Today’s Reading : Psalms 141
Throughout our lives we have experience many different emotions and situations. I have experienced joy, sadness, despair, comfort, healing, jubilation and awe. These different emotions have been a part of me these last several weeks.
It stared with a little time away with my wife. We had a great time reconnecting and celebrating us as a partnership. Over the last several years we have been able to grow together and understand each other on a deeper level than when our relationship started (eighteen years ago) and even more since we were married (thirteen years ago).
Almost immediately after we returned, I received a call that one of my closest aunts passed away unexpectedly. I have many aunts and uncles, but this one was one of my main prayer partners and warriors. She and I had a relationship that was so connected when either one of us hurt, the other could sense it. We would call each other and say “God placed you on my heart” and we would prayer for each other. I had the honor of being a pallbearer for her to her final resting place.
Upon returning home from the funeral on Memorial Day, Oliver had one of the most terrifying seizures I and Jillian has witnessed. This happened in the middle of the night and we had to go to the emergency room and then to Lurie in Chicago to the neurology department for more observations. He was released on Thursday.
The following Sunday, my mother had to go to the hospital for observation and monitoring for heat exhaustion and cardiac monitoring. Then this past Thursday, Ollie had another major seizure that was a result of sodium depletion and new active brain tumor. We spent three days at Lurie Children’s hospital in Chicago getting him stable again. This has been a rough couple of weeks.
As I was sitting with Ollie and reading my devotions and my scriptures, Psalms 141 rings true: 1-2; 8-10
O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me!
Give ear to my voice when I call to you!
2 Let my prayer be counted as incense before you,
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!8 But my eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord;
in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless![c]
9 Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me
and from the snares of evildoers!
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by safely.In my devotion I have been going through the books written by Luke: The Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. One of the most profound parts that I was reintroduced to was when Paul was overwhelmed and didn’t want to continue, Paul had been through so many trail and tribulations that he wanted to give up everything, but God spoke to him and gave him courage.
Acts 18:9-10.
And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent,10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent,10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Here is a few of the trials that Paul had endured before Corith. 2 Corinthians 11:22-28.
23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,[a] in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
These weeks make me “Cry out to God, Give ear to my voice” for his protection and grace. And I have the assurance that he has been with me, is with me, and will be with me in times like these and beyond because of his love and promise. I pray that this will be a testimony that would encourage and enrich you in whatever you will, currently experiencing, or will experience in the future.
Lynden McGriff
