Psalm 51:12

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me ~ Psalm 51:12


Yesterday I talked about a dry season before I knew the Lord as my Saviour. I also talked about how drastically my life changed when the Lord came into my heart and gave me new life. This may be the joy the psalmist is talking about here, for I do think that sometimes our joy and hope can change into a sad and cheerless living the longer we are Christians. Sometimes it is due to our own doing. We have walked away from the Lord, or we have sinned in some way and have not repented. When sin enters our life, we are separated from God. There is another reason for the joy of our salvation to be lost to us: that we live and go through different seasons. Mark Buchanan wrote a marvelous book called “Spiritual Rhythm: Being With Jesus Every Season of Your Soul”. I have it in my library and though it has been awhile since I read it, it is full of insight on how we can survive the seasons of our soul. We go through winter seasons, where the fruit of our life seems to have dried up, the leaves have dropped, and it seems that all is cold. It sounds like our psalmist may be there too. He has formerly known the happiness of being God’s friend, but that joy has been taken away by a reason we do not know. Perhaps you are there too. I know I have found myself there, and I wondered why. It was not that I had sinned. I had been following what I believed the Lord had called me to, it was just that I had lost my joy. That, my friends, is a time for resting and growing. It is a time of faith building. Just as nature rests in the winter season, so if we can find rest in our time, the season will eventually change. Our psalmist prays for grace to uphold him, a willing spirit so that he would be ready to obey and serve God faithfully. It is our prayer too when winter suddenly happens upon us. Keep us in your grace, Lord, help us be at the ready when your word comes to us. Grant us spring and your joy!

Pastor Julia

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments

Popular posts from this blog

Romans 8:26

Image
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans ~ Romans 8:26 Many days, many times, I have the words for prayer. It comes forth and flows fairly naturally as I converse with my Lord God. I hope in the God I worship to hear me, and to receive my words, as I pray in the name of Jesus and believe in Him, my intercessor. He is my Living Saviour, my High Priest, standing at the right hand of God the Father. But there are times when my pain has been so deep that my words will not come. There are times when my agony is so piercing that what words I may speak would not be enough. And so, in my deep, black moments, I come before my God and let my darkest emotions erupt in sounds that only He can understand. The Holy Spirit within me cries out in my stead, and He becomes my second intercessor. It is not that He is not there with me in all my prayers, but there are times wh...
Read more

Proverbs 18:2

Image
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in sharing their own opinions ~ Proverbs 18:2 If we are going to understand something, we must fully digest it so that when we speak, we speak with wisdom. When we have only half truths in our mind, our words become empty and senseless. We then puff out air rather than understanding when we speak. A wise person will want to improve their mind through learning in various ways from the world around them. A person who delights in spiritual understanding will find peace and enjoyment in reading the Word of God on a daily basis, and in participating with God’s people in a learning and praising environment – the church! We come together in corporate worship with the understanding that not one of us knows all things, but we bend our mind and heart to learn what God has to show and say to us. A foolish person makes a show of what they “know” to please their friends or to save face in front of them. More often a wise person will hold t...
Read more

Isaiah 43:19

Image
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert ~ Isaiah 43:19 When we meet a challenge, we are often found discouraged, lost, even hopeless. Nothing is working, everything seems to be against us. We do not know how to move forward, so we remain curled up in a ball. Then, a glimmer of light shines through! Hope is regained and movement is stirred within. Don’t we become excited when we begin to feel it? God moves like that. We cannot see our way around it, but He can and does. And He makes a way for us out of the calamity of our fears. It is the feeling of springtime after a long winter, or the smell of fresh cut grass. Life stirs within and we move and we see what God saw all the time – the answer to our dilemma. Our desert place becomes an oasis, and we can do what we are called to do. Something totally unexpected happens, something unheard of, but it begins in our life, and we feel the...
Read more