On your feet now—applaud God! Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.
Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn't make him.
We're his people, his well-tended sheep.
Enter with the password: "Thank you!"
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.
For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.
This psalm is a great reminder who God is and who we are.
This morning I'm thinking about battles -- how we need to pick our battles in life. Here's another of my favorite verses from Psalms that deals with picking battles:
Cease striving and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10a).
I want to share with you a battle of sorts that has been entering my mind every once in a while over the last year. It's not a real significant battle, and it might seem quite silly compared to battles you are going through or even other ones I'm dealing with but it will illustrate my thought.
Over the last year or so my body has changed. I've been fighting against this change in my mind. I've not been content with the change. This morning I decided it was okay, that I'd be content and be at peace with it realizing it is part of life, part of getting older. I've gained almost ten pounds. It was like my body adjusted to this new year of my life. It isn't an unhealthy addition. It just is.
I could fight against it, start to really exercise and eat sparingly so I could weigh a certain number. But it just doesn't matter. I'm healthy. And I'm not going to trade that contentment for a bunch of striving to maintain something that doesn't need to be maintained.
Some of us need to lose weight for health reasons. Some of us need to exercise more for the same reason. But when it comes to our physical bodies, there are some battles -- the fight against age -- that we can't win no matter what we do. Aging gracefully is a beautiful thing.
All of us have seen the people in the media who do all they can to fight age. Some go to extremes with plastic surgery to the point they no longer look like themselves.
Some of the most beautiful people are those elderly people who live lives of love and generosity. This light shines out of them and they are just so darn cute. They are content.
These kinds of battles are in other parts of our lives too. If you are striving against something, stop and rest in God. And then, really examine the area. Maybe what you're trying to accomplish isn't what God wants for you. Or, maybe He has a better way. The Believer's Life can be void of strife and worry.