Psalm 13 (NIV) - day after day, sorrow in my heart, But I trust in your unfailing love

From Psalms

Psalm 13 (New International Version, ©2011)
(For the director of music. A psalm of David.)

¹How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
     How long will you hide your face from me?
²How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
     and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
     How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
     Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
⁴and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
     and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵But I trust in your unfailing love;
     my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶I will sing the LORD’s praise,
     for he has been good to me.

I like this Psalm 13 - inauspicious as the number be - the Psalm is short and sweet and authentic.  Everyday we face different struggles and challenges, new urges and temptations, heightened problems and issues.  Our addictions never go away or worse they are progessive and pull us away from the people we love and the life we want to live.

So where is God in all of this?  I believe in a God that allows for something good to come of every situation - especially the difficult situations.  That's not to say that bad situations are good - out of bad situations come good.  Out of difficult circumstances comes knowledge, out of trying times comes love, out of dire straits comes strength.  From the old proverb, when we're handed lemons we make lemonade.

In recovery this is easy to say...however, for those still in the struggles of addiction it will be much harder to swallow.  If you're in the middle of a divorce or just lost your job because your addiction took control of your life I can understand that this will be hard to believe.

Nevertheless, let's take it a step further though if I can.  Without lemons there would be no lemonade, so God gives us lemons so that we can make lemonade.  He gives problems to deal with so that we can become stronger.  He gives us challenges that will shape us and change our perspective.  Lemons come in all shapes and sizes if you will - and he gives no more than he thinks we can handle.  However, if you are truly blessed, like I believe I am, then God will give more than your share of lemons - so you will have lemonade to share with others.

Thank you for letting me share.