Monday Morning Devotions-September 26, 2022
Feeling Wobbly
The Lord is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, My Father’s God, and I will exalt Him. Exodus 15:2
Ever feel a little wobbly when you first wake up in the morning? Maybe your first steps are not as steady as you want them to be? Or maybe your thinking is a little fuzzy until you get rolling?
OK I realize I’m a senior and most of you folks are much younger. You probably bounce out of the bed and are immediately going full blast. I could do that, but I’d probably fall and hurt myself. :)
Nevertheless, no matter what age you are or what shape you are in we all have some things that test us from time to time. There are things we worry about. Many of those never happen. Still they take their toll in worry time, robbing you of some of the more important things in the present. Here’s how to address and conquer those things as suggested by Sarah Young in the devotion from September 22nd included in the landmark best-selling, many times over, book : “Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence:” The book is written as if Jesus was talking directly to you as I’m sure he did with Ms. Young as she wrote and published it.
“Trust me and refuse to worry, for I am your Strength and Song. You are feeling wobbly this morning, looking at difficult times looming ahead, measuring them against your own strength. However, they are not today's tasks – or even tomorrow's. So, leave them in the future and come home to the present, where you will find Me waiting for you. Since I am your Strength, I can empower you to handle each task as it comes. Because I am your Song, I can give you joy as you work alongside Me.
Keep bringing your mind back to the present moment. Among all My creatures, only humans can anticipate future events. This ability is a blessing, but it becomes a curse whenever it is misused. If you use your magnificent mind to worry about tomorrow, you cloak yourself in dark unbelief. However, when the hope of heaven fills your thoughts, the Light of My Presence envelops you. Though heaven is future, it is also present tense. As you walk in the Light with Me, you have one foot on earth and one foot in heaven.”
In 2 Corinthians 10:5 The Apostle Paul further explains what happens when we use spiritual weapons to combat this wobbly-ness in our lives: We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it captive to Christ.
The Quest Study Bible elaborates: “God-centeredness is a weapon because it produces a supernatural authority that self-centeredness cannot; truth is a weapon because it overcomes cleverness and deceit; even suffering is a weapon because it can be a means of life.
In the Life Application Bible, the commentary further explains what Paul is trying to get across when we wobble and have trouble conquering current problems by jumping ahead and worrying about the future: “The Christian must choose whose weapons to use---God’s or the world’s. Paul assures us that God’s mighty weapons---prayer, faith, hope, love, God’s Word, the Holy Spirit---are powerful and effective. These weapons can break down the proud human arguments against God and the walls that Satan builds to keep people from finding God.”
I’ve found that at times I can get so concerned about some future event that I deem to be very important, and I tend to think about it so much it robs the current events of solutions and enjoyment. Then when I get to that future event that had me so worried it turns out to not be that big of a deal anyway.
There is no doubt that there is a best way to extract ourselves from the unsteadiness we encounter currently when we become too future-focused and unsteady, unsure, or wobbly . That answer is found in Hebrews 10:23. “Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we say we have, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”
When Dr. Robert Schuller founded that marvelous Crystal Cathedral in California every service started with the choir and congregation singing:
This is the day, this is the day
That the Lord has made
That the Lord has made
We will rejoice, we will rejoice
and be glad in it, and be glad in it
As I sat there as a visitor to a Sunday Morning Service and sang that song I looked up
through that clear crystal ceiling and to the beautiful, sunny sky and thought: “You know that’s what is important. Today and where I am right now. Not the trip way out here across the country to California from Florida. Not when I am going back. But today and what is happening now because it truly has been made by God. Man could not have created such a perfect day.”
So, on those days when things start out a little “off” or you get a little wobbly later on as your focus shifts from the bounty of your current blessings to worrying about the future stop and think: This is the day God created for me to enjoy and I will honor that. Then that wobbly feeling will change to one of surety and steadiness. Then enjoy His blessings.
Prayer: Lord, we thank you for each day for they all were made to be enjoyed and to realize how truly we areblessed. Amen!