40 Days of Healing - Day 3 - March 8, 2019

"Many will say, 'Who will show us better times?' Let your face smile on us Lord.
You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.
In peace I will lie down and sleep, for You alone, O LORD, will keep me safe." Psalm 4:6-8, NLT

TEXT: Psalm 3 and 4

I am continually amazed at how David was always able to find the rays of joy in his life, even in the darkest hours, simply by focusing on the faithfulness of the Lord.
Whenever he reflected on his blackest times in the Psalms, he always, it seems, coupled it with an expression of gratitude and trust for the Lord's constant protection and provision. Even when circumstances beat David down, he always clung to his hope and trust in a mighty and faithful God. 
It amazes me, considering all he endured, even when the trouble was self-inflicted, through his sometimes sinful choices. He knew God's loving hand would never abandon those who cry out to him in humility in their brokenness.
Like David, my testimony to God's love and faithfulness does not lay in the moments where things are easy and going well. It is, instead, most visible in the points where darkness has all but enveloped me and I have felt reduced to dust. The light of His grace shone into these moments, and His hand lifted me out of the mud.
Even in the times I have been my own worst enemy, when my own sin has been the foe that surrounded me, I can look back and smile. I am still standing hopeful and victorious today because Jesus did not give me over to destruction. Instead He lifted me out of the mire and set my feet, time and again, on solid ground.
I am able to find joy in the simple things not because my life has been without trouble, but because I serve a God who has never let me go when the waves of trial have washed over me in torrents.
My joy, my gratitude, is not in my own strength, but in His might and loving hand in the times where I have had none.
So, as David, I can be thankful for each new day, knowing the Lord has brought me safely through the night. I can be grateful when I have enough, because the Lord has always, and will always provide in my time of need.
And I can live always in courage and in joy when I remember the Lord who has always been my rescue is greater and stronger than any trouble the world can throw my way, and as Paul writes in Romans 8, there is nothing that can separate me from His unfailing love!

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