The Power of I

Psalm 77:1-15

I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me.  When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted.  I remembered you, God, and I groaned; I meditated, and my spirit grew faint.  You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak.  I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; I remembered my songs in the night.  My heart meditated and my spirit asked:  “Will the Lord reject forever?  Will he never show his favor again?  Has his unfailing love vanished forever?  Has his promise failed for all time?  Has God forgotten to be merciful?   Has he in anger withheld his compassion? ”

Then I thought, “To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand.  I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.  I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”   Your ways, God, are holy.  What god is as great as our God?  You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.  With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

I had a normal kind of week last week nothing special.  No busier than normal but things just seemed off.  I was doing my daily quiet times, Bible study, and praying, I just couldn’t put my finger on what felt so wrong in my heart.  So I began to pray asking God to give me eyes to see and ears to hear what I was missing.  That is when He brought me to Psalm 77 and it was here that He gave me eyes to see and ears to hear. 

I know you just read through the Psalm but please read the first paragraph again. 

What stands out?  This is how I felt last week.  I was crying out to God, “Lord I, I, I, I, I, I, I.”  Do you see it?  I was so focused on “I,” on circumstances, and to be honest, I was focused on the crap.  I was crying out to God, I was in my devotions and studies, but “I” was in the way. 

Now read the second paragraph. 

Can you see the beauty?  Can you see the difference in the psalmist’s attitude?  What made that difference?  It was a simple switch of focus, a switch from looking down at “I” to looking up at his most high God. 

You beautiful mom it is so easy to focus on “I.”  It is a sly trick of the enemy whispering a few little distracting words into our ear and we loose focus.  The power of “I” over our lives is pretty amazing.  When my focus is on “I” all of the sudden my children can become very irritating, I have less patients with them, their moods are affected because they sense that mommy is in a mood.  Or I can become withdrawn and just kind of blah, going through the actions but not really enjoying the gift God has given me in my children.  I miss out on the beauty of who they are and what is happening in their lives because my heart isn’t in it. 

So I want to encourage you to check your heart, check your focus.  Is it on yourself, your circumstances, or is it on your most high God?   We can be doing all the right things but God doesn’t just look at the actions but at the heart. 

Oh God, I am such an easily distracted being.  There is so much around me to steal my focus.  Give me the ability to have a focus on You that heals my heart, that draws me closer to You each day.  Give me a desire Lord that thirst after You and give me Your living water.  I pray Lord that when my focus is turned from You that You would make me sensitive to the issue of my distracted heart and then draw me back to You.  Father, you are the glue that holds this broken heart together, without you I would be a pile of messy pieces.  You are what makes my heart beautiful.  You are my joy, my hope, and my peace.  You are my Rock.  I need you each and every moment of everyday.  Help me to always focus on You.