Psalm 17: God's Word's Way

Psalm 17:4 – 5: “I’m not trying to get my way

                                    in the world’s way.

                        I’m trying to get your way,

                                    Your Word’s way.

                        I’m staying on your trail;

                                    I’m putting one foot

                        In front of the other.

                                    I’m not giving up.”

I’m not giving up. I’m trying to follow His trail and do what the Word says. But sometimes I feel conflicted. What the Word says can be confusing. For instance, it says to be responsible for our finances, yet it also says to care for the afflicted. Sometimes I feel like I can’t do both at the same time. Yet I have to remember that God promised to meet all my needs. So, I can trust Him to meet my needs (and try not to get my wants confused with my needs).

If I’m not going to give up on following God then I need to be willing to step out in faith. Even when things don’t seem practical I need to evaluate whether it is God’s way or the way of the world. God’s way doesn’t always tell me what to do ahead of time. Sometimes God says to just put one foot in front of the other, not knowing what may come after that. The way of the world would be to have it all figured out ahead of time, to calculate the costs, and base every decision on whether it’s affordable or not.

I can’t live that way. I have to trust that God will work out the details. I’m not saying that I shouldn’t make wise decisions but the wisest of decisions still may have an element of the unknown in it. That’s where God has to come in and take over. If I only make decisions based on what I know for certain, I will most likely not make decisions at all – because there is very little certainty in this world.

So, as for me, I will not give up. I will continue to try and make decisions based on what God’s Word says. I will try to avoid making decisions based on what the world says. Sometimes this is very hard to do, but I will not give up on trying to do the next right thing, one foot ahead at a time.

New Year's Resolutions

I’ve been trying to come up with a couple of New Year’s Resolutions. Some things that will inspire me to live a better life this coming year than the year that just ended. I have not really come up with anything. I see the posts others have made to their Facebook pages or to their blogs and I think, “I should come up with some clever words to inspire myself and others to a better year.” But, I don’t have anything new that I want to accomplish this year.

I’m not big on making New Year Resolutions because I’m not confident I will keep them – especially not for a whole year. So, today, as I contemplate a new year, I think of what has worked in the past to bring joy, thankfulness, and gladness to my life. These are the things I want to continue to do in 2014. They are resolutions in the sense that I am resolving to do them. They are not new resolutions however, because I’ve been doing them all along, throughout my life.

Of first importance is meeting with God daily, or at least almost daily. Each day I spend a little time in the Word of God, in prayer, and in praising is a successful day. Even if nothing else gets done in a day, if I’ve done those three things, I’ve had a successful day. From past experience I know that my mindset and mood is better on days I meet with God. I am not saying that there still aren’t hard days with low moods. There are, but what would my mood be like if I hadn’t met with God? On those days I fail to read the Word or praise or pray, I feel like something was missing from my life. Just to feel like I’m on the right track is enough reason to meet with God daily.

Next in importance is keeping up on my connection with beloved friends and family. I do that regularly in several ways. First, I try to write a daily email to my best friend. Although she lives in Minnesota and we are separated by geographical distance, we can be in contact on a daily basis through the power of the internet. In the past, which seems so very long ago, it would take days to communicate with her via the U.S. Postal Service. With technology via email, we can have daily contact to encourage each other and hold each other accountable to doing the things that keep us close to God. I will continue to do that sharing from my times in the Word of God and sharing my prayers, hopes, and dreams.

I also need to maintain contact with other friends and family. Again the internet is a powerful tool for doing this. I can message people on Facebook and/or keep up on the happenings in others’ lives via their Facebook posts. I need that regular contact with friends around the world. Thinking about others and their needs and prayer requests keeps me focused on others instead of just on my own problems and hang ups. That is important for me as I try to keep perspective in a world that can be so depressing. And, I see God answering prayer as I pray for those friends and family. That brings me a peaceful encouragement that I’m not sure I can get any other way.

I also need to do the things that are necessary for my sobriety. This includes the face to face contact with others who share my resolve to stay sober and happy. So, this next year I will continue to go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and Celebrate Recovery meetings. These meetings give me perspective. This also means continuing to see my therapist on a weekly basis. Sometimes I think it’s not doing any good, but then what would my life be like without the weekly reminder to keep working at the things that bring me stability in my life? I do need the reminders to keep doing the things that give me perspective on a messy life.

So, for 2014 I will keep doing the things that I’ve been striving to do throughout 2013. Maybe I will do some of them a little better than I did last year, maybe not. Having the goals to keep at them are important. Even as they are not new goals or resolutions, they are things that can bring about a changed life when 2014 is over.