Psalms 78

(November 9, 2014)

                I had two thoughts as I read through this psalm.  The first was on flattering and lying to the Lord – this was something I don’t recall having thought about in the past, but as I thought about it now I realized that sometimes I have done this.  It is one thing to use formal terms (thee, thine) as signs of respect, but they cannot cover when my heart is far from the Lord.  It does me no good to pretend to be something I am not when I am praying to Him – He knows me, and yet He still loves me.  Lately I have been working on being more open and honest with Him in prayer but this reminded me that openness and honesty includes abandoning flattery. God doesn’t need it, and it does me no good to offer it.  Sincere gratitude is a different matter, of course.

                The second thought was on the people of Israel forgetting miracles.  It seems that some people go through life experiencing miracles, and some people don’t.  I don’t think it is an issue of righteousness – there are those I have been blessed to know and to speak with who seem to far outstrip me in righteousness and yet they have never experienced a miracle while my life has at times been full to the brim with them.

                It is hard to know how to present those miraculous events in a journal, but it is important nonetheless.  I want my children to know just what I have experienced in my lifetime and why I have the testimony that I have.  But if they haven’t experienced miracles in their own lives, how should I present my life in such a way to help them to believe and understand what I have experienced?  If they didn’t see the Red Sea part, what could I possibly do to make them believe that I did?

                The way that I have approached it in my journal is to present myself – warts and all – so that it is clear that I am just a person doing my best to live the Gospel.  I don’t know but that I will go the rest of my life without seeing a miracle (Mother Teresa, after her revelation, went the rest of her life without feeling God’s presence), but even if that is the case I have been blessed with the opportunity to see miracles.  And I want nothing more than to pass these experiences on to my children and their children so that they can bless not only my life but the lives of those who come after me.