Psalm 37:3-4 - Living Now, Trusting Him

Psalm 37:3-4 "Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Standing outside my front door, the heat and humidity seem almost unbearable. Yes, it is now summer. Summer, a time we dream about the rest of the seasons, but when it gets here it is never quite what we imagined. Summer is a dream, a hope, a tantalizing ideal representing freedom from woe, comfort, and fun.  Summer is for beach trips and fireworks. Summer is for roadside attractions and swimming holes, fishing trips, and music festivals.  Summer is supposed to be all that, but in the end it always falls a little short - it is an idea, a hope, a wish. 

When we arrive in summer, it is too hot, too muggy, too buggy, too busy, too expensive, etc. We want the ideal but we don't seem to like the reality of it as much. We want our idealized summer, but we don't seem to want to take the time and effort to find out how close our real summer will get.  We have too much work to do. The grass needs mowing, the roof needs fixing, the garage needs cleaning, the kitchen needs some work, the garden needs work, there are always so many things to do that need to be done while the weather is nice. When summer is here we wish for fall, and then fall gets here and we find that it too does not meet our expectations and we dream about winter, and then winter is dismal and dreary and we want spring. We are never happy where we are, not content with the day the Lord has made. We cannot just dwell in the land where the lord has led us, we want more.

God asks us to trust Him for He knows the plans He has for us. He asks us to delight in Him and in His works which include the very world we live in and the moment of time we are experiencing now...and now...and even now!  God has a cure for this, the summer of our discontent, and it requires us to trust Him in both the big things and the little things, to enjoy where He has placed us and to do what we can to improve the lives of those around us (and our own). He asks that we place Him first and foremost in our lives, and everything else will follow.  He doesn't promise that it will be easy, but He does promise that He will be there. He doesn't promise that we will get everything we want, but He does promise that our true needs will be met. He promises us the desires of our heart if we seek Him and trust Him and dwell in Him, and as we do so the desires of our heart will change to His desires.

This week then, why don't we all make an effort to live more centered in God's will, taking delight in the world in which He has placed us, delight in the season in which we live, trusting Him to take care of the details while we do His business. This week, lets pray that God will guide us closer towards contentment with His will for us.

Do not wait until some deed of greatness you may do,
Do not wait to shed your light afar,
To the many duties ever near you now be true,
Brighten the corner where you are.

Here for all your talent you may surely find a need,
Here reflect the bright and Morning Star;
Even from your humble hand the Bread of Life may feed,
Brighten the corner where you are.
                                                                         ^{Ina D. Ogdon, 1913.}