Reaching Up

Reaching Up

by David Brenneman 

"When I am afraid,

I will put my trust in You.

In God, whose word I praise,

In God I have put my trust;

I shall not be afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me?

-Psalms 56:3-4 NASB 

Quite often it seems that my inner mind and heart, yes even my soul is reaching upwards with outstretched arms to my Father in Heaven.  

It's not an easy task sometimes to be around people in public for me.  It's equally not easy for me to be the one to open up a conversation for the same reason, barring some common ground to start from that feels safe to me. 

Sharing what I feel is often difficult as well when I don't know myself.  

We're going through some dark valleys and it's not that I am not fearful, it's that it's happened so often that there's a numbness to it.  I, we, press on regardless of what our eyes see and regardless of what we think we feel or understand. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight."

Oh my understanding is so lacking these days. 

Praying is what I pour into besides reading my Bible.  I know not what else to do when I am not given opportunities to change what I know not how to change...while I wait on the Lord. 

I am drawn also to Psalm 23. A very powerful Psalm.  Many have even seen it in movies being a go to for soldiers in wartime.   

"The Lord is my shepherd,

I will not be in need.

He lets me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters. 

He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For the sake of His name.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil, for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You have anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life,

And my dwelling will be in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23 NASB 

I have written on many occasions of that storm that I was made to drive through in order to get home in 2021. It's still impacts me today.  It is part motivational, part terrifying at the same time.  

In some ways it's a reminder to keep walking as it says in Psalm 23...through the valley of the shadow of death.  Walking, not sitting.  We try to sit and the Spirit will eventually grab us by the collar and get us to move.  

I have to trust in my God, in my Savior Jesus Christ regardless of what my eyes see.   My understanding comes from my perceptions derived from my senses and my view of things. 

We often see many scary things in those valleys.  It's why we aren't meant to stay there. 

I reach up towards my Father because He is my Father.  It's in Him that I live and breathe, in Him that I move and in Him that I have purpose.  I am not forsaken nor forgotten by Him.  Although his enemy would like me to believe otherwise as he's tried to in the past.  My identity in Christ is always subject to attack by Satan and his minions.  Your identity is likewise the most attacked part of you than anything else to do with you.  Self is the primary reason.  Self either becomes self-less or self-ish.  We either live lives mirroring one or the other.  

Because of the work of Christ Jesus in me, Satan's having to change his tactics.  What Jesus has done, Satan cannot do anything about.  So he's got to figure out something else.  

We all who are in Christ Jesus will be persecuted by Satan and his minions.  Satan does not want growing Christians. 

Does not want Believers who walk their talk.  He prefers we shut up and sit down or we get caught up in ourselves.  

As I don't understand why we're going through what we are, I still will keep faithful to what Jesus has for me to be doing.  I will still reach up to my Father in Heaven for it is through my relationship with Jesus that I have that right and that privilege. 

It's not about anything that I have done that gives me that right it's all because of what Jesus has done for me.  He saved me, He sealed me in the Spirit. He made me a Child of God.  So His Father is now my Father.  Satan cannot take that away. 

Many times my Earthly father did things that I didn't understand.  Told me to do things in a certain way that I didn't understand.  Told me to not do things that I didn't understand.  Those instructions didn't mean he loved me any more or any less.  Our Heavenly Father cannot love us any more nor any less.  We do not do things to curry favor from Him. We don't 'make deals' with Him.  

As the great Hymn speaks to: trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. 

I have lived through so much that I know that trusting in my Savior's plans for me is what's important, right and true...especially when I don't understand. 

We sort of began this post with this, and it is fitting to end it with it:

Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight."

"When I am afraid,

I will put my trust in You.

In God, whose word I praise,

In God I have put my trust;

I shall not be afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me?

-Psalms 56:3-4 NASB