Daily Devotions

I love you, O Lord, my strength.  The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies.

The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of perdition assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.

In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.  Psalm 18:1-6

OOOHHH, did I get sick on Saturday night!  I’m not sure what hit me but it hit me good.  After spending most of the night in a room other than our bedroom, I texted our associate pastor and told him that I wouldn’t be able to preach on Sunday morning.  That was only the second or third time I have done that in all my years in the parish but never was I so grateful to have a partner than this weekend.

I feel significantly better this morning.  I’m not all the way back but I’m far enough to think back, just two days ago, when I couldn’t remember what it felt like to feel good.

And I did call upon God in the midst of my distress.  I don’t like skipping church when I am supposed to be there.  I don’t like letting our people down.  I don’t like not doing my part.  And I don’t like feeling sick.  So I called upon God…and I called Pastor Tan.

Sunday happened just fine without me.  I watched our worship service via the Internet as I had joined the ranks of the homebound for the day.  And I started to get better.

Last night I realized that I had felt so bad on Sunday and Monday that I didn’t make coffee.  Just the idea of drinking a cup of coffee turned my stomach.  That is NOT me.  Rare is the time that anyone who knows me has seen me without a cup of coffee near at hand.  I can’t remember the last time that a day passed without coffee.  I dread those days when I have to get my blood checked because I know those are mornings without coffee.

But this morning I left the house with a glass of ice water.  I’m going to see what another day without coffee feels like.  I know this is no big deal in the grand scheme of things but it is a big deal to me.  One of my hopes coming in to this new year was letting go of my dependence on coffee.  I didn’t intend to start that so quickly, or under these circumstances, but maybe that is going to be what it takes for me.

I think that might be how it works when we call upon God, our Rock, our Fortress, our Deliver.  It might be that help comes in unexpected ways.  It might be that calling on the God we cannot see might be just what we need to get the strength and courage to call on the human beings that God puts in our way to help us.

Let us pray:  Dear Lord, thank you for listening to us when we pour our hearts out to you.  Thank you for coming to us through people who can help us.  And thank you for deliverance from that which binds us.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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