Lent, Day 32: EMBRACED BY GOD

Psalm 31:9-16

In your own life, have you ever been so under the pressures and tyranny of life that you felt like you were about to break?  If so, King David’s prayer might just be for you.

Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress. Tears blur my eyes. My body and soul are withering away. I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness. Sin has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within. I am scorned by all my enemies  and despised by my neighbors — even my friends are afraid to come near me. When they see me on the street, they run the other way.  I am ignored as if I were dead, as if I were a broken pot. I have heard the many rumors about me, and I am surrounded by terror. My enemies conspire against me, plotting to take my life. (vss. 9-3, NLT)

This might just be a prayer for the times in which we live.  We might word it differently, but we have all felt the sense of pain and distress and grief and rejection and being ignored.  The enemy of our souls moves in these circles, after all, and seeks to fulfill his stealing, killing, and destroying ways in us.  

We are not victims, however.  Our lives are embraced by God.  So it is David continued his prayer,

But I am trusting you, O Lord, 
saying, “You are my God!” 
My future is in your hands. (vss. 14-15a, NLT)

The enemy is not God.  The Living God is our God and our future rests in His hands. Lent reminds us of this reality.  No matter how dark the days may be for us, God is our light.  Another of the Psalms prays, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).  

When the going gets rough people of Jesus face down their realities from within the embrace of God’s faithfulness.  They don’t run from them; they run right into them, in the power of the Living God.  They do not do this in their own strength but in the strength of God.  Charles Spurgeon was right when he said, “Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without the wind, branches without sap, and like coals without fire, we are useless.”

As we walk the journey of Lent, remember that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the end of this journey.  Trust the faithfulness of God and live your days within the tremendous power of God.  Remember with David that God is your God.  His unfailing love is surrounding you.  You times are in His hands.