May 7, 2013: Catching Up.../Listen! He is Speaking!

Psalm 42 amp

1 As the hart pants and longs for the water brooks, so I pant and long for You, O God.

2 My inner self thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, Where is your God?

4 These things I [earnestly] remember and pour myself out within me: how I went slowly before the throng and led them in procession to the house of God [like a bandmaster before his band, timing the steps to the sound of music and the chant of song], with the voice of shouting and praise, a throng keeping festival.

5 Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God.

6 O my God, my life is cast down upon me [and I find the burden more than I can bear]; therefore will I [earnestly] remember You from the land of the Jordan [River] and the [summits of Mount] Hermon, from the little mountain Mizar.

7 [Roaring] deep calls to [roaring] deep at the thunder of Your waterspouts; all Your breakers and Your rolling waves have gone over me.

8 Yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I will say to God my Rock, Why have You forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

10 As with a sword [crushing] in my bones, my enemies taunt and reproach me, while they say continually to me, Where is your God?

I constantly talk and write about my healing and deliverance from panic attacks, anxiety and depression. Hey, folks! I wake up in the middle of the night and feel down sometimes! I even wake up in the morning feeling down sometimes! I'm human, after all. And the last time I checked, I'm still living on earth. So what do I do when this happens? Self talk! I carefully pick through the rubbish trying to come into my mind. I search until I find the root of everything. Maybe someone dissed me the day before and I mistakenly allowed it to linger in my thoughts as I fell asleep. Maybe I feel like I'm a big disappointment to God and others. I figure out exactly where the negativity is coming from. Just as verse eleven states. 

11 Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the help of my countenance, and my God.

And then I simply hope in God. Even when I feel hopeless. I hope anyway. And I laugh at the enemy of my soul. And I remind him of Revelation 20:10. 

Revelation 20:10

Amplified Bible (AMP)

10 Then the devil who had led them astray [deceiving and seducing them] was hurled into the fiery lake of burning brimstone, where the beast and false prophet were; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever (through the ages of the ages).

I may have to repeat these steps multiple times throughout the day! This is my medicine! And like magic, I start to be lifted up in my spirit! Praise God!!! He is amazing!

Oh, and I have a choice. I can be stubborn like Israel was. But we all know what happened as a result of their willful stubborness. Their hearts became hard.

Psalm 81

Amplified Bible (AMP)

7 You called in distress and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!

8 Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you—O Israel, if you would listen to Me!

9 There shall no strange god be among you, neither shall you worship any alien god.

10 I am the Lord your God, Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

11 But My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would have none of Me.

12 So I gave them up to their own hearts’ lust and let them go after their own stubborn will, that they might follow their own counsels.

13 Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!

14 Speedily then I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their adversaries.

15 [Had Israel listened to Me in Egypt, then] those who hated the Lord would have come cringing before Him, and their defeat would have lasted forever.

16 [God] would feed [Israel now] also with the finest of the wheat; and with honey out of the rock would I satisfy you.

"O God, I don't want to be like Israel! Instead of ignoring You, I want to seek after You! When life happens, I want to cling to You! When I'm discouraged, I want to choose Hope! You are Hope! You are Life! You are Breath! Even when I see NO reason to believe! Please open my blind eyes. Please let me view my circumstance through YOUR eyes. Give me YOUR eyes of hope, Jesus. AMEN!"