The Other Six Days

“May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38)

Luke 1:26–38 is an announcement of redemption. Mary is to name her son Jesus, which in Hebrew means God rescues, delivers or saves. Mary knows her son will rule an eternal kingdom as the deliverer and rescuer of people in need of help. She also knows she will be scrutinized and shamed for being pregnant out of wedlock. She accepts this because she, along with all of her people, longs for God’s salvation.

We respond to God’s call not just for our own salvation, but for the salvation of others. In other words, it’s not about us.

Interesting that John is filled with the Holy Spirit before his birth.

Angels. What in the world about angels. I don’t think I have space in my brain that understands the encounter that muted Zechariah and that announced to Mary. To say that Gabriel was there feels too nonchalant. Then really anything involving God feels too nonchalant if I’m just casually mentioning it.

But too, I can’t be exploding with the reality of what is available just beyond the veil of reality every minute. Couldn’t function. So is it a gift that we experience God, and we remember that experience, but we don’t relive the encounter every minute? God gives us micro doses of God that we can handle?

And Mary is pregnant because “nothing will be impossible with God” v38

Still that reminder should be at the forefront: Whatever is God’s will, God can make happen. What do I need to worry about? If I want only what God wants, and I participate as best as I understand God’s direction, life is easy! .

Just may my thoughts and wants align with God’s so I’m attached only to what is God’s thoughts and wants. Amen

Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. – Psalm 127:1

Let all the ministries of the church be undergirded with prayer and humility that as we’re doing what we’re doing, it’s with the sanction–the prompting –the reinforcing and confidence that God is going before us.

Let us give up good ideas that have our own strength behind them. Let us listen to wisdom from God about which to pursue and which to release. Let us hold onto things, ideas, programs, traditions, missions, outreaches loosely and God tightly.

“Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks” Psalm 137:9). 

Old Testament scholars have identified as many as 20 imprecatory Psalms, or Psalms of cursing. They express desires for vengeance, infanticide, and other cruelties. We cannot deny the malice of these curses, nor can we justify or agree with them because they are in the Bible.  They are descriptive, not prescriptive. 

They reflect the hurt and anger of a people who have suffered atrocities at the hands of their captors. The psalmist prays angry prayers against his enemies and those he perceives to be God’s enemies. The psalmist curses his enemy by appealing to a God of justice, who is intolerant of evil. 

There is value of the Psalms of cursing. We can learn from them about our own inclinations towards hatred and vengeance.

Then I called on the name of the Lord:   “Lord, save me!” (Psalm 116:4)

The Psalms can sound like a combination of praise and personal testimony. The psalmist recounts an experience that created great anguish. He was near death, and he was terrified.  We aren’t given the details, but God delivers him. 

How useful is the past? If recounting the past doesn’t impact the present, we’re just being sentimental. 

For the psalmist, recounting the past leads him to fulfill his vows to the Lord, to serve God just as his mother did (Psalm 116:4-6).

I will be careful to lead a blameless life (Psalm 101:2).

When shall I attain it?

Then this list of all the ways I’ll be perfect and all the ways I’ll mistreat people who aren’t up to snuff. Spiritual pride is also a thing.  And here I am caught up in it too just by pointing that out. And at the same time, there is value in having a community standard and consequences of being stiff necked about not working on being that standard.  

Let’s love God, just me and me.  That’s what I have agency over. I will walk with integrity. I will check in with God on the regular.  Posture checks every 20 seconds! Pray continually! 

I’ll leave all the “cutting off evil-doers” to David to figure out.

Psalm 94 is reassurance that God is going to make it all ok.  There was lots to despair then, and we could be tempted to despair now.  But remember! And notice when you do despair what you’re looking at.  Then shift that focus.

Happy are those whose strength is in you (Psalm 84:5).

Yesterday was a day for me of feeling blah. The meditation at pickleball–i couldn’t even do it. I asked everyone just to be still and quiet for a minute with me. I had read many inspirational things to bring to meditation and I didn’t have any inspirational word. And I felt judgy about myself and then judgy that I was making anything about me anyway

And then this morning I’m reminded to stop looking for my own power / ability / charisma/ to sustain a thing. God, all our efforts rely on you to accomplish anything meaningful. Even the process, not just the result is a part of the lesson.

Then we will never turn back from you” (Psalm 80:18). 

God watches this pattern over and over. People want to do right and mess up and recommit over and over. We get jaded in the world when people disappoint us. But God is a hopeless romantic. He doesn’t give up on us. Ultimately he has to resolve our issues, but he resolves it. He doesn’t just walk away. He really really really loves us

They weren’t listening so God let them (Psalm 81:11-12). He loves us so much he respects our free will. And he suffers watching us struggle in the consequences of our choices. We work best only in relationship to him. It’s how we were designed to function.

 “…at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted (Psalm 77:2).

Verses 1–9 show desperate prayers in the non-stop reaching out of desperate hands. We find no comfort if we are just waiting for God to grant requests. Instead, we should look for what God is doing during our desperation: God gives us the ability to keep praying; He keeps our eyes open to give us strength (not necessarily the words) to pray.

Then comes the big shift: remembering. Our requests to God are not about us: they are about God. God has acted on our behalf in the past, and will do so again. That’s where we find our confidence.