What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?

What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?
Remember: "When God closes a door, He always opens a window!" You never know what might be out there waiting for you!

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

"Rise and Stand Upright!" Updated and Recycled to Give You HOPE

This post was originally written on 4/23/2016, and I see that many of my friends had some excellent supportive comments at the end.  I was looking for something this morning to share about the word HOPE, and even though that word is not necessarily used or highlighted in this post, it is certainly implied and a very big part of what it means to "Rise and Stand Upright!"  Our HOPE is in the Lord, and because of Christ, we as believers have every reason to RISE and STAND UPRIGHT in the face of sorrow, disappointment, grief and fear.  It is my HOPE that you will find encouragement and HOPE as you read this post today.  It encouraged me to re-read it after almost a year.  God's Word is ever-active, always appropriate, and  easily recycled to meet whatever situation you may be facing today and in the future.
1.  "May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble;
May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
2.  May He send you help from the sanctuary..."  Psalm 20:1-2

Original Post 4/23/16~

This evening I was skimming through my Bible, looking at different verses here and there that I had highlighted in some way, or circled, bracketed, drew arrows pointing to, and in some cases, wrote a date in the margin.

I noticed that particularly in the book of Psalms, almost every page or Psalm had some kind of personal markings scattered throughout.  Probably because the Psalms are my favorite go-to verses in the whole Bible.  I've often thought they were written especially with me in mind...and perhaps they were. (See note card peeping above the Bible, which says, "Because you're so special...")


Anyway, tonight's "special" Psalm that I have zeroed in on is Psalm 20. There is an arrow pointing to it with the date 7/24/96 written in the margin.  Now, where were YOU on the date 7/24/96? Can you remember? Was it in any way significant? If so, please fill me in.  I do not quite recall why this particular Psalm was so important to me on this specific date in my life...(makes me wish that I had kept a journal during that time...but for various reasons I did not...probably because of the busy-ness or stressfulness of that time period,  I just wasn't able or in the mood to write it down.  However, I dated these verses in my Bible because they were speaking to my heart for some reason...and so perhaps the ancient words written in God's Word are journal enough.  God's Word, or in this case, God's inspired Word written down for us in Psalm 20 by the Psalmist David, was subtitled "A plea for help from the sanctuary".  


Let me quote a few of the verses here for you...the ones that I believe were speaking directly to me at that particular time in my life:

1.  "May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble;
May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
2.  May He send you help from the sanctuary,
and strengthen you out of Zion;
3.  May He remember all your offerings,
and accept your burnt sacrifice.
4.  May He grant you according to your heart's desire,
and fulfill all your purpose.
5.  We will rejoice in your salvation,
and in the name of our God we will set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions." 

Sifting back through the cobwebs and corners of my mind to that time period almost 20 years ago, I can vaguely remember that we were in a time of transition. Without going into specifics, I know that it was a time of great distress and unrest in our hearts and lives. We had left the pastoral ministry due to issues beyond our ability to "fix" on our own.  Only God could help us get back to where we needed to be in our lives.  Our hearts were broken, our spirits were sorely troubled and needed supernatural healing from on high.  Our greatest desire was to be healed and restored to what we believed was our purpose in life...but it was going to take Divine "help from the sanctuary"...and strength that could only come from "Zion"...the city of God.  

As I read through these verses at that time, I know when I came to verse 6 that I claimed it for our situation:

"Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
with the saving strength of His right hand."

I wish I could say that the answers came immediately and that we were rescued spontaneously from our "day of trouble".  But it was not that simple. Some parts of our lives...our "purpose", was not fulfilled completely for some time. There were still many days...and even years of waiting and wondering when God would intervene on our behalf.  Now, don't get me wrong...God truly heard my plea for help...and He did send ministering angels from the sanctuary to give us strength and guide us through the maze of uncertainty in the days ahead.  But the depth of the wounds that were still "bleeding" took time to heal and oftentimes the scabs would form and would somehow get scratched off and have to start all over again in the healing process. 

Today I can say as I look back on that time that God was surely with us. He never left us helpless.  But we had to learn to trust Him all over again.

Verse 7-8 says 
"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
 They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright!"

