“For You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy.” Ps 63:7 ESV

Hello Friend! 🌻

These past few years have been filled with some ups and downs (and all the feels that go with it) for my precious family.

I told God it feels like we’re going around in circles in the wilderness and not able to find a soft place to land. Whenever we thought we were taking a step forward, we would find ourselves two steps back.

I started to feel unsettled in my soul because of all the uncertainty and the doors that seemed to keep shutting. And I found myself constantly battling fear and anxiety deep inside because I kept forgetting to give it all to God.

Then a few months ago, the Lord brought our key verse to my attention.

Psalm 63 was penned by King David when he was in the literal Desert of Judah. I realized God had something to say about the wilderness we were in.

As I meditated on this beautiful verse, the words in the shadow of Your wings reminded me of some comforting words from another Psalm. Psalm 91:1 assures us we will find rest in God’s shadow when we make His shelter our dwelling place.

God’s protective shadow is where we belong as children of God and no one knew this better than David. He did not have an easy life, not by a long shot. But in many of his writings, we find him pointing to God as his soft place to land, where he found rest for his soul. So much so, that he could sing for joy despite his circumstances, as Psalm 63:7 reveals.

The NKJV translation words Psalm 63:7 as: “Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice” (Emphasis mine).

David was able to rejoice and joyfully worship his faithful God despite his bleak circumstances in the desert because he was in the practice of remembering the One Who fights for him.  

I can’t say the same thing about myself! I have a tendency to come at alot of things in life in my own strength so I don’t immediately remember my God when I find myself bumping up against something bigger than myself.  

So I asked God to help me to remember Him better as weeks turn into months. How can I navigate this wilderness season better than I have been? God dropped in my spirit the treasure I needed to glean in this season:

Three ways David fortified himself to remember well the ONE Who fought for him. 

• David didn’t take credit for victories in battle but gave all glory to God.
• David meditated on God’s presence in His sanctuary and in His Word. Often!
• David did not despise his own weaknesses but delighted in God’s strength.

David was human and prone to forgetting, just like the rest of us.

But, because of his intentional habits, David fortified himself to quickly remember His God no matter the situation he found himself in. We find a beautiful example of this in the story of David’s battle with Goliath …

Or, as David might have worded it, in Goliath’s battle with the God of the Heavenly Armies. Before he gathered his five smooth stones, he settled in his heart that the battle belonged to God.

And in 1 Samuel 17:33-37, we see where king Saul was hesitant to allow the young shepherd boy to fight but David recited back to the king his memory of how God rescued him and his father’s sheep from both the lion and the bear and this uncircumcized Philistine would be no different.

This unknown giant that is coming against my family in this current wilderness season we are walking through? Have I been processing him through the same filter king David would have?

Well, it’s hard to remember the One Who fights for me when …

• I haven’t been investing enough time to be completely filled up in God’s presence and His nourishing Word.
• I dispise my weaknesses and strive for perfection instead of humbling myself to make room for God’s strength.
• I take credit for battles won in an attempt to bolster my shaky self esteem.

When I operate like this, I’m not giving God permission to be strong in my life and my memory bank is not filled with stories of how He has repeatedly brought me the victories.  

So when I find myself facing a new giant, my default is to measure him against myself and find myself lacking once again. And, if I’m being honest here, I then get upset at God for not moving on my behalf when I’m the one who was is in His way to begin with.  

I want to be more like David, don’t you?

Whenever he found himself facing a giant, he immediately knew his opponent was a dead man before the battle even began.  

My friend, how are you doing in this current season you are in?

Whether things are going well or not so much right now, let’s encourage each other to begin cultivating David’s three habits to fortify ourselves to remember well the ONE Who fights for us:

• Give God all the glory! When we encounter a giant, we won’t feel too God confident if our past is speckled with moments of us stealing His thunder for ourselves. When we make it about ourselves, we will measure future giants against ourselves. When we make it all about God’s glory, it will be easier to remember Him and we will gladly get out of His way in the battle.
• Spend time in Jesus’ presence for ourselves. If we desire spiritual growth and victory, we must trade in spiritual milk for solid food. Christian devotionals and podcasts point us to Christ but will never completely satisfy us because they are in essence sweet crumbs from someone else’s quiet time with Jesus. Thus, they should never completely take the place of us feeding on Jesus’ Words and drinking deeply from His cup for ourselves. Lesson learned for myself.
• Steward our weaknesses by delighting in His strength. When we despise our weaknesses, we are making it about ourselves again. It’s hard to rest in God’s shadow and delight in His strength when we feel the need to prove ourselves. Instead, let’s delight in the LORD’s strength like David did and see our weaknesses as great opportunities for God to show up big for us.

Sweet Sister, you and I are right where we need to be in this season we find ourselves in. May we focus on resting our souls in God’s protective shadow instead of spinning our wheels trying to figure out what needs to happen next. Remember Who is fighting for you and take courage today.

I am praying for you, please pray for me as well … 🙏🩷   

A Woman after God’s Own Heart – Three Habits to Help Us Remember the ONE Who Fights for Us @ freshgracefortoday.com

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