Still Saturday::who knows...

TODAY

Every morning we enter a new day. Who knows what the day will bring?

God knows.

Which is why he tells us not to be afraid. He has already gone ahead of us into the new day.
He knows the way,
what will happen,
all we'll need.

In the morning we can put our day in his hands.
And let him bring into our day whatever he has for us.

And then,
in the evening,
we give it back to him.

And trust him with all that happened in it.

Do not be afraid or discouraged,
for the Lord will personally go ahead of you.
He will be with you. 
DEUTERONOMY 31:8 (NLT)

Sally Lloyd-Jones, Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing*, p. 172

*I bought this delightful book for my grandlittles, but I'm keeping one for myself, too. Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. PSALM 90:14 (NLT)

The one who trusts {Psalm 84.12 memory verse}...

This disease isn't going to get better, my pulmonologist explained at the end of my annual visit with him earlier this week, but I don't need to see you again for a year...unless you begin to deteriorate.

Really? I thought. He'd been so encouraging earlier - telling me that the c-t scan and pulmonary function tests I'd had the week before showed no progression of the autoimmune lung disease. In fact, it hasn't appeared to have worsened in the three years since my diagnosis. This makes me very happy, he said. Did he really have to end the visit with talk of deterioration?

Throughout the hour drive back home in the cold drizzling rain, I fought to keep that joy-stealing word from taking root. It's a battle I wage still as I cling to the truth that it's the LORD who orders my steps and has numbered my days.

As January comes to a close, so does Psalm 84, with the exhortation that the blessings in this life come from trusting in the One who created and ordained my days before there was even one. 

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
Psalm 139:12-16, ESV

Have you been memorizing Psalm 84 with me this month? If you have, I'd love to know it. I have a gift for you.

Because He is good {and Psalm 84.4 memory verse}...

I stepped far out of my comfort zone when I accepted the invitation to speak. Sure, I was a competent and confident administrator and head nurse, but I was an inexperienced public speaker who'd momentarily forgotten that she was also terrified of the spotlight.

The day long seminar on renal failure was designed for university students and professional nurses, and included speakers from various health care disciplines. Each of us was assigned approximately one hour to cover our area of expertise and answer questions from the audience.

At first, I was honored to have been asked to speak. Having trained small groups of nurses and technicians, I was comfortable with the material and didn’t think teaching a larger audience would be too challenging, but as the seminar date approached I began to panic. Frantically, I offered up a series of “Lord, save me from this and I’ll do anything for you forever” pleas for mercy, and secretly hoped for a case of laryngitis or the flu – anything that would excuse me from the commitment.

New in my walk with Christ, I had yet to learn the discipline of acknowledging the Lord “in all my ways.” I’d been “wise in (my) own eyes” and accepted the invitation to speak without seeking God's wisdom. Meeting me where I was in those early baby-step days, the Lord lovingly graced me in abundance. “I’ll give you every penny of the honorarium, Lord, if you’ll just get me through this,” was my final plea, and that’s exactly how it happened. My knees may have knocked as I stood behind the podium, but I was relaxed and self-assured in my presentation that day. Sunday, and the opportunity to place my speaker's fee in the offering plate, couldn't come fast enough.

Over thirty years later, the Lord rightfully expects more from me. He’s more inclined to let me fall on my face when I step out in my own foolish wisdom and feeble strength and make plans and commitments outside His counsel – not because He’s less kind or loving, but because He is good. I’d never know the peace and joy of trusting Him if He always rescued me from myself. And that is abundant grace, too.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes.

Proverbs 3:5-7a ESV

{Slightly edited from the archives.}