“Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me….Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.” Psalm 43:3a,4
Dawn comes and I awake to have my time with God. But there is no freshness, He seems far away. What is wrong? Is it sin? (I confess all the Spirit brings to mind.) Work overload? Tiredness? Probably some of each, but mainly it is my feelings.
Emotions are definitely the least reliable part of my being. When I allow them to rule, I end up feeling like this fellow here on the left: out of touch and at the mercy of whatever emotional wind that might blow.
To combat these negative feelings, I need to keep an ear open to the Spirit’s conviction and guidance, and to press on with what is right: worshiping, confessing, reading, praying, trusting that God is near as He promised.
This is a chance to live by faith, to believe God’s Word when I have no inner confirmation. It’s a chance to be weak, to live by faith, to praise Him for what I don’t like (feeling far away) and to go again to Scripture to remind myself of Truth.
Psalm 43:2 expresses my feelings well: “Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” Then verse 3 gives me a good prayer to combat this: “Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me [not my feelings], let them bring me to your holy mountain, the place where you dwell.” God’s Word gives light, and I can affirm by faith that I am with Him who is “my joy and my delight,” and I praise you, “O God, MY God.”
The advice in the last verse of Psalm 43 speaks strongly to me, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.”
He is at work and is carrying me along whether I sense it or not! He will work all out, so I can praise Him ahead of time for and in all.
All this brings to mind that beloved saying, “Knowing Jesus is enough for joy.” This is a chance for me to live it willfully by faith!
Prayer: “Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to believe and trust you when my feelings tell me the opposite. Help me to think Truth, to act on Truth, to praise according to Truth today. Amen.”
