Skip to main content

Mind Will and EmoTioNs

This morning, I revisited Psalm 31. There is so much packed into those 24 verses. I've begun work on a devotional called 31 Days in Psalm 31. It's so rich. In my reading this morning, I stopped once again in verse 7 where David says, You have known my soul in adversities. I love that part of the verse. The soul is the innermost seat in us - it houses our mind, will, and emotions. I'm not telling fellow caregivers anything new when I say our emotions and our minds can be all over the place. We can go from extreme happiness to debilitating depression in a matter of minutes. Our highs and lows can be triggered by a photo, a hope, a loss, or a single word. Sometimes, nothing in particular can cause us to fall off the edge - we live on it. But God keeps up with it all and never misses a thing.

So I let my mind camp there for a bit and consider how God keeps up with the daily adversities of caregiving. In Psalm 139:23, David prays for God to know his anxious thoughts. I'm not sure he needed to pray that - God sees. He knows how crazy our emotions and thoughts can be - and how they can be all over the place. He understands us when no one else can - or when we don't even understand ourselves. And it doesn't scare Him away.

So, as I was meditating on all these things, I found myself looking at Psalm 139:23-24 again. David is again bringing his anxious thoughts before the Lord. It seems like he does that often. Maybe that helps me not feel so bad about it. He finishes out 139 with this prayer:

Search me O God and know my heart
Try me and know my anxieties
See if there is any wicked way in me
and lead me in the way everlasting.

I like that David is bringing his anxieties before the Lord and I love the completeness of this prayer. He specifically asks God to search his heart - to know his heart and to try him. It demonstrates a high level of trust to be comfortable asking God to walk around in your heart. But to be vulnerable enough before Him and asking Him to take a look at your anxious thoughts - that's pure worship. But David goes further. He asks God to search him, to try him - and then to lead him. May we be that yielded before God in our caregiving today.

Today, I will trust God enough to pour out my anxious thoughts before Him. My meditations will be on how He can search me, try me, and know me - and still love me passionately. (People can't always do that.) I'll think about how He doesn't look the other way at my fears, dashed hopes, losses or worries. He pulls me close and tells me it is okay. And I will sit right there with Him and trust Him for one more day - will you join me?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ups and Downs

  Maybe it's just "that time of year" for me, but I've struggled a lot the last few weeks. I still affectionately  call it the caregiver's fog. Lol. Okay, maybe it's not-so-affectionately. I know I can share my true feelings with you guys because you get it. You understand the day-to-day grind of caregiving. The military has a saying about there being no easy day. I think we live in that reality. It's just not easy caring for another whole person, is it? Caregiving presents many difficulties. We can find ourselves alone, so very alone on this journey. It doesn't just go away. We don't just work through it. It seems to go on and on. There are lots of ups and downs - and that can be about every 90 seconds some days. Right? (smile!) As I've been working through this emotional maze the last few days, I turned my thoughts to Daniel. Let's take a realistic look at his circumstances because as we read his story in the Bible, we tend to glamorize i

Seasons Are Temporary

  This morning, I found myself reading in Isaiah 28. I ended up there because I was looking for something in particular, and even though I didn't find what I was looking for, I found what I needed. God's so cool like that, isn't He? My eyes first fell on verse 29, which says in the NKJ: This also comes from the Lord of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance. I rolled that over in my mind and heart a few times and spent a few minutes thinking about how I'd seen His counsel in action in my own life. We've all had those times when we weren't sure what to do or where to go, and suddenly, an idea drops into our thoughts. There are many ways He provides direction for us. He may direct our steps through a passage of scripture, a trusted spiritual leader such as a pastor, a YouTube teacher, and maybe even a lowly blog writer. Lol. No matter how He chooses to deliver His counsel, it comes - but we must listen. After I had rolled these thoughts and t

The Practical Side of Caregiving

 This week, I've been reading the book of Acts. I am enjoying the journey of the early church. Can you imagine what it would be like if your church saw 5000 people saved in a day? Mass chaos would ensue as leadership tried to figure out how to serve that many people! It'd be great and difficult at the same time - kind of like caregiving. Lol. But yesterday, I got stuck in Acts 9 thinking about a practical caregiving issue. In verse 32, we read that Peter was traveling around and encouraging all the new believers. He came to the town of Lydda. Verse 33 says in the NLT, There he (Peter) met a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. Now, the next verses talk about how Peter proclaimed healing, and the man just got up! That's so amazing. But my brain got stuck on some of the practical parts. Aeneas was paralyzed and bedridden. My mind compared the situation to my son, of course, even though he's not "paralyzed." I started wondering