Those Difficult Days

Ever had a week where one thing after another just seems to go wrong and you can't pull yourself out of the mire? That's me today. I have wished for "do-overs" for days. I thought my heart was in the right place when I made the decisions I made, but in the end, others have struggled and I have struggled and I finally realized last week that my heart wasn't in the right place because I haven't been as close to God as I need to be.

I am a faithful prayer warrior. If I tell someone I will pray for him, I do that. On Saturday, I was so distraught over a situation, that I couldn't even formulate a sentence in prayer. But God is faithful even in our groanings in that instance. He directed me to the Psalms and I literally prayed verses from the Psalms. What a precious time it ended up being for me, and what a blessing when He directed me to a passage that said my prayers had been answered.

But I have not been spending time in God's Word. So, last week, I got back into that. Several years ago, I had a "Read the Bible in One Year" plan that I used and marked the days in my Bible. All I have to do is pick it up and open it to the current day and read. No excuses not to get it done. No fumbling with papers back and forth. It's easy. I just got out of the habit. So I started back. Found August dates in Isaiah and I am reading through the oracles pronouncing judgment against the various nations. Obviously, the Lord was very displeased and He wanted to bring these mighty nations down, to humble them so they would look to Him.

I see our own nation in those judgments. Many of their sins are the ones we accept and commit daily in America. We rely on our status as a "super power" to carry us through, but the truth is, we are vulnerable because we do not honor God in our land. And I see that it begins with me. I need to focus on Him more. I need to immerse myself in His Word and in addition to just living it, I need to be saying it. I need to make my convictions known.

I don't know exactly how I will go about this, but God will reveal to me His Plan for me.

As I just said to my daughter about another matter, pray for His answers. Pray for direction. Pray for wisdom. And pray expecting the answer.