“Thank the Lord! He has heard my prayer for mercy! The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted him, so I received help. My heart is triumphant; I give thanks to him with my song.” Psalm 28:6-7 GWT
I remember a number of years ago when I was struggling in a particular area of my life. I was living in a time of great disappointment and my heart had become weary with deferred hope. I felt like I needed a defender in my life at that time, but was finding myself very defensive about almost everything. I spoke to the Lord about this battle and wondered why He was not defending me the way I felt He should. The Lord immediately challenged my heart by reminding me that He could not defend me when I was busy defending myself. I needed to relinquish my own need to be defended and trust in His defense. The moment I did, my heart completely shifted. I found my heart beginning to rise out of the place I had been captive and the song of the Lord returning to me.
As I think back to that time, I have realized something. As much as we fight for our right to be covered, we can never cover ourselves the way God can. We will always feel weak and vulnerable if we have to be our own strength and shield.
David catches something in this passage. Enemies may be great, but God’s defense system is greater. When the heavens seem silent God still hears. When it seems like the situation is insurmountable, God has already triumphed and is calling us higher.
To understand this changes our perspective of life both in the immediate and in the long term.
Here is the confidence we can have. God heard David. God will hear you and I.
My strength and shield are not my own ability to get me through, but the might and power of a God who protects with a defense system that cannot be broken or overcome. My position in this place is one of trust. Do I trust in myself to get me through? Or am I going to trust in the One who has overcome and position my heart to receive His help? Having already tried many times to fix things myself, today I throw my lot with Him.
When I truly get who He is, it transitions me. Like David, I can then have a triumphant heart that gives thanks with a song. A song even when the situation has not changed. How can we do that? We have redirected our focus to the one who holds the day and our situations all must bow before Him. None are greater than our God.
What does this have to do with gratitude you might wonder. Everything. A grateful heart knows that God will, even when He hasn’t yet made manifest that which we long for. That heart can praise Him before the longing is fulfilled. Why? Because the grateful heart believes Him more than it believes the whispers of the enemy.
Today I am thankful for God’s reminder that He is my defense. When I feel the need to rise up and cover myself or try and change my circumstances, may I lean hard into Him and trust in His wisdom and in His strong and reliable shield. He covers well. My heart does sing.
Comments(3)
Susan Craig says:
January 26, 2015 at 1:20 amThis reminds me of the Serenity Prayer-God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change,courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference. I am a fixer by nature-a retired nurse who spent more than 32 years working hard to fix broken people. But this past year I reached my limit and became too broken to fix anyone else anymore. The final 10 years of nursing were the most difficult for me as I attempted to keep going when I no longer had the strength or will to do so. I finally reached the point of having to stop-reached the end of all my striving and counting on myself to be the rescurer,fixer,comforter etc. What is interesting in those final years was that I had stopped going to church and had given up singing praises because I was tired,struggling,had no energy and could see no light at the end of the tunnel I was in. I was in survival mode and treading water to keep from sinking. Last year I had to stop working because of the stress and my own health issues. Over the past year, I have come to realize how much I had been depending on me,my own strength and my own ability to live my life. I had taken on way too much responsibility over the years. This year has been a complete change for me. I have had to wait on the Lord to provide for our needs and I have found that He also has been waiting for me to allow Him to do just that. He and I began the process of sorting things out- to determine where I have been spending my time,energy and money. In that process of taking it all before the Lord in prayer, I have heard His small voice whispering in my heart and directing me with His word. I have to admit that listening is not easy when your life is so full and busy and stressed. But being forced to rest gave me opportunity to listen to what God wants and His plans are always the best ones. We try so hard to be in control of our lives and become so self sufficient that we push God to the sidelines -not even realizing it. He does not force us to do His will,to trust Him,to follow Him, to lean on Him. The joy and gratitude has been returning to my life as I recognize how much l tried to do things in my own strength over the years and how my life was not turning out the way I thought it should because of it. Gratitude comes alot easier when we realize how weak we are and how dependent we are on God to provide the strength to live for Him in every aspect of our lives. Maybe we have to come to the end of ourselves before we move aside and allow Him to take over,to lead,direct,provide,sustain etc. I am thankful we have a God who understands us and is always ready to answer when we call on Him. I am learning to lean on Him more and more each day and am thankful He hasn’t given up on me!! My heart can now sing again because I finally realize how trustworthy He is and how much He loves His children-He loves me! IF we have anything to be grateful for, this should top the list-the fact that we are loved by the One True God of the Universe!!! Nothing else compares to that!!! Saying thankyou seems such a small thing for us to do when He has done so much!!!
Sue Holmes says:
January 26, 2015 at 9:37 amYour comment takes me back quite a few years to my youth leader at church. I was probably 9 or 10 at the time but one comment she made has stayed with me all these years. “God had to allow me to spend time on my back so that I would learn to look up.” I don’t remember the medical condition that caused Clarice to be bedridden. What I do remember is her enthusiasm for God, the dedication she had for sharing God with those of us who would sit still long enough to listen and that one statement of praise/thanksgiving.
Monday morning is usually my most difficult time of the week so I thank Clarice for living a life that reminds me so many years later to ‘look up’ and I thank you Susan for reminding me to “move aside and allow Him to take the lead”. 🙂
Pat McRae says:
January 26, 2015 at 10:07 pmYes I agree with the Palmist! Blessed be the Lord when I know he has heard my prayers and especially when He answers my requests with a great big YES! It is at these times I feel His strength and He has shielded me from my foe, because His help has lifted me out of a situation and placed me in a good place. Yes my heart rejoices and there an even be a new song of praise to Him rising in my Spirit.
But can I do and experience the same when the answer is wait or NO? I am learning how to but it has been a slow learning curve that has had many backward steps that had to be regained. Today I think praise and worship are the tools I use to find the Lord’s strength to wait and the shield that protects my mind from the enemies thoughts of doubt and discontentment. My heart trusts in His goodness and that His plans are for a good future that is full of hope. So at times I just have to tell my mind to “shut up”. The one thing the enemy never steals no matter what is happening, is my heart of thanksgiving. I may not get my mouth to cooperate with praise but my heart is thankful.
Today I am most thankful for the time to just spend with Him. Sometimes in the Word, sometimes in praise and sometimes just in His presence enjoying a few minutes of communication. The last 12 years have been busy ones that did not allow for this luxury of basking in His presence with nothing to do but be 🙂 So in this season of refreshment I am truly thankful.