In A Pickle
In A Pickle
My cucumbers are producing like gangbusters! Everyday, it seems, I fill my sink with new ones. I mean, how many cucumbers can a girl eat??
Soooooo…. I’ve started making pickles! What fun it is to see the jars stack up. Dill pickles, sweet pickles. There’s something so satisfying about filling jars with goodies to eat later when the season is long since gone.
Here it is, 4th of July again. I think of pickles and picnics and barbecues. I remember my father and uncle gleefully setting off fireworks in the back yard when I was little, and being afraid of sparklers and big booms. And it seems to me now that our world is in a bit of a pickle, with big booms and earthquakes and rumors and plagues.
Not that we should hide our heads in the sand, but we need to remember during all of this commotion that God has promised us that He will take care of us, regardless of our circumstances. If we are abiding in Him, placing our trust in Him, He will water the Garden He has planted in our hearts.
Listen to Jeremiah:
7 But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
and they never stop producing fruit.
Jeremiah 17: 7-8 (NLT)
Jesus said that if we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit, but it’s the abiding that’s essential. Without Him we can do nothing. (John 15:5)
David called God’s love unfailing. And then David called upon God for rescue from his enemies. He really trusted that God had it all under control. God has a plan, and nothing will get in the way of what God ordains.
So if that’s true, why does it seem that the world has gone mad, you ask? The Governor requires masks of everybody, and now the WHO says that non-symptomatic people can’t pass the virus (a reversal from before). Businesses must close. Businesses can open. Oops… businesses have to close again. Violence in the streets is called peaceful. Until it’s not. Churches can open. Wait. Everyone except churches can open. Do you feel like you are being pulled in 6 different directions? Who do we believe??
We need to believe the Lord God, Maker of Heaven and Earth. We need to pray that His kingdom will come and His will be done on Earth just as it is in Heaven.
Scripture says there are those who speak in double-talk. It’s nothing new. God’s always way ahead of us.
Isaiah 5:20: What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.
Then what is the answer?
Jesus continues in John 15 commanding the disciples to abide in His love, keep His commandments and love one another. He says: “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”
Abide. Love. Obey. And the result is Joy. Joy Joy Joy Joy, down in our hearts.
We will end up like that tree Isaiah spoke about. We’ll have shade and water, even in the heat, and flourish. Bear good fruit.
As David would say, we will triumph over our enemies.
By the way, who are our enemies? Mine fall into this camp: doubt, fear, depression, resentment, discouragement. Who are your enemies?
The best way to go to battle with our enemies is to put on the Full Armor of God. Take some time to read about that this week in Ephesians 6: 10-17. Our battle is not against our 3-dimensional world. Most often it’s against the sin residue in our own souls.
Ask God what is lurking in your own heart that you need to turn over to Him so the flow of abiding can happen between you. Put off the Old Self and put on the new Self--the one Christ gave us. (Ephesians 4:22ff)
David told us we could get out of our pickle:
“With God’s help we will do mighty things.”
Yes and Amen.
Psalm 108
1 My heart is confident in you, O God;
no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart!
2 Wake up, lyre and harp!
I will wake the dawn with my song.
3I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
I will sing your praises among the nations.
4 For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
May your glory shine over all the earth.
6 Now rescue your beloved people.
Answer and save us by your power.
7 God has promised this by his holiness:
“I will divide up Shechem with joy.
I will measure out the valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine,
and Manasseh, too.
Ephraim, my helmet, will produce my warriors,
and Judah, my scepter, will produce my kings.
9 But Moab, my washbasin, will become my servant,
and I will wipe my feet on Edom
and shout in triumph over Philistia.”
10 Who will bring me into the fortified city?
Who will bring me victory over Edom?
11 Have you rejected us, O God?
Will you no longer march with our armies?
12 Oh, please help us against our enemies,
for all human help is useless.
13 With God’s help we will do mighty things,
for he will trample down our foes.
In honor of the 4th of July, I leave you with this beautiful story of Francis Scott Key and the Star Spangled Banner.
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