 33
Selah! (Allow the time for that Psalm to soak into your soul)