Truly...His mercies are new every morning!

When you spend time in God's Word...letting it impact your thinking, sink into your heart, change your understanding, convict your soul, and admit your weakness...He gives strength that Isaiah 40:31 speaks of!

Struggle brings us to a choice...obedience or disobedience.  Obedience brings blessing!

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;  they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

We all put our trust somewhere.  We put our faith in something.  We get weary and faint as we deal with sin here on earth.  God knows it is not easy for us.  He gave His Son to pay the debt of sin.  He gives His Spirit to protect, comfort, and guide us.

Psalm 84:11-12

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield:  the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.  O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee."

Where is your confidence? 

Proverbs 3:5-6

He knows where we've been.  He has never failed me.  He knows where we are going. 

He knows the whole story. 

And He loves me!

He knows my struggling heart and what I needed to surrender.  He has waited patiently...and then He opened my eyes to more of His truth as I read in Psalm 119 again this morning...specifically verses 25-64.

I cried and relaxed.  It was like letting go of the breath I have been holding.  I know it in my head...have for years.  Watched it play out...saw the hurt and pain that sin brings and the blessing and joy that forgiveness brings.  But this time...has brought a personal touch of the effects of sinful choices...and the hurt has been personal.  No resolution...satan is rejoicing at the collateral damage(verse 61).

  God sees.  God knows. 

This is nothing new to my Heavenly Father! 

He had the Psalmist record His words for our good and His glory. 

"Many things about tomorrow...I don't seem to understand...but I know who holds my hand!"

I don't have to look over my shoulder.  I don't have to worry about what I have said. 

I lay my head down in rest and peace each night. 

And I have all this...

because we have chosen His truth and judgments, stuck to His testimonies, and remembered the comforts of His words...because I have kept His precepts when everything within me wanted to run and hide...because we have kept His statutes...and they have been our songs in the house of our pilgrimage!  (verse 54)

"Where sin had been pardoned...amazing grace was proclaimed!"