Where I am today has driven my topic for this post. Today I am in NY, the morning after the big election, instead of at my women’s bible study at the Cape. Although I miss my dear sisters, I know God works in my life wherever I am and today is no different. I decided that since I couldn’t attend the session, I’d bring the book to NY with me and, from 9:30 to 10:30 I’d spend the time doing the homework that I knew would be assigned to us today. I so didn’t want to miss this weekly time studying God’s word, because as a person who never spent much time in the bible, I figure I have a lot to do. With what I just learned from Psalm 126, I’m so glad I took this time.
Psalm 126 gives us a GPS for our daily life. Sometimes we get so wound up in our struggles that we just cry out to God, “Why, Lord, does this have to be so hard?” We think it’s never going to end. We reach that point of thinking we should just give up. It’s all in vain. It’s hard. We just plain don’t want to do it anymore. Then, out of the blue, God steps in and answers us. He did that to me during today’s study.
Here’s that tiny Psalm 126:
A Pilgrim song
It seemed like a dream, too good to be true, when God returned Zion’s exiles.
We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune. We were the talk of the nations – God was wonderful to them!
God was wonderful to us; we are one happy people.
That’s part one – something great happened. Look at part two:
And now God, do it again – bring rain to our drought-stricken lives so that those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest. So those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessings.
These people wanted more. They wanted God to bless them again. But where were they in the meantime? They were in an in-between time. Make a timeline out of this:
Start with a time you remember that was too good to be true. Something you cannot believe you were given or a time you were privileged to experience. Write that at the beginning of the line. At the end of the line write something you hope for in the future that will be just as wonderful. Now look at the blank line in between. That’s the in-between time. This, like the people in the Psalm, is where you live between a good time remembered and another good time hoped for.
When you are living in an in-between time, you may be in deep peril, in a dark valley – or not. You could just be moving along doing your life, but just know God has great things for you in the future, remembering that past blessing. I don’t know about you, but those people standing there saying “And now God, do it again!” motivates me to hang in there. In Beth Moore’s words:
“God has not run out of wonders, Lovey. We have not seen the last great work of God in our lives. Perish the thought! We haven’t used up our quota of God’s mercies for the year. Let’s ask, Dear One!”
Okay, if that’s not hope, I don’t know what is. This being the morning after the big election, I feel this applies to our country, too. We remember the great times. We are sitting in the in-between time. It’s not great, but God sees us and is moved by our plights. He still performs wonders and we can’t let anyone tell us otherwise. We need to stand here, next our President, and say it: “And now God, do it again!”
My inspiration for this part of my post came from a dear friend’s Facebook post that popped up as I was writing this:
“…so, the morning after the election question….for all the Obama supporters out there….what exactly was it that he did in the last 4 years to make this nation a better place and cause you to elect him president again….or was it strictly a “party” thing…just curious.”
I loved this question. My comment on her post is below.
And so, as another day goes by, I’m enjoying the peace from the ads, the peace that having a GPS affords, and…I have written.
PS- I, like my friend, would be interested in your answer to her question, also!
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