Hello
Life happens. Sometimes with no input from us. Oftentimes, it happens in a manner which prohibits our directing of outcomes. Our response however, is totally up to us. We may be supported, provoked, challenged, ignored, or inspired towards a response; but our response is entirely our own.
How then do we respond when life happens? The psalms offer several legitimate spiritual approaches which include praise, questions, self-encouragement and declarations of hope and faith. I take this moment to say that there is a vast difference between ‘curse God and die’ and questioning God.
[In cursing God, we have lost hope to the extent that we not only blame God but we also reject God (this death might therefore be spiritual rather than literal). But when we question God, we acknowledge that our relationship is intimate enough to ask the hard questions, EVEN if the Lord chooses not to answer immediately or directly (consider Mary and Martha, Job and Psalm 13, where God is questioned directly; YET the petitioners have not sinned; versus Job 2:9, where Job’s wife accepted that cursing God would release death)].
The declaration of the psalmist in today’s Holy Nougat provides an assurance that cannot be found in human strength. May I encourage us – during our storms – to take comfort in the assurance it provides, even as we ask God those difficult questions.
“I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.” Psalms 16:8 NLT
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In and for Christ’s love
