Tag Archives: encouragement

Always Before Me!

I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Psalm 16:8

Reading:

Psalm 22:1,14-24; 16:8-11

The title — borrowed for this post — of Christian Light’s lesson for Easter Sunday is good for me.

I’ve been struggling of late with a sense of abandonment. Oh, I know intellectually that I have not been abandoned. But that knowledge has had quite a wild battle at times with feelings of abandonment.

But this title gives me some perspective and sense of proportion which I’d forgotten.

The Son suffered.

Wow.

So where is my sense of proportion and perspective when I suffer?

And where is my faith when I feel abandoned?

Might my feeling of abandonment be indicative of my having forgotten God too much?

Where is God’s praise from me?

Do I keep the Lord before me? How? When? Why?

What makes my heart glad?

Will I rest in hope?

Where am I in relationship to the path of life?

In His presence is fullness of joy!

“But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me” (Psalm 22:19).

[The Scriptures say in Psalm 22:24 -- Neither hath he hid his face]
from Psalm 22:24

Under His Wings

The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

Ruth 2:12

Reading:

Ruth 2:5-12; 3:9-11

Do I presume acceptance and grace to be rights of mine?

“It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done” would reveal what about me?

Where is my trust?

When my trust is wrongly focused, how do I go about changing it?

What is known in the community of my virtue?

Whom shall I bless today…and how?

[The Scriptures say in Ruth 2:12 -- The LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust]
from Ruth 2:12