Week 27: Exhale.

Week 27 In the Shade of God’s Care

Sing praises to God, our strength.
I heard an unknown voice say,
 “Now I will take the load from your shoulders;
    I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.
~Psalm 81:1,6

 Have your knees ever bucked under the day’s load?

Has the dark tunnel of endless tasks caused your hands to clench tightly, a frozen vice-grip stuck on mounting responsibilities?

You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you…

If you can EXHALE—you can cry out. He’s listening.

     I answered out of the thundercloud
    and tested your faith when there was no water…
~Psalm 81:7

 Have you felt it—a tongue so parched you can’t swallow? A throat stuck together like tacky glue—a faith that’s stuck too?

Who knows how it happened? Who knows why the faith withered? Yet, the promise is without contingency. God’s offer knows no bounds:

Let Me lift the load from your shoulders.

Let ME free your hands from your heavy tasks.

God tests us in daunting seasons:

Will you turn to me or simply work harder?

Will you hold your breath—and your burdens, bending beneath the heavy weight?

If you would only listen to me!

Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.

¹⁶ But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
    I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”
~Psalm 81:13,16

 Turn to me. I WILL lift. I WILL nourish.

Water

Bread

I WILL—because I AM!

I AM the Living Water.

I AM the Bread of Life.

“If you would only listen…”

God’s heart towards you has always been relationship—I read recently, the first question of the Bible was God’s question to Adam and Eve:

Where are you?

It’s the question He is asking today, “Patty, where are you?

He seeks, he invites, he refreshes, he nourishes—and He waits. Unless I open my mouth [my soul, my heart to Him], He cannot fill it with good things.

So today, would you listen with me to His plea, “Come and Talk to me”.
EXHALE—the heavy burdens that crush your soul under a weight you cannot bear.

It’s only then your hands will loosen from the death grip on those tasks deemed so urgent.

 Instead of responding like the people in this chapter:

“But no, my people wouldn’t listen.
    Israel did not want me around.
So I let them follow their own stubborn desires,
    living according to their own ideas.
~Psalm 81:11, 12

Let’s tune our ear to His invitation:

My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk to me.
My heart responds, Lord, I’m coming”
~Psalm 27:8

I’m coming, Lord, with my heavy load, my parched throat, my frozen hands.

What a meager gift I offer!

Yet—it’s my true self. The self you desire.

EXHALE!

 I would feed you with the finest wheat.
    I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.”
~Psalm 81:16

And so I receive—

You are my Living Water,

You are my Bread of Life

You are the Wild Honey

As I release the weights, not mine to carry; renew in me the untamed ability to dream, to delight in the wild and sweet adventure of following you!