Looking Up

Yesterday was difficult, mostly because my mind kept going to the worst case scenario. Pain makes positive thinking almost a mockery. And “what if” questions are not conducive to joy. I could not seem to focus on the goodness of God that motivates His actions in our lives. All I could think of was my husband’s injury and pain and my own struggle with a knee that might hurt one step and not the next. It was a day when I didn’t want to do anything at all, just fasting from life. I got up this morning determined to drop that numbing attitude and let God replace it with His joy.

Today’s devotional is about an OT passage of rebuke to God’s people who were fasting for the wrong reasons. They asked God why He was not noticing their actions and He responded:

Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 58:3–14)

The reading also rebuked my attitude — which I deserved. It said that God is not pleased with the miseries of self-examination. He calls on me as He did on them, to forget my own problems and to go to work to lessen the miseries of others. Service for others is of infinitely greater value to the Lord than the longest seasons of self-examination and self-abasement. That being true, He certainly does not value self-pity and a lack of hope either.

I’m thinking of the psalms. Even those of lament that begin with “poor me” usually end on high notes. For example:

Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning… For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield. (Psalm 5:1-12)

Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?… O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. (Psalm 10:1-17;18)

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?… I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me. (Psalm 13:1-6)

My nature is pessimistic, seeing the worst first. Jesus was aware of evil too, but it was not His focus. I need to be more like Him.

PRAY: Lord, use these trials to bring out Your attitude of putting others first, of being merciful even when in pain with grace like, “Father forgive them” on Your lips. I can put my spouse’s needs before my own, yet there are thousands, perhaps millions in far more dire need of prayer and Your goodness than we are. Instead of being numb with anxiety, fill me with concern to do whatever I can for others, praying for Your guidance and wisdom and keeping my mind on your promise to use all things for good in their lives as well as mine.