Ever Have One of Those Days (Ps. 86:14-17)

Ever have one of those days when it seemed liked the world was against you? Everyone grouches at you. You can't get your contacts in your eye. You spill coffee on yourself getting in the car on your way to work. You hit every light red. Your cell dies. And things just go downhill from there.

I sure have had my fair share of those days. What makes those days worse is when you feel that everyone is conspiring to make your day miserable. Confrontations with people at work, an angry customer, a demanding boss only ratchet up the frustration. It's those days that make you want to tell everyone where to get off while you escape to some tropical paradise or quiet mountain retreat.

King David experienced a lot of those days himself. He writes about it frequently in the Psalms. Only, he really did have people trying to kill him or overthrow him, including family members. I think it would be hard not to develop paranoia or least a huge sense of inferiority or inadequacy. You know he had to have faced depression on a somewhat regular basis.

David found his solace in God. On those days when he felt the world was against him, and probably was, he reached out, cried out to God. He sought to find his rest, reassurance, hope, encouragement in the grace and mercy of his heavenly father. David knew that even when he screwed up that God wouldn't get bent out of shape with him. And David pulled some major blunders that should have alienated himself completely from God. He had felt God's discipline in his life, but also experienced God's graciousness and compassion even in those moments.

I think that David also knew that sometimes he deserved the pressure he got from others. He wasn't perfect. So not only did David ask for protection and encouragement, he asked for wisdom and strength. I confess, some of those days in which I think the world is against me, I am the one who declared war. Maybe I'm tired, maybe I just got up on the wrong side of the bed, but it's my attitude that created the confrontation. That's when I need forgiveness. That's when I need His grace the most to invade my life, take control of my spirit, my heart and begin to flow from me. I need for God to fill me with His mercy, so that I may reflect His goodness and character.

God, some days I feel like the world is picking on me. I feel frustrated, alone, abandoned and empty. That's when I need your comfort and compassion the most. I need for you to reveal my heart, my attitude to me. I need your forgiveness and grace and peace and reassurance and encouragement and love. Pour your presence into me so that I might reflect you.

"This is not the Change I was Looking for" (Isa. 26:1-4)

When our current president campaigned on the slogan of "change," I didn't know that he meant that that is all we'd have in our pockets. I can't ever remember things being quite like this in our country. I'm not old enough to remember the Great Depression, but these have got to be the toughest times since then. Unemployment continues to be a big issue with some predicting it to go as high as 12% this next year. Foreclosures continue at record levels. State and local governments are cutting back, laying off and eliminating services as tax revenues continue to decline. With all of this stuff going on, one could get really depressed.

Reading through Isaiah I came across a little reminder that our hope shouldn't be placed in our circumstances or government. Isaiah reminds us that we have a strong city and that God is the provider of salvation. As a believer the strong city that I dwell in is the city of God, the Kingdom of God, the presence of God. Oh sure, I have to make my way through streets and obstacles of this world, country, community, neighborhood that surrounds me, but it's not my residence. I don't have to get caught up in its politics or economy or pressures because I am a citizen of the city that "makes glad the people of God."

Isaiah says that the gates of that city are open to the people who keep the faith. I don't know about you, but I headed toward those gates. I am looking at the world economy right now, congressional and presidential powers and seeing a whole lot deficiencies. Has anyone noticed that the world's a mess? There is nothing or no one in whom to place your trust. I am not just headed that direction, I'm running there in a full sprint.

With all the unsureties out there, I want something, someone that I can count on. I need some peace of mind. The only place I can get that, the only person who can provide that is God inside the gates of His city. I'm not talking about going to heaven. Living in His presence, living in His Kingdom is possible right here on earth. You don't even have to move to a monastery or go off to a remote place in the mountains. I can enter the gates to His city the moment I awake in the morning. It's really where you choose to live.

Isaiah says, "Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord" and then he repeats himself for emphasis, "the Lord, is the Rock eternal." Peace of mind, security, hope is all found in the Lord. Jobs, health, houses, suvs, governments can't always give you what you really want. Those things are not permanent. They can be gone at any moment. But God is eternal. God never runs out of funds or resources. He doesn't rack up deficits. He is steadfast. He isn't threaten by economic crisis, world calamity or strife, or political pressure. And the only change He requires, is that we change our thinking to His way of thinking and place our trust completely in Him.

God, these are scary times. I look out at the horizon and all I see is more difficult days ahead. The nation that I once knew seems to be lost forever. The spiral seems to be headed downward. I'm tired of putting my trust in something that can't provide true peace of mind, true security, true hope. I running into your gates. I want to live daily in Your strong city, Your strong presence. The enemy is right on my tail. Open the gates. Here I come! I putting my faith in you!!!