Brenda’s Blog – September 24, 2024
Have you been fighting hard to stay in control? Have you been grabbing at all of life’s handholds like career, family, image, apparent spirituality, legalistic discipline hoping that nobody will notice you as you catapult nearly head over heels into the slimy pit?
Stop right now. Don’t read another word. Cry and wait. He comes to each of us with an invitation for a personal experience with Psalm 40. Write your own paraphrase. Here is what I repeat constantly in these times whether emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially, or relationally stuck. “I waited (and waited) for you Lord, as I struggled to free myself from the muck and the mire. I was stuck, but you heard me and turned to me. You reached out, pulled me up, put my feet solidly on a rock and put a new song in my mouth – a song of praise and thanksgiving to you. I will always be grateful to you! You are a great God!”
He will hear you and He will turn to you. Gloriously He will lift you out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. Isn’t that a breathtaking picture? Don’t you think of King Kong’s lifting up Fay Wray, Jessica Lange, or Naomi Watts (depending on your generation)? That picture of His all-powerful hand’s grasping me as I gasp for breath is both powerful and poignant. He showed me that in the “o’erwhelming flood” of the various seasons, He lovingly confined me. But He never left me.
I praised Him and many have come to see, fear, and trust in the Lord as they understand their own confinements are divine. Many experience the release that comes in knowing others, too, are sharing similar confinements. Grace abounds.
I hope you are sharing in this rejoicing. If you are boxed in right now, pause to reflect and capture the essence of the statement: “Yes, I am confined but because it is by the Hand of God, it is Divine Confinement.” And this same Hand of God which confines engages us in the next step: Divine Refinement. I want to talk about that with you in coming months. Wait patiently for Him trusting in His goodness.