PSALM 30
The Blessedness of Answered Prayer

I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried out to You, And You healed me.
O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave;
You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,
And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
Now in my prosperity I said, “I shall never be moved.”
Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong;
You hid Your face, and I was troubled. I cried out to You, O Lord;
And to the Lord I made supplication:
“What profit is there in my blood, When I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth?
Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me; Lord, be my helper!”
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

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The realisation that God is in control and that He loves us no matter what is profound beyone explanation. It makes me look ahead and say Thank you Lord and love my life. I also realise that there is nothing I cannot do when I tap into the love and power of God. Today I realise afresh that I am a blessed Child of God and nothing can stand in the way of that.

I have seen many things this year. I had never imagined the intensity of the experiences of success and failure, loss and gain, frustration and elation, sadness and joy, kindness and menace and many more…yet everyday  I found reminders and assurances that “The blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow.” Until recently, I used to think that to be blessed meant that I would not lack anything and I would roll in the dough. In hind sight this is the funniest thing I could have ever thought. I found out that there have always seemed to be challenges keeping abundance from remaining present.

It was such a shock to realise that my focus and understanding has been wrong. Blessing I have learnt, is the provision of everything that will help me prosper. Yes everything!!!! Everything means the good and the challenging. We so often focus only on the good and forget the challenging. In life there are things that we do not like to talk about that when accepted and harnessed will help us prosper. In my humble opinion some of the most important ingredients for success that are not adequately recognise are adversity and hardship. These two though often pleasant aspects of life are actual key ingredients to success. To overcome the challenges they bring we must take a hard look at ourselves and either find the reserves to go on or just give up and go the other way and fail to realise our full potential and purpose on this earth.

I dare say that the right response to the combination of adversity and hardship is to recognise that both will come, individually figure out why a certain path must be pursued and conquered and then take one determined step at a time to get to our goal. The daily total trust in God, along this walk of faith and the consistent work for our salvation and our lives builds diligence and brings clarity eventually making us better and stronger people.

Let’s walk the path set out for us with the clear knowledge that “He who begun the good work in us will be faithful to complete it in us.” This assurance makes Ps 30 more meaningful to me because I am reminded that as I walk, God thinks of me, provides for me, protects me and most important…walks with me.

Here’s to another great day in this walk of live and love