Turn to God

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 Relieve the troubles of my heart,
and bring me* out of my distress.
18 Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.

19 Consider how many are my foes,
and with what violent hatred they hate me.
20 O guard my life, and deliver me;
do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you. ~ Psalm 25:16-21

Life is not always easy. There are bumps and potholes along the road of life that we all must experience, but how we handle those times matters a great deal to God. He does not want us to think we have to travel this road alone. It is times such as these that He especially wants us to turn our focus away from ourselves and back to Him.

It is always easy to praise God when things are going well in our lives. We have a tendency to forget to thank Him for all of the wonderful things He has done for us and given us, or we thank Him out of a routine prayer and are really only going through the motions of thanksgiving. We get so caught up in our own lives that we tend to leave God in the “back seat” as we continue to live for ourselves.

Perhaps these “bumps” and “pot holes” in our road are reminders from God that He is still here with us and waiting for us to acknowledge Him. Perhaps these jolts in our everyday lives are here to help us remember to lean on Him and that it is really God that is in control – not us. Does God want us to go through difficult times? No. However, when we do experience hard times along life’s road, we must remember to let Him take over the driving for a while as we rest in His “passenger seat.”

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

We know that you want the best for us and that You don’t want us to have to go through difficult times alone. Please, take our difficulties from us and let us allow You to carry our load while we rest beside You, in the comfort of Your love. Amen.

~ Wendy Miller