I read once that Billy Graham reads a Psalm a day for his devotions. So, I started doing that, too. I love many of the Psalms, but 18 is a particular favorite of mine. My heart sings with the first verse:
I love you, O Lord, my strength
How wonderful and peace-giving it is to know that I am not alone and nothing I do is truly in my own strength. I confess to times in my life when I have been, or tried to be, self-sufficient, and, consequently, have fallen flat on my face. I resonate with Paul when he says, when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:10)
This theme echoes throughout the Psalms - that the Lord is my strength (& my song & my salvation), but 18:1 gives our heart's response, 'I love you.'
This reminds me also of the Greatest Command according to Jesus - the Shema:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5)
There's that strength again linked with love. My strength, though little and weak, is to be focused on loving God. I guess that would lead to shalom!
What are your thoughts on this?
4 comments:
When a child asks Jesus into their life, they ask for Him to be brought into their hearts. We may have done that long ago as a child, but now as adults, we tend to forget that. Instead we give higher priority to the other loves of this world leaving little room for God's love.
I do tend to forget that I am stronger when weaker. Its a little mind boggling when we think of the concepts of His strength to ours. When we feel strong, we certainly don't go asking for more. No, instead we go and grab for that energy drink which we don't admit to see we rely on too much.
Have you ever been to a Billy G crusade? He came to San Diego a few years back and since I had screwed up my ankle, I got to sit right down on the Padre's field front row..without having to accept Christ again! hehe. Being injured does have its benefits.
yes, Erin, the wonderful reality of the competition for love. Can our hearts not grow big enough to expand our love to more than one person/thing? And yet, this love for God must be all-consuming? How does that work out in our lives?
His strength. Sometimes I visualize being a little girl climbing onto my Heavenly Father's lap. There I feel his protection, his love, his strength giving me strength. This is what I call true 'rest'/'shalom.'
I visualize it in the same way, but certainly for a sense of peace. Maybe that is what I desire most, since I didn't have an earthly father to do that with. Sometimes I will be in bed and I feel His presence quite strong. As if a giant hand has come down and is soothing my back caressing it. But if God does not have a body like ours, how will we relate to his presence up in heaven? Pop culture has tried to give us visions of what Satan looks like and God being an old man with a white beard who is strong and a giant.
Not just pop culture, Erin. Images of God have been going on for quite a while. Maybe there's a reason we can't know for sure what God looks like - it gives us some freedom to imagine and visualize for ourselves. What is God like for me?
The image of father or 'daddy' is hard for many people today, like yourself, who did not have an eathly father to relate with - or had an earthly father who definitely did not reflect the pure love that God is.
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