Have you ever come across a familiar verse of scripture that speaks to you in a brand new way? Why does it always take me by surprise?
You know you’ve read that particular passage many times, but something in that living Word of God is made brand new and fresh for that thing within you that needs to be reached or awakened or spoken to…
That’s how Psalm 138:7-8 was for me this morning.
“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
The Lord will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.”
This phrase reached me today…
“The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.”
We all have things we’d like to improve about ourselves, or things we don’t like about ourselves, maybe areas we feel weak in… and sometimes I even try to “dig up” things about myself… “Knocked this thing out, God! What’s next! How about… this other thing?”
…that’s a thing I have to be careful to not fall into because it can be dangerous and turn into self-condemnation, and it can turn into me trying to take it upon myself to “self help” and Lord knows that never works.
“Why am I not (this)? Why do I struggle with (that)? Why did You make me this way, God? Why is this my struggle and most people don’t have to struggle with it so much? God, I don’t like who I am! Can’t You just snap Your fingers God, and make it ‘easy’ for me?”
Sometimes I almost go there, and sometimes I have gone there and had to ask the Lord to help me to get back out of it and back into one step at a time with Him, letting Him lead me and keep me in His perfect timing.
I know that if I just obey the thing He has before me, if I stay vulnerable with Him, if I keep a repentive and trusting heart, if I trust Him with timing, if I trust that what He says about me is true, then I can rest knowing that He will “perfect that which concerns me” –in His way, and in His timing.
A while back I would struggle really bad in my thinking. It was a kind of thinking that would just about send me into a panic. It was the kind of thinking that made me just want to run and hide.
I would sometimes be in public places with friends or even family, and it would hit my mind, “OH NO it’s that thing in my mind again, God help me!”
I would start facing it with scripture, I would run to the bathroom, talk to God about it, and declare the truth of the scriptures. I would cry out to God and say, “God! This is not Your will for my mind! Help me to make these thoughts go!” I did that for a long time without there being any relief at all, sometimes it even got worse.
But do you know the other day I realized that those thoughts, that whole way of thinking is gone, it’s been gone for a while….it stopped… it doesn’t happen anymore. It’s gone. My mind is renewed.
It never seemed to be gradual or anything like that where I could notice, “Hey! This is working!” No, I had to trust that it was working, and keep trusting and declaring the truth of the Word….. even when it seemed that it was doing nothing…. and then I wake up one day and notice my mind has been renewed.
How did that happen? When did that happen?
I don’t know, but it had to be God.
I had to struggle through, I had to endure, I had to keep going, I had to keep trusting even when the obstacle seemed like it would never go away…. and then somewhere along the way everything was changed, without me even realizing it. Now all of that is in the past.
I love how God works. How He knows the perfect timing to deal with the things He wants to bring to the surface within us. Sometimes He will deal with things all at once, wash it all away just like that, and sometimes it’s a process. I think sometimes He wants to use process to build something in us, to grow us.
Even when things take time, don’t lose heart, don’t lose hope…
Because…
“The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.”
Thank you, Lord.
-Heather ?