Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to he high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

This excerpt from a Puritan prayer called The Valley of Vision captures the idea of the paradox of the Christian life found in Psalm 145::14.

Do you remember when churches had old fashioned revival services?  A guest preacher would come to the church for a week or two for nightly services focused on spiritual renewal for believers. 

I don’t hear of these types of revival services in churches today, but it is still important for believers in Jesus to walk in daily renewal and revival.

Psalm 85 gives us a focus on renewal, revival, and restoration for the people of God. 

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year! I suppose it is for many people. The cool crisp air and the changing leaves are a part of what I love. But to be honest with you, one of my favorite things about fall is college football and the pennant races of Major League baseball. And I do what many of us do. I shout for my teams! Like you, I have my favorite college football team, my favorite MLB team and I do my fair share of shouting and cheering them on to victory. For some reason, I equate the fall with shouting!

Did you know that we are called to shout to God? Psalm 66 is a Psalm of mighty praise and it begins with a shout!

Do you ever feel hopeless?

When troubles come into our lives, when sorrows overwhelm us and when tragedy comes our way, we can feel helpless and hopeless. When that happens, we don’t have to listen to our feelings, we can rely on facts. And the simple fact is that God is our hope. Our feelings will lead us to stumble because feelings are fickle, and they can lie to us. But our God is truth and is always sure and steady. That is why we put our hope in God, not our feelings.

Fear has no limits. Normal people, famous people, lost people and, yes, even saved people deal with fear.

Fear wants to take us prisoner and that is exactly what happened to David in today’s Psalm, chapter 34. It is a low point in David’s life. He is afraid and cries out to God. And God encourages him with faith to overcome his fear.

One of the greatest challenges in life is waiting. Let’s be honest; we just don’t like to wait!

Waiting is a part of everyday, ordinary life. We wait for our tea to steep, our coffee to brew and our ship to come in. And guess what? Waiting is also a challenge in our spiritual lives.

Waiting on God might be one of the most challenging spiritual disciplines, but Psalm 13 helps us with a great example of how David trusted God while waiting.

If you want to end your day loving Jesus, serving Jesus, following God, obeying God’s Word and cleansed from sin then you must begin your day the same way .

In Psalms, we learn that David was confident that when he went to meet God, that God was already waiting on him. What a wonderful truth! When we awake each morning, our God is already waiting for us. He watched over us while we slept and He is looking forward to a day with us. We can be confident when we meet God to begin the day, He is already waiting on us.