Our key verse this week is taken from Psalms 16:2, “I said to Yahweh, ‘You are my Adonay. Without you, I have nothing good.”
The Book of Psalms is a book I go to quite often. In fact, whenever we sat in the waiting room of the cancer center, I had my Bible open to Psalms. I would read scripture over Braxton and pray about whatever we were about to hear and trust that God was going to see us through. Psalms is my place of comfort.
Many years ago, when I was going through my “dark period,” it was in Psalms that I discovered it was okay to be mad at God. OH, I just made some of you upset. Bear with me here.
God designed us with the ability to have free will. We get to make our own decisions and follow who we want, when we want. Agree?
Ok, so if the one we are following does something or asks us to do something that we don’t agree with, doesn’t our human nature buck up and get upset?
No? Have you ever raised a teenager? Better yet, weren’t you once a teenager? If you can honestly sit there and say that at no point in your life were you ever once mad at your parents, then I will happily walk away and let you take over.
“But He’s God! You can’t be mad at God!”
Go read Psalms. David was mad at God, and he was a man after God’s own heart. Being mad at God for a moment because we aren’t getting our way is very different than being mad at God and turning our back on him.
Ok, I’ll step off my soapbox now.
Back to the comfort found in Psalms…the Psalms have often given me the words when I am lost, and I don’t know how to express myself. They have given me refuge in trouble. They have given me a song when I need to praise. And they have given me peace at just the right time in a waiting room of uncertainty.
This verse, “You are my Adonay. Without you, I have nothing good,” resonates with me in so many ways. I don’t have anything good apart from Adonay. I can look back over my life, and I know, without a doubt, that I would not be sitting here typing out this blog if it weren’t for Adonay. I wouldn’t have the husband I have, the two precious girls who make me question my sanity, or the sweet son who has a heart of gold if it weren’t for my Adonay.
Braxton and I were talking about this yesterday. It’s one thing to know about God, but it’s another to actually know God. I grew up learning and knowing all the Bible stories. We read the Bible every night as a family before bed. I decided to be baptized at ten years old. I thought I knew what it meant to give my life to God. Maybe I did to some degree, but when I was older, that belief was challenged, and I learned that you can’t just know about God; you’d better know God if you wanna get through the hard times.
How do you do that? You spend time with him. This year, I have made it a point to spend the first hour or so of the day with God. I get up early. I have to if I want any type of quiet time. I even wrote it on my cookie calendar: “God first, no exceptions.”
I do my best work in the house and kitchen before anyone wakes up. But I have sacrificed it to have time with God. My house reflects that, but right now, I don’t feel guilt over it. Because I know, in the light of eternity, it’s better that I spend time with God over the basket of laundry sitting beside me on the couch.
I know that I have nothing good without Adonay. I know that I love to spend time with him. He is a relational God. He wants to know me, and He wants me to know Him.
Sit in the quiet and let God speak to you. Yes, you may question if the voice you hear is truly God or a random thought. Question it. Ask the voice if it is God. Ask for confirmation. Ask God to place visible, tangible signs in your path. When you do, He will speak. The Holy Spirit will move inside you, friends will say something that will align with what you thought you heard God say, and a song will play that says what God was telling you. Sometimes, he says stuff like, “Your word for the year is ‘BE,'” and you have no idea what that means and you have to pray about it and question it and ponder on it, sometimes for weeks on end because you still aren’t sure what that means, but then you write about YAHWEH and how that means “to be,” and you almost throw the laptop across the room because in that moment it shook you to the core that God was asking you to BE WITH HIM, and you get chills that went to the bone because you know that God was speaking to you and just wanting to spend time with you.
(And for my grammar nerds, yes, that is a really long run-on sentence, but if you read it as quickly as my mind said it, you would understand.)
We have nothing good apart from God. God is good. God is THE good in all things. And Adonay wants to give you GOOD things! Isaiah 30:18 says, “Yahweh is waiting to be kind to you. He rises to have compassion on you. Yahweh is an Elohim of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.”
Take a moment today. Pour yourself a cup of coffee, tea, or whatever sit and sip beverage you prefer, get on the couch with Adonay, share a blanket and a cup, and spend some time talking with Him. Then pause and listen. Allow him the space to speak. He has good things in store for you!
Have a great day with Jesus!
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