Yes, we had to learn to keep our eyes on the Lord our God and not in the strength of men.  Those who trust in men or principalities or chariots or horses, or jobs or positions..."They have bowed down and fallen"....but when we learned to keep our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), 
"We have risen and stand upright!"

Praise God!
I hope this will be an encouragement to you today.  When you are going through various trials and difficulties in life, whether they be self-inflicted, or brought on by the cares of this world...put your trust in "Name of the Lord our God", and when all the others around us may have bowed down and fallen, you will rise and stand upright!

24 comments:

  1. I like how that verse ministered to you. I had not thought of putting a date in the Bible next to Scriptures, a good idea.

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    1. Thank you Terra. I believe our Bibles are a personal "journal" of our walk with God. Therefore, I often make notations when something really speaks to me. I am glad that I put that date, because it did help me to recall why I was so taken with those verses. Sometimes it helps to look back and see how far God has brought us in 20 years! Bless you today my sweet friend.

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  2. So now I understand why you've understood my experience very similar to yours back 20 years ago. It takes a long time to heal doesn't it? And I am seeing that there is not a once and for all healing, it comes in small steps and revelations.
    I am so thankful for your steadfast encouragement and your beautiful marked up Bible is evidence of where you get your strength and wisdom.

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    1. Oh Susie! Someday we will sit down together and weep and laugh and rejoice and weep again for joy...because of all that the Lord HAS done in our lives...even though we are on separate sides of the country...God's love and mercy and grace extend to us and way beyond. We serve an AWESOME God!

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    1. Thank you, shortybear! And bless YOU for reading and heeding God's Word for you today. You are a blessing.

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  4. I do the same thing Pamela, write,circle and date scriptures that I read that are encouraging to me at that time and months even years later reread them, they are helpful then also. So many times I am enlightened by what I've unlined or circled in a different way. God's word is there to help us along our walk in life at every stage.I'm sure those same words can encourage you to "rise up and stand" today as it did in 1996.
    Have a blessed Sonday!

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    1. Isn't it great to see where the Lord has led us throughout the years...and how far He has brought us? Our Bibles are our own personal journal of our journey of faith in the Lord. That's why it is hard for me to break in a new Bible. I cling to the old one that has stood by me in hard times and glad times. Precious memories! Have a blessed day! Rise Up and Stand in the Name of the Lord!

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  5. I too go through my Bible and read again scriptures I have circled, underlined or hi-lited. I love to read my margin notes and remember old studies I have done. God's word never gets old, it's always new and fresh each time it's read. Blessings

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    1. Oh that is so true. It can be applied as a healing balm today for a totally different and new "event" in our lives...something completely different from what it helped us through 10 or 20 years ago...or 2 days ago! Because God's Word is LIVING and Powerful!!

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  6. So interesting. I was undergoing a severe stretch of spiritual testing and warfare at that time in a church I was attending. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that it was horrific to me,[my life] and my journey with the Lord. I had had many battles up to that time in the prior 20 years, but nothing of what I endured at the hands of the pastor, church leaders and other congregants. Yet, the Lord forewarned me that there was "a storm a brewing". He spoke to me and said "that there were those in the church that did not view me (as the blessing that I was), but He told me to Rejoice before Him. First, the part of being "the blessing that I was" amazed me because I always had a difficult time viewing myself as a blessing and would certainly never admit verbally to such....so I knew it was the Lord Who was speaking. I was very compliant to His words, thinking it was going to be a "spiritual hangnail". Boy, was I wrong. It has taken years also to walk through this in my heart and yet I have learned so much of Him as I have journeyed. One of the biggest things I learned was the truth of His character. I thought for sure He had sent the experience to me to bring even more obedience to Him, to get Him to approve of me even more than He did, which of course, is not possible. His approval of us is complete and awesome and everlasting. Because false accusations had come through my spiritual elders, I assumed it was the Lord's opinion also. I was so wrong. One day a few months after, I was still having a difficult time getting myself together, just laying in bed being so depressed and I made a decision that I was going to get up and praise Him whether I wanted to or not. As soon as the first sentence of the song came out of my mouth (as I sang along with the worship CD)I heard Him very distinctly in my spirit and His voice in me was loud and firm. He said, "I did not do this to you, child! I asked Him to repeat what He said. It was in that understanding that what had happened did not come from His hand, that healing then began to take place. It has been a long road which I am still traveling, but the journey has been worth it with Him by my side. Thanks for this, Pam. Spring blessings to you and yours.

