When I was a choir director I was lucky to have a choir who could do this version of Psalm 46. I love the psalm and this version just lifts me up. I hope you can take the words to heart.
Category: actions
Faith is a choice
Faith is not something you can explain to someone else. It is a step into the unknown. Science needs everything to be provable. Faith accepts something that cannot be proved. It is a choice….a decision and it may have to be decided over and over. It can be slippery if we attach it to feelings. It is not a feeling but a choice.
We earn it
Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.
Our behavior sets the tone for how we will be treated. These things in the quote are earned. Christ had respect for everyone he saw. No one was beneath him. Even the homeless on the streets deserve respect.
Cruelty from weakness?
All cruelty springs from weakness. Seneca
This quote really make me think. Are those who are cruel using their dominance to assure themselves of their strength? They are looking for strength in themselves. The place we need to look for strength is our God. God is always there ready to hold us up. We are not weak when God is with us. My aunt always said “God hates ugly.” By that she meant those who are unkind or cruel. We don’t need to be cruel to find strength.
Today
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will. Epictetus
We definitely spend too much time thinking and worrying about the future. The future is not in our control. Today…NOW is the only thing that we have. God’s in his heaven. Embrace today!
Create
Every man is a consumer and ought to be a producer. Ralph Waldo Emerson
This is so true that it is even hard to add more to it. Somehow we can too easily forget that everyone in the world needs to help or we will all fail. God did not expect us to sit on our hands. Go! Do!
Forgive
Esdras is in The Apocrapha a section of writings not always included in protestant Bibles but usually found in Catholic texts.
For our sins have risen higher than our heads, and our mistakes have mounted up to heaven
There is no one who hasn’t made mistakes. If anyone claims that they haven’t they are mistaken. Some mistakes are minor and some of monumental proportions. Some don’t matter and some cause profound hurt. When we think about mistakes we also need to consider forgiveness. Forgiveness can be hard but we are called to forgive no matter what. We may have to work at it and it may take time.
but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Watch out!
1 Peter 5:8
8 Discipline yourselves, keep alert.[a] Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.
I don’t know if you have ever read the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis but everyone should. It is such a good portrayal of the devil. The devil is wily and tricky. He will trick us if he can by making something seem good when it isn’t. He doesn’t appear evil. This is deliberate. Watch out!
Duty
Without duty, life is soft and boneless; it cannot hold itself together. Joseph Joubert
So many people today want to move through life without having any duty to perform or any thought of having to work. Work fulfills us. The joy of creating something worthwhile feeds our soul. Just being idle leaves us feeling vapid and wasted. God calls us to find our work/vocation and fulfill our task on this earth.
Colossians 3:23 Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters,
Pray and Do
It is important to pray for people. Prayer is never wasted. It is, however, not right to substitute prayer for helping someone in a physical way. We can so easily push aside what we ought to do and just pray. Keep praying but do what is needed.
Hear God in Other Voices 