My Soul Melts from Heaviness...

My soul melts from heaviness;

Strengthen me according to Your word.—Ps 119:28

 Father,

Teach me Your statutes!  My heart is heavy with grief and my body feels burdened.  I need Your Spirit desperately...

To revive and strengthen me...

To teach me to obey and fill me with Your joy as I walk in the way...  

To remind me to put my trust in You...

To keep me in perfect peace...

I want to be this to the people You have placed in my life:

For You have been a strength to the poor,

A strength to the needy in his distress,

A refuge from the storm,

A shade from the heat;

For the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

5 You will reduce the noise of aliens,

As heat in a dry place;

As heat in the shadow of a cloud,

The song of the terrible ones will be diminished.—Isaiah 25:4-5

Hear my prayer, Father!  I want to see Your goodness.  I want to walk in Your joy. Strengthen my ❤️. I will place my confidence in You!  

But As for Me, I Trust in You...

Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

40 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What? Could you not watch with Me one hour?

41 “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Father...I feel this!  My Spirit is willing but my flesh is so weak. Be my Helper today.  Keep me watching and praying. Set a guard over my heart and my mouth.  Keep me from me, myself and I...direct my heart into Your love and the patience of Your Son.  Make me willing in heart and in soul to place my trust in You knowing I will not be ashamed. Help me to be of good courage...strengthen my heart...may my Hope always be in You. 

But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD;

I say, “You are my God.”

15 My times are in Your hand;

Verse by Verse Thanksgiving Through Psalm 32...

Ps 32 below reminds me of Ps 119:26.  Thank you Father for Your sweet, freeing forgiveness. 

I have declared my ways, and You answered me;

Teach me Your statutes.—Ps 119:26

A Psalm of David. A Contemplation.

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,

Whose sin is covered.

2 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,

And in whose spirit there is no deceit.

I have a recourse when I sin.  I am safe from hell and “no way back” because Christ surrendered His life on my behalf and satisfied God’s just and righteous requirements...mercy prevailed.  I can look up.  

3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old

Through my groaning all the day long.

4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;

My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah

You desire us to come...to bring our sin to You.  You lead us to repentance.  You want to set our heart free.  You want us to ask for forgiveness so we can be with You forever.  You delivered me because You delight in me.  

5 I acknowledged my sin to You,

And my iniquity I have not hidden.

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,”

And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

No sweeter words...I confess..You forgive

6 For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You

In a time when You may be found;

Surely in a flood of great waters

They shall not come near him.

7 You are my hiding place;

You shall preserve me from trouble;

You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

Even more sweet words.  My God is a refuge for me. A hiding place.  He surrounds me with songs of deliverance. So perfect. So beautiful.  So needed. Thank you, Abba. 

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will guide you with My eye.

9 Do not be like the horse or like the mule,

Which have no understanding,

Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,

Else they will not come near you.

You don’t just save me from sin and hell. You keep me safe and guide me through this veil of tears.  You light my path home. Ps 119:105

10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked;

But he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him.

11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous;

And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

MERCY SURROUNDS ME!  I will shout for joy.  Oh...teach me Your statutes.  Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord!  

His Presence Goes With Me...

Show me Your glory, Father!  May my heart never depart from Your tabernacle.   I want to live in the secret place of Your Presence...hide me there.  Draw me close and never let me go. No matter where I find myself physically and emotionally, the truth is You are my Emanuel. You are my God who is with me...my God who makes His home with me. 

Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the LORD went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.—Exodus 33:7

So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.—Exodus 33:11

And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.

16 “For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us?—Exodus 33:14-16

But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”—John 6:68-69

One thing I have desired of the LORD,

That will I seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the LORD

All the days of my life,

To behold the beauty of the LORD,

And to inquire in His temple.

5 For in the time of trouble

He shall hide me in His pavilion;

In the secret place of His tabernacle

He shall hide me;

He shall set me high upon a rock.

6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;

Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;

I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.

7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice!

Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

8 When You said, “Seek My face,”

My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”

9 Do not hide Your face from me;

Do not turn Your servant away in anger;

You have been my help;

Do not leave me nor forsake me,

O God of my salvation.

10 When my father and my mother forsake me,

Then the LORD will take care of me.

11 Teach me Your way, O LORD,

And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.

12 Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;

For false witnesses have risen against me,

And such as breathe out violence.

13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed

That I would see the goodness of the LORD

In the land of the living.

14 Wait on the LORD;

Be of good courage,

And He shall strengthen your heart;

Wait, I say, on the LORD!—Psalm 27:4-14

Waiting on the Lord...

Our soul waits for the LORD;

He is our help and our shield.

For our heart shall rejoice in Him,

Because we have trusted in His holy name.

Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us,

Just as we hope in You.—Psalm 33:20-22

Teach, me Oh Lord to wait for You.  To remember that YOU ARE my help and my shield.  You protect me while I wait.  I am glad and rejoice because I have trusted in Your holy name. Your mercy also surrounds me as I place my trust and my hope in You.   I seek mercy...I HAVE a divine Helper...God IS my shield. I CAN rejoice!  I will praise Him with my song.  

Oh Father!  I want my strength to be in You.  You give power to the weak and to those who have no might, You increase their strength. I want my walk in this world to reflect the verses below.  Do this work in my heart.

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,

Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

They make it a spring;

The rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength;

Each one appears before God in Zion.—Psalm 84:5-7

But those who wait on the LORD

Shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings like eagles,

They shall run and not be weary,

They shall walk and not faint.—Isaiah 40:31