Tears in a bottle

Psalms 56:8 "....put thou my tears into thy bottle:.." KJV
It's been a roller coaster of emotions lately with many things happening in my family. As a matter of fact many people I know and trust to pray things through are going through circumstances right now. Yesterday my sil reminded me of the Scripture where David talked about God putting our tears in a bottle. I realized that God sees, knows and feels what I'm going through. We have a High Priest, the Bible tells us in Hebrews 4:15, who understands and is touched by the things that happen to us. I drew a picture of a bottle with water in it almost to the brim...I had tears still falling in it...and I labeled those things I was crying about.Here is what God revealed and reminded me of as I chewed on the Word of God.

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  God See's. Remember Rahab. When she fled from Sarai the Angel of the Lord came. She called the Lord, "The God Who Sees" He sent her back to Sarai and told her to submit herself to her...yet he let her know that there was a plan for her life and that of her son. God is not blind to our circumstances. Sometimes we feel as if we will be crushed under the weight of what we are carrying. He cares and if we listen to His voice and obey He acts on our behalf even when we can't see everything that lies beyond the corner.
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  Don't drown in your tears. Drawing the picture was very therapeutic for me....it sealed the truth of God's love and concern. However, the Spirit prodded me further than that wonderful truth. If I camped on this point alone as wonderful as it is to feel and know the comfort of the Lord...I'd be tempted to get into the place where the tears would loose their meaning. Tears can be part of the healing process, part of a season of prayer, and even part of worship...but staying in tears can lead to a spirit of defeat rather than victory. For instance, a child who comes home crying with a scrape goes to his mother who dresses the wound (sometimes even if a band aide isn't really needed) she kisses the child and says, "All better". Usually when I followed that procedure with my boys....they'd happily go out and play again. They knew I loved them, they knew I fixed the problem (stopped the bleeding, cleaned the wound, put a band aide on it), that I'd be there should they need anything further, and that I'd declared, "All better" Admittedly sometimes the scrape still hurts..but delaying getting back into life's activity prolongs the pain by keeping our focus on the injury.
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  Run with purpose. We all have seasons when tears fall freely before the Lord. Issues that we must talk to him about...circumstances that we need guidance about....and times of reassurance of His love and tenderness. These times are what can propel us to his purpose...if we like a child receive his love and go forward in confidence.

Cleaning away things that hold you back

Last week I had to clean up a mess that got out of hand because of my own negligence. You may have noticed my cute little Dashounds picture. The red one is Marcy named after my Mother (btw it was my Mom's wish for me to name this special dog after her) and Scooter is our older girl. We have a small front yard where they go "potty" The winters in upstate NY can get very cold...but nonetheless most years I go out weekly and pick up the mess. This year...though I had lots of things on my mind that took precedence over this task. We've experienced some things that have been difficult. They'd "go" and then it would snow and cover the mess with a nice layer of white. Though I'd think about the need to clean up what I knew was underneath; the cover of snow helped me forget the truth. We'd have times where the snow would begin to melt and I'd see it...and lament about what a yucky job it was going to be now! Snow would come again and I'd rejoice. However, when the weather got even colder our older dog Scooter (the black one in the picture) started using the sidewalk because she didn't want to get her pads wet in the snow. So I had to clean that part up...it could only go so long and I'm sure the mail man would probably get upset. Now that I think about it....folks that know us probably thought ..."What is up with them...they don't usually let this pile up into such a mess?" I awoke from my stupor about a week ago and rolled up my sleeves and cleaned the smelly mess ---armed with plastic gloves and scooper. The grass will need to be re-seeded this spring as a result. We have a few weeks of winter left and it snowing even today ...I must still be diligent not to let a cover of snow make me forget what lies beneath. Later as I looked at the clean yard and sidewalk, I thought about how when there was a mess my sweet little dogs had to step in it and surely they had brought some of it inside on their paws. What I'd allowed to pile up outside had effects inside. Here is what God spoke to me about the mess.

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  He understands my hurts and desires to heal them....but neglect of everyday things create a big mess.



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  Natural things are a picture of spiritual things. We can sometimes loose focus or walk in circumstances so much that we allow our spiritual walk to become a mess with things that need to be cleaned.



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  Covering up a mess doesn't make it go away. Sometimes there are steps we must take...maintence even that we must attend to in both our natural and spiritual lives.

They say, "Where is your God?"

David pours out his heart within him while his enemies taunt him saying..."Where is your God?" Have you ever felt like every thing has been poured out of you? The taunts of people or circumstances yelling in your ear..."Where is your God, now?" Psalms 42 shows his reaction.

Admitting that his tears have stained his pillow, and that his enemies look on him as abandoned by God, he is grieving....Yet he pours out his soul within in him. He looks to the future and speaks to his own soul....

Verse 5
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.KJV

I invite you today like King David to speak praise...and hope and help from the face of God. You may feel silly at first. Your mind will cry out....but it is opposite of what is happening in my life. Remember God is a God that changes circumstances. He is worthy of our trust and hope. David had to pull himself out of pit...a pit that the enmey of our soul used others to put him into. It was worse than a literal prision, because depression loosed to bring loss of confidence in God's trustworthyness could have caused him to miss God's Salvation. The Prision break is before us, the doors swing open not when things change, but when we lift our head to trust and hope in Jesus.