In Such a Way

12.05.11

Psalm 119.24 24 Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors. NIV

If there is anything I need these days, it’s counsel. Seems like the older I get the more I need counsel. Things I used to just accept I now question; ways that I used to walk in now seem foreign and/or faulty. Things I used to believe in and take for granted I no longer do. The past six years have been a part of my journey that I never anticipated. I think I’m wiser in some respects but these days I have more questions than answers.

It could be age and stage: maybe everyone gets to this point in life where what was once such a sure thing is no longer. Maybe it’s the place our nation is in, economic uncertainty and loss for so many people. Maybe it’s our culture which seems to only want to be entertained while our dire financial situation only gets worse. Maybe it’s our leadership which seems only to want to tell us what we want to hear rather than deal with the issues at hand. Maybe… Perhaps it’s just what has happened to me and now I see thing differently than I did 10 years ago. All I know is life is different and what I think I thought I knew is now sort of nonsensical.

I need counsel. I need wisdom. And whether this makes sense to you or not, I need certainty in a time in life when there seems to be precious little. And what makes this all so weird is life seems to be going so well. I have a decent job. My health is good, but I don’t think that it’s going to last forever like I once so thoughtlessly used to think. I need counsel.

I usually pray this way: Lord, touch so and so’s life today in such a way that he can understand. Help him to have thoughts of You today. I’m big on interactions with God that happen in ways that I go, Oh yeah! That was the Lord! I figure that when the Lord wants my attention He’ll do it in such a way that I get it that He wants it, and I know it’s Him.

Yesterday was the first time I’d been to my church in a month. We moved in November (I’ll try not to do that again) and so because of job and time, we just couldn’t afford to get there and get all the other stuff done we needed to get done because of the move. But as I listened yesterday, I heard the Lord speaking to me through my pastor’s message. He spoke in such a way that I got it. Somehow everything seemed to fall into place for me because of where I was and what I heard. Up to that point I was about to… I don’t know but it wasn’t pretty. So as I read this brief little verse this morning, I realized that I have an infinite abundance of counsel available to me in God’s Word. I just need to avail myself and take the time to listen.

God will and does speak to us. Sometimes He does it through the natural world around us, Psalm 19.1-4; sometimes He does it through other people, Ephesians 5.18-19. And sometimes it’s His word: Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors (Psalm 119.24).

Wherever we are on the journey or in the process, here’s something we can count on: God has our back. He also has our front; and our above and below; and our left and our right. And the counsel we need is right there if we but submit ourselves to the One who leads us in times of great joy and peace and also in times of great pain and uncertainty – to Him be the glory and may our response always be: “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.” Thank You Lord! He always does it in such a way that we’ll get it…