November 9 – Cheth - Psalm 119:57-64

November 9 – Cheth - Psalm 119:57-64

The LORD is my portion; I promise to keep thy words.
I entreat thy favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to thy promise.
When I think of thy ways, I turn my feet to thy testimonies;
I hasten and do not delay to keep thy commandments.
Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget thy law.
At midnight I rise to praise thee, because of thy righteous ordinances.
I am a companion of all who fear thee, of those who keep thy precepts.
The earth, O LORD, is full of thy steadfast love; teach me thy statutes!

Is the Lord your portion, or do you find it necessary to make sure you supplement with your own work?

I've never been one who was able to wholly rely on God to provide all my needs.  I might say that I am and I might pray to be that person, but I want to just make sure I have all the bases covered because I don’t want Him to work that hard in order to provide for me.  You know, I should be able to pull myself up by my own bootstraps and work hard enough to ensure there is enough money to pay the bills.

We really don’t find ourselves relying on God that much, do we?  At least not for material things.  Maybe we feel guilty about having so many ‘things’ in our lives that we don’t feel it is right to ask God to help us pay for them.  Maybe we want to keep getting more ‘things’ and know in our hearts that God really only intends for us to have what we absolutely need, so we won’t rely on Him.  Maybe we think that since there are so many starving people in the world, people who live at such a low level of poverty, we don’t have a right to ask Him for anything more than what we can provide for ourselves.

There are a lot of reasons we make up in our head for not completely relying on God to be our portion … in every aspect of our lives.  Do we rely on God to provide a way for us to sleep well each night so that we are rested in the morning? Do we rely on Him to provide the time necessary to get our tasks done during the day so there is time to enjoy friends and family?  It is these things we feel we must do ourselves, because they seem so mundane and necessary.  We can do these things and if we can’t, then we just keep trying harder and harder.

Some days I tear through my day, only to find at the end of it that I’m still exactly the same as I was the day before.  Nothing has changed, nothing has gotten better.  Everything remains the same.  All the work that I did, all the sleep that I lost, all the time that I spent was for naught. I worked hard and it feels like wasted time.

God is my provider.  He will be my portion. The things I need, the things I do, the things I desire; He will provide.  When I remember that and remember to take my feet off the pedal and lean back into His will, anything can happen.

Today, think about who your provider is. If it is simply you (or a spouse), do you spend more time than you should worrying about how things will be taken care of?  If it is God, do you find yourself relaxed in knowing that He’s got it?