Category: Our Amazing God

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The Lifter of My Head

I had the awesome priviledge of taking a little trip with my friend this weekend. Cheryl and I went to Birmingham, Alabama, to attend a leader training session for The Truth Project by Focus on the Family.  It was fabulous!  We stayed over Saturday night and attended worship at Shades Mountain Baptist Church where a former pastor of ours is now serving.  While the whole worship experience was wonderful, the music lifted me to heights I’ve not traveled in a while. Let me tell you about it:

If you read my last blog, then you know I’m traveling through a pretty rough valley right now — actually a series of valleys! Burden has been heaped upon burden, and I’ve been faltering under the load. At The Truth Project training on Saturday, God showed up, and in His hand He held a mirror. I looked long and hard at the reflection of my soul. It wasn’t a pretty sight. In God’s mirror, I saw that I had become insane.

What is insanity?  It’s losing touch with the truth. It’s saying one thing and living another. It’s knowing the truth but living the lies. According to Dr. Del Tackett, the director of The Truth Project, the enemy’s lies are so powerful that they can lead us into insanity. And I was going mad. I said I was okay; I said God would deliver me; I said “This, too, shall pass.” I knew the truth; I spoke the truth; but I wasn’t living by the truth.  Insanity.

Recognizing the illness is half the cure.  God and I worked through the diagnosis until deep into the night.

I was a bit raw from the purging and refining process — and a bit weary from little sleep — when I sat down on the pew Sunday morning.  But I was ready to move on toward the curing of my soul.  And, once again, God showed up. This time, however, instead of a mirror He brought a healing balm.

We’d only sung one song and then it happened. We sang a song that I’d heard before but only with my ears; this time, I heard it with my heart.  

Thou, O LORD, is based on Psalm 3, written by David when he was probably walking through his deepest valley. He wrote it on the run, when he fled from his son Absalom who wanted to depose King David and take the crown.*  His own son!  And this was just the current valley in a long string of valleys David had traveled. From his deepest despair, David wrote Psalm 3, a song of God’s pretection, His sustenance, and His deliverance — a song of TRUTH.  Psalm 3:3 forms the chorus of Thou, O LORD:

Thou, oh LORD, are a shield for me,
My glory and the lifter of my head!
Thou, oh LORD, are a shield for me,
My glory and the lifter of my head!

The LORD is my shield!  He is my glory!  His is the lifter of my head!  Oh, how that last phrase pierced my heart the first time I sang it. But the second time? It was the balm of God, slathered on my gaping wound and healing it! Through this song, God Himself reached down, placed the fingers of His right hand under my chin, and gently lifted it up, saying, “Lift up your head, my child! Look at me.  I am your Shield!  I am your Defender!  I am your Glory! This is truth; walk in it!”

Praise God who heals us of our every disease — even a season of spiritual insanity!Praise & hand of God

To the LORD, I cry aloud,

and He answers me from his holy hill.

I lie down and sleep;

I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.

I will not fear…

(Psalm 3:4-5)

 

Enjoy the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir sing Thou, O LORD.

*For more on the background of David and Absalom, see my January 5 blog article, Lost Faith?
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Precious Little Secrets

 

As I sit here on my couch, drinking  my last cup of coffee for the morning, all I can say is, “God, you’ve done it again. You’ve wowed me beyond words.”

God has shown me much favor the past 2 weeks.  Again and again, I’ve looked up and said, “God, I don’t know what else you could do that you’ve not already done.”  And it’s as if He said, “Well, I know.  How about this?”  And I’m wowed all over again.

God has done some pretty wild and wondrous things these past 14 days. And He’s done some precious and personal things, too.  I’ve shouted aloud to my friendsHEART about the wild and wondrous, but I think I’ll keep the precious and personal to myself; keep them just between Him and me. 

If you’re married, you might  know what I mean. It’s like those precious little secrets between you and your spouse: an intimate moment, an inside joke, a learned lesson, and so on. Later, even much later, you can be in a crowded room and hear, see, or smell something that sparks one of those memories. You look at your spouse and find he’s already looking at you — and smiling.  You laugh together without ever having said a word. You know what he’s thinking, but it’s a secret. A precious, intimate moment between bride and bridegroom. 

That’s what I’m feeling right now as I sit here and look up at my Bridegroom.  Without a word, He knows what I’m thinking, what my heart is feeling. And though I can’t see it, I can feel His smille. A precious, intimate moment with my Husband.

At this moment, I know I am absolutely loved.

At this moment, I know I am absolutely secure.

At this moment, I have absolute peace.

At this moment, I have absolute  joy.

[You can go now, but I think I’ll just linger here a little while longer.]

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Wimps in Giant Clothing

“You come against me with sword and spear and javelin,

but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty…”

1 Samuel 17:45

Giants. They’re everywhere. Problems that seem to have no answers. Enemies that seem larger than life. Deep, dark valleys that seem insurmountable. When facing a giant, look very closely: most giants are really just wimps in giant clothing.

Take Goliath, for example.  A Philistine champion who stood 9 feet tall, Goliath was covered from head to foot in armor: a bronze helmet on his head, a 125-pound coat of scale armor on his body, and bronze graves on his legs. He held a spear as big as a weaver’s rod with a 15-pound point at the end, along with a bronze javelin slung on his back. And as if all that weren’t enough, a shield bearer stood before him.  Pretty fierce presence, right?  And it was working.

King Saul and all of the Israelites were dismayed and terrified at the sight and sound of Goliath. Each morning, the Israelites would take their battle positions and start shouting their war cry. While they were still shouting, Goliath would come out from the Philistine camp and defy the Israelite army, calling for Israel’s champion to come out and fight him one-on-one. And every  morning Israel ran in great fear back to the camp. This went on for 40 days.

Enter a young shepherd boy named David, sent by his father to bring his 7 soldier-brothers some good home cooking. When David arrived, he couldn’t believe his eyes and ears. “What?” he asked.  “Who is this guy that has the gall to defy the armies of the living God?” Reports of David’s comments reached King Saul. David & GoliathDavid appeared before the king and said, “Let no one lose heart. I’ll face the giant!”

Now get this picture: The average adult Israelite is less than 6 feet tall and David was just a young man, probably more like 5’7 or so. Goliath was over 9 feet tall! (Put a yardstick on top of your head to get an idea of the difference.)  David was in simple shepherd clothing; Goliath was covered in armor. David had only his staff, 5 smooth stones, and a sling; Goliath had huge, heavy-duty weapons. 

In spite of Goliath’s ferocious appearance and words, David knew he was just a wimp. What tipped him off? Even with all his massive size and weapons, Goliath never came out from behind his shield-bearer! Wherever Goliath went, his shield-bearer went before him. What a big chicken! What a wimp!

David understood wimpy giants; their bark is worse than their bite. While Goliath moved toward David spewing his venomous threats and taunts, David calmly and confidently replied, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty…This day the LORD will hand you over to me…for the battle is the LORD’S…” Then David “ran quickly toward the battle line,” took out his sling and stone, and “without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine…”

When facing a giant of any kind, you need more than just a war cry, just a bunch of windy words. You need faith. A simple, smooth stone flung in faith hits its mark every time. Why? Because “the battle is the LORD’S”!

So no matter what giant you come up against, respond to it like David did: Run right up to the battle line, look it right in the eye, and declare victory in the name of the LORD. More often than not, you’ll find that the giant is merely a Goliath — a wimp in giant clothing!