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Welcome to week 2 of my new adventure: video blogging.

My Vlog now has a name!  Lessons from the Lake

Lessons From the Lake

Thank you to my blogging friend Susan Shipe for her brilliant name suggestion last week.  Susan you are fabulous!!!

Have you ever been walking the road of life and everything seems totally fine?

Then all of the sudden, it’s not so fine?

This week, discouragement tried to creep in and rob me of peace. All week, I kept being drawn to the verses in Psalm 42.  I was not drawn to the ones about discouragement and questioning where God was.  I was drawn to verses about longing for God. Longing for a deeper revelation (vs 7), a deeper relationship (vs 8), and a longing to feel His presence(vs 1-2).

Last week I had little thing after little thing go wrong.

Ever had days or weeks like that? If we are honest, we all do, however it is what we choose to do with them when they come that matters.

Last week I broke a tooth.  A tooth the dentist said would be 98% fine when I had him look at the week before.  It happened on Thursday night and the dental office is closed on Friday.  Good news and a God miracle was the doctor came in on Friday and was able to take the existing tooth and make it work as a crown, instead of taking a more time consuming and costly route.

Last week we heard the reply to our “Big Ask” of my husbands employers, and it was favorable.  However, it was quickly followed up with more uncertainty, making the favorable response to our “Big Ask” not so favorable.

Last week, I began comparing myself, my ministry, my blog, our church, etc. to others.  I said to my husband, “I feel like I’m in High School all over again and it’s a popularity contest, that I can’t win.”

There were other things throughout the week that happened as well that allowed discouragement to sneak up on me.  I honestly wasn’t even aware that this little cloud of discouragement was there until Sunday morning.

We were singing the song “Holy Spirit,” and when I sang the chorus, “let us be overcome by your presence,” it was at that very moment that I felt myself cry out:

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” (Psalm 42:5)

In that moment, I knew I needed to feel God’s overwhelming presence.  I know that He was there, because He promises He will never leave us, but I needed to feel Him there.

I feel I have been steadfast and standing in faith as we wrestle through making a decision about my husbands job.  I felt like I had dealt calmly with the tooth issue. I talked my way through the feelings of being  a loser in the popularity contest of life, not to mention all the other little things that came up last week.

However, apparently my soul wasn’t feeling the same peace, hope, faith, and trust in God.

We have 1 week left to make a decision, and feel we have come to a decision, but will wait on the Lord some more.

The decision is one that entails change.

To some it seems to be the riskier path.

It’s a decisions that will require much faith and trust in God.

It’s a decision that makes us feel a little like Abraham when God told him to go and in faith he went, not knowing where he was going or where he would end up.

My response to discouragement and uncertainty this week is found in Psalms 42:5 and 11:

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

deepcallstodeep

I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday.  I will finish up the series on Gideon: Where are you Putting Your Trust?  (Self Reliance vs God Reliance)

Psalm 42

As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?
My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”
These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

My soul is downcast within me;
    therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.

By day the Lord directs his love,
    at night his song is with me—
    a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God my Rock,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
    oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
    as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”

11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

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