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    1. Oh Wow! Thank you for this "testimony" of God's amazing love and grace in your life. So wonderful to meet other sojourners in this journey of life as believers on the way to heaven. We all go through difficult trials from time to time...some worse than others...but the beautiful thing is how the Lord shows us His love and grace in the midst. We just have to be receptive to His teaching and sometimes discipline in the process...even when the actual "event" did not come from God, but from man, yet God uses it to turn it into something for our benefit and His glory. Thank you for persevering in the midst of your trial. God will never fail you. So thankful to Him for His unfailing love. Amen!!

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  7. Pam: My time of stress being in a tough 'church situation', as a congregant and an active worker caused me physical signs of illness. I developed acid reflux. I had to have a medication to relieve the pain and then had to change it. The day I turned in the items that belonged to the church and told the pastor I was chosing to worship elsewhere was the last day I had to take that new med. At that time in my life, no area was without stress. But in making that change, another area improved. My family said I seemed to be a different person.

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    1. Sometimes we just have to learn when to "walk away" from difficult situations..."let go, and let God" be in charge. I know I've learned that the hard way...and in many cases, I've had to relinquish my "control" over circumstances over and over again...which tells me I never did truly let go in the first place. But this life is all about learning to trust God and to grow in our walk with Him. No event, pleasant or unpleasant, is wasted in God's economy. I am sorry that you had that difficult situation in your life, but so glad that you trusted God enough to walk away and get well. Thank you for sharing this today. There may be someone out there who needed that encouragement to do the same thing. Whatever we do, seek God's face first, and He will take care of the rest. Thank you for your honesty today.
      You are a blessing.

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  8. Pam, Thank you for sharing this. God's Word has such amazing power in it. During rough patches it provided a degree of comfort (no matter where I was reading) that nothing else did. During my mom's illness (and eventual death), being in the Word helped so much (along with some of God's people). It just so "happened" that I was reading in the Psalms when my mom had surgery. (A God thing, I'm thinking!)

    Blessings!

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  9. Oh I mark in my Bible too and highlight things all the time. I also use the blank pages in the back of my Bible to write down things that someone whether it be the pastor, Sunday school teacher or someone else might say that just grabs me for the moment. I love to go back and see what I have written or glance at a scripture that I highlighted and wrote a date beside it or made a note. God's Word never ceases to amaze me. How we should mediate on His Word day and night and hide it in our hearts. Enjoyed this today. Hugs and blessings, Cindy

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    1. Isn't it great to see how the Lord spoke to us about something perhaps years ago, and He's still speaking today...maybe from a different perspective on a new topic, but His Word is still so true? Yes, God's Word never ceases to amaze me either!! Thank you for your thoughts today.

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  10. Pam, thank you for sharing this gem again. God's Word never grows old or stale. If it does, it says volumes about our spiritual state. It's always special when the Word speaks to us in a fresh way.

    Blessings!

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    1. Thank you, Kim, for coming back again this year and reading and commenting again!! Isn't God's Word amazing? You are so right...it never grows old or stale...fresh every day!!! We are so blessed to be His children!

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  11. Oh, yes, Pam, these words today did give me so much encouragement and a new resolve to trust in all the Lord has planned. Thanks you for "recycling" this marvelous message, my friend!
    Blessings!

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    1. I believe in "recycling" many things..including God's messages to me from different times, that are still new and fresh today!!! That's GOD!!!!

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  12. What a precious reminder of where our trust needs to be in times of trouble in our lives, Pam. Thank you so much for sharing this post again. You continue to bless us as you share God's Word. xx

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    1. Thank you Dianna, for being a wonderful friend and encourager! It is God doing the blessing from His Word. I'm just the conduit through which He speaks to all of us over and over again!!! We are so blessed to be His children!

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