“Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness.” He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.”
God breaks through a bleak, devastating picture of judgment on Judah and Jerusalem, promising restoration if the people would only repent. He promised the devastating drought would be reversed with a regular rainfall pattern. He promised to restore His people and their material lives, replenishing their fields, orchards, vineyards, and flocks. He would replenish the fruit of their land and eradicate invading armies from the north. He would once again, prove His faithfulness by regulating the pattern of rainfall with refreshing rain.
Doesn’t he promise the same for us? For the messes we find ourselves in, His faithfulness is there to meet us where we’re at. All He requires from us is a repentant heart and our Redeemer and Savior will move in to clean up and replenish the wastelands of our lives with His refreshing rains of grace and mercy. Are you searching today? Feeling life is quite messy with things you can’t change, habits you can’t break, and people you can’t love?
God promises help for those moments of bleak devastation! He’ll eradicate your past and replenish the fruit of your life with the redemptive power and cleansing blood of Christ. Just give him a chance and tell Him to take over the control of your life… your problem… your heart!
Oh, don’t we all need a big heap of God’s love today? Just to wrap us up tightly and carry us over the rough spots that come along. All the things hoped for seem to transfer to the back burner while things not hoped for, nor even asked for, come a calling.
Yeah, the enemy can throw some pretty difficult stuff into our pathway and it keeps us on our toes for sure and makes us wonder how we’ll make it through. But remember, our faithful God is so faithful and walks the same road with us. He’s rich in mercy! He’s compassionate in care and perfect in love. His eye is on you and You are highly favoured in His economy. He heals! He mends! He repairs, and He protects and that’s what we need today for sure. Just one big heap of it all to take its place right in our midst and give us a springboard to propel us on for His glory!
So, beautiful one, whatever has you down ~ whatever has come a calling that wasn’t asked for, you might not realize it yet, but it’s been perfected just for you and customized just for your needs today. He’s got it. Enjoy God’s faithfulness through it and let Him direct your path. Be blessed under His divine protection through the testing time and watch His miracles unfold.
“God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation.”
James 1: 12
“The grasslands of the wilderness become a lush pasture and the hillsides blossom with joy.”
So today, couldn’t we all use a little bit of normal in our topsy-turvy world? So often, we wonder what normal is because it seems so far away from where we are.
Worry presents as a nagging backdrop, and very bold fears fray the edges of our peace. Things that creep into the good spaces to haunt us as we forget the blessings that surround us. They come by the twos and threes, and yeah, some days they come like a marching army to take over the day. They become like obsessions that present themselves as mountains too high, too big, too wide, and too daunting to even care.
These are times we all need to catapult into a new day with a really big faith in our really big God, who holds it all in His hand anyway. Yeah, when life seems turned upside down, God is our stability. He’s our Normal when nothing else is. He’s our faithful when no one else is. He’s our Protector, Provider, Sustainer, Grace Giver, and unconditional lover, and in our weakness, we’ve got to know that He is our strength and shield. When our weakness presents its “What Do I Do Now” moments and we feel very insecure, unsettled, and much like David when he penned the words of Psalm 142, we need to respond much as he did.
He’s feeling very overwhelmed by his persecutors and circumstances, and reached a place of despair where he felt no one cared at all about his plight. Yet, he looks to the LORD for wisdom, and in Verse 5, he comes to his senses again, where he says,
“But then I pray to you, O LORD. I say, You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life. Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.”
David reached a place in his running from harassment where he just knew his God was His Lord and His constant loving, unconditional caregiver, surrounding him at all times, everywhere, behind and before. Covering him around and through, up and down, inside and out, his God had it all together in His safekeeping. His God didn’t change; His God was always faithful, and even when trouble impacted his day, His God was stable, always there, always caring, always providing, always protecting.
Let’s realize that even on our not-so-normal days, and in those not-so-normal moments, our God is our unshakeable sustainer and our “normal” even in adverse situations.
