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Don’t you love it when God shines His light on a particular passage of the Bible and uses it to comfort and encourage you. Sometimes those verses are very personal – meant only for your own situation. If you do share them with others, they often give you funny looks and you can tell they don’t get why you are so excited about it even though the very same words are shining like the noonday sun for you. But every so often, it will be a passage that blesses others as much as it blesses you and that can give you an extra special sense of joy.
This past week, Psalm 146 was like that for me. I was having a difficult night – the joys of menopause! I had woken up and was having a hard time getting back to sleep. Feeling hot, worried, and anxious in the middle of the night is nothing new. I’ve been dealing with this for several years. As a Sandwich Generation caregiver, there’s plenty of things to cause anxious thoughts in the middle of the night. If it’s not concern about aging parents, it could be worry over sick grandkids. It’s easing up a bit, but still happens occasionally and this was one of those moments. I’ve learned to use the time as a “Sleep Fast” and start reading the Bible. This usually calms me down and enables me to go back to sleep. When I picked up my Bible it flipped opened to Psalm 146. I started reading it, and the words just gripped my heart.
God reminded me to praise Him no matter what…to not trust in others, but instead put my trust fully on Him. His Words assured me He provides abundantly, that He raises up those who are feeling down, and that He supports the fatherless and the widow. THAT’S ME! I can’t tell you what a hug that was. After reading it about three times, I lay back down and was soon sleeping like a baby.
It gets better! As the week went on, I was able to use that passage to specifically encourage and comfort three other friends. Each time, those words came back to bless me all over again! What a blessing God and His Word are!
Here is the passage in full. I pray you will also be blessed and encouraged through these eternal words! And if you are, please leave a comment or send me an email (Kaye@SandwichINK.com ) and share how God used them in your life.
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord while I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God,
Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever; Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free.
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind; The Lord raises up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous;
The Lord protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, b ut He thwarts the way of the wicked.
The Lord will reign forever,
Your God, O Zion, to all generations,
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 146
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