Thursday, April 24, 2008

Drinking From The Well Of Sorrow

We had a wonderful service in Douglas Tuesday night. Brother Wood brought us a powerful message titled "How The Caged Bird Can Sing."

Brother Weeks sang a song before service titled "Paint My Mind (In The Blood Of Calvary)."

He joked with me after service because I kind of drug my feet going to the keyboard hoping he would play again, which he did. I confessed what I had done and he got a "stern" look on his face and said, "I kind of thought that's what you were up to. I looked over at you and you were looking SO spiritual."

Several months ago I bought myself a small Bible with a snap closure that I could carry in my purse. My study Bible is large and heavy and I wanted something I could have with me at all times to read whenever I had the opportunity.

My study Bible has been my friend for many years and has notes and highlights and such all the way through it. But this little Bible shows very little signs yet of my presence in the Word.

Brother Wood used Psalm 84 as part of his scripture reference Tuesday, and when I turned there I was struck by the pink verse that jumped out at me, wondering when and why I had highlighted that particular verse.

Over the past couple of days, it has been on my mind. I knew there had to be a reason, because it really didn't make a lot of sense.

Psalm 84:6 Who passing through the valley of Ba'ca make it a well, the rain also filleth the pools.

There are other verses in that chapter that in glancing seemed more deserving of my attention.

84:10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

84:12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

And those are just a FEW from that chapter that had I highlighted, I would have read over them and praised Him in my heart for His continued faithfulness.

But, I had not marked any other verse.

Something pricked my memory about Ba'ca. So, I searched for the reason for it's reference.

One of the meanings of Ba'ca is weeping.

Oh.

I cannot begin to tell about the sorrow that I have been walking in.

This valley seems long and dry and lonely for me. And I think the lonely part has been the hardest to deal with.

Sometimes, in a valley, it takes all of the strength you have to put one foot in front of the other. And you long for the support of those that you love the most to, well, love you back.

But when it is you walking in that dry place, it may seem impossible for someone who is not walking there beside you to understand the path your steps fall in. Perhaps they would have chosen another route than the one you have, not truly knowing the obstacles you had to make it through that may have prevented you from traveling any other way.

It is during these times, when the refreshment of my loved ones may not be available that I find myself with my shovel in my hand.

I find myself digging a well in my weeping, storing up that refreshment of His love and strength to draw on. I sink to my knees in my very own valley of weeping and allow Him to quench me, allow Him to remind me of other times I have wept, and bring me back to a place of praise where He strengthens me once again.

I am wandering, of late, from well to well, from strength to strength.

And when I step away I KNOW, without a doubt, whatever I go through, He goes through it with me.

I KNOW why I can say "A day in THY courts is better than a thousand."

"O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee."

Thank You. God I thank You. I cannot fathom how I could survive without You. You prove to me over and over why I call You my Friend. The song of my heart today is of You. "Let me walk with You Jesus. Don't ever leave me alone. For without You I could never, No NEVER make Heaven my home." You will come again, and when You do, You will find me dipping in the wells of my praise for You. For though I have been filling the wells with tears of sorrow, I will drink from them of the depths of my praise.

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