Excerpt from In Search of Me
The Night Before
In Exodus 32, Moses and Joshua are gone on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. The night before they come down, the people give up on them ever coming back. They then turned away from God.Sometimes, we feel like that. We are in the deep, dark night before. God is ready to answer our prayers and help us out, change us and redeem us. We just need to turn to Him, yet again, in this dark night, trust Him so we can sleep, and then turn to Him and trust Him again in the morning.
But God gives us clear instructions on what to do while we wait for His answers. We are to care for others, take care of our families, keep our words and thoughts on God and His words, and wake to the sound of His voice, so we sleep each night trusting in God.
I want to be known as someone who can fix anything. I want to restore, renew, renovate and make the community around me livable again.
Psalm 5:1-3 Listen, God! Please, pay attention! Can you make sense of these ramblings, my groans and cries? King-God, I need your help. Every morning you’ll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend.
Psalm 143:6-8 Hurry with your answer, God! I’m nearly at the end of my rope. Don’t turn away; don’t ignore me! That would be certain death.
If you wake me each morning with the sound of your loving voice, I’ll go to sleep each night trusting in you.
Point out the road I must travel; I’m all ears, all eyes before you. Save me from my enemies, God— you’re my only hope! Teach me how to live to please you, because you’re my God. Lead me by your blessed Spirit into cleared and level pastureland.
Isaiah 58:6-9 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
9-12 “If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places – firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.
Prayer
Dear Lord, this day I lay out the pieces of my life. Without you I am nothing. I only have this broken life to give to you. Remind me each morning of your love. Help me to pay attention to you each morning. So that I can sleep each night trusting you. Point out the way you want me to go. I need to hear your loving voice each day. Then help me to share your love with others this day.
