He Causes

I've been reading the Book of Psalms in my devotional time and the other day I came across Psalm 111:4 which says, "He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate." The word "caused" caught my attention as I've been reminded these months to reflect much on God's faithfulness to me in the past, just as the Israelites often recounted how God was merciful to them. Yet I realized even my act of remembering, reflecting, and recounting was God's merciful enablement. Out of His grace and compassion, He has caused his wonders in my life to be remembered. Left to myself, I don't even have the power or means to bring to mind anything remotely godly. I am grateful that during trying times, even my remembering of the Lord and His faithfulness to me is purely His sovereign act. As Piper reminds me through Philippians 3:12, which says, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me," "all [my] efforts to grasp the fullness of joy in Christ are secured by Christ's grasp of [me]." I am secured because He has caused it in the first place. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

The Word as Pathway to Joy

Had a double GI medical procedure today and am utterly grateful to the Lord for carrying me through it. It was definitely not a pleasant experience including the day of preparation. Pathology report is yet to come and I am learning again to trust in and wait upon the Lord as I did with my surgery 4 months ago.

I am halfway through Piper's book "When I don't desire God--How to fight for joy" and it has been a tremendous blessing. Last night, I read about how the Word of God can become our pathway to joy. Piper said the writer in Psalm 119 "not only prayed and meditated over the Word of God in order to understand it--he also suffered in order to understand it. The Psalmist says, '... It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statues' (Psalm 119:71)." God also instrumentally placed the book of Psalms in my current bible reading schedule and His Word has been ever so real to me during these months of physical ailments. I can echo with the psalmist in his honesty with God during the dark times and am grateful that these afflictions bring me to "see the meaning of God's Word as never before." Though I still struggle with the sin of anxiety and overly focus on my own sufferings which pale far in comparison to those of many others', His Word has been my anchor, and I trust that knowing and seeing it is the pathway to true joy. I have a long way to go but "He is as near as [my] own breathing and is infinitely merciful and mighty." Blessed be the name of the Lord.