Walking and Wondering

Here’s a thought for the day  … Psalm 91:16 –   With long life I will  …  show him my salvation.”        As this study on the last 3 verses of Psalm 91 comes to an end, I wanted to focus on the last 2 words.  In verse 16, the Lord says, “With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”  The last 2 words change EVERYTHING!  “My salvation!”  A couple of things stand out to me. ONE   …  it’s not our salvation, it’s His salvation.  What a relief!  I don’t have to rely on my wisdom, cleverness or abilities to get me out of this mess.  I don’t have to come up with a brilliant idea or plan of action to make all of this go away.  I can trust in Him.  Can I take it a step further?  For some, you have people that you “feel” responsible for.  It could be family members, employees or any num...

March 27, 2020 Here’s a thought for the day  … Psalm 91:16 –  With long life I will  …  show him my salvation.”        Do you remember back in the early 90’s when those 3-D pictures became so popular?  They were pictures that looked like complete chaos at first glance.  They made no sense.  Just a collection of colors and patterns thrown together in an apparently random pattern.  But something interesting happened as you started to stare at them closely.  As you lost track of the details at the surface level and looked beyond them, an image started to appear in the background.  In fact, it was a 3-D image that was somehow imbedded in the picture.  They were really cool  …  IF you could see the image!  I hated them! I don’t know why I struggled to see them.  I would try and try to see what the artist wanted ...

March 24, 2020 Here’s a thought for the day  … Psalm 91:16 –   With long life I will satisfy him … Have you ever craved something?  Not just wanted it, but craved it?  I have to admit most of my cravings probably revolve around Cajun cooking!  Boiled crawfish  …  BBQ shrimp and grits  …  fried shrimp po-boys  …  crawfish etouffee!  I’m getting hungrier and hungrier as I’m typing this.  (Side note: Maybe it is true that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach!). It seems that cravings hit all of us concerning different things from different places in different seasons.  Managing cravings is a part of life isn’t it?  Now here’s a question  …  have you ever gotten what you craved only to be disappointed in the end?  “It didn’t taste as good as I remembered it.”  “It wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be!”  “It didn’t ...

March 21, 2020 Here’s a thought for the day … Psalm 91:15 – I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. Chances are you have either seen or have been a part of a “faith fall” before.  It’s a simple, but powerful illustration of what it means to put your faith in someone.  How it works is pretty simple.  Using two people, one person stands directly behind another person.  The person in the front is asked to fall backwards into the arms of the person behind them.  It’s a test of whether or not they have faith that the other person will actually catch them.  I like to put a little twist on it. What I like to do is have the person who will be falling backwards be blindfolded.  After all, faith is the evidence of what we can’t see.  I would stand behind them and tell them that they could trust me.  Then, as I’m talking to them, I would move from behind them to in front of them.  Keep in mind they ...

March 20, 2020 Here’s a thought for the day … Psalm 91:15 – He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;         If you asked my wife what is at the top of her “Most Frustrating Things That I Do” list, her answer would be this … “When Wayne doesn’t answer me when I ask him a question.”  Why?  Because she is looking for an answer?  Possibly.  Because she wants my undivided attention at that moment?  Probably.  Because she wants to know that I care enough to give her my attention.  CERTAINLY! What I love about God’s response in Psalm 91:15 is His promise to us.  He says, that, “he (meaning us) shall call upon Me (meaning Him), and I WILL answer him.”  Can I propose that a natural byproduct of what we have been discussing, which is setting your love upon God and knowing His name, is calling upon Him.  The phrase “He shall call” is the word qara’ in Hebrew and means to “cry out (for help), to call (with the nam...

March 19, 2020 Here’s a thought for the day … Psalm 91:14 – I will set him on high, because he has known My name. There’s something so powerful about a name.  When Heidi and I were starting our family, each time one of our 4 children were born, it was another journey to discover what their name would be.  I remember thinking to myself about how stressful this decision would be.  After all, their name would follow them the rest of their lives.  What if they hated the name we chose?  What if kids made fun of them in school?  What if we called them Ryan, but God designed them to be a Jonah?  Man … pressure!  In fact, we came to decide on each of the names of our kids in a different way.   Joshua – I just always loved that name from as long as I could remember.  Meaning … “God is Salvation.” Jonah – In the movie Sleepless in Seattle, one of the main characters was a boy named Jonah.  Heidi and I struggled a bit with ...

Here’s a thought for the day  … Psalm 91:14 -  “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;” Question  …  What does deliverance mean?  The Hebrew word used here is “ palat ” and it means  “to escape, to slip away, to be carried away safely.”   But what does God’s deliverance look like?  I’m thinking about Daniel in the lion’s den.  Rack, Shack and Benny in the fiery furnace, Joseph in prison, Jeremiah in the cistern  …  and the list goes on and on.  I wonder if deep down inside they struggled with fear.  I wonder if they prayed for the Lord to deliver them from the trial.  And I wonder what they thought as they saw no “apparent” response to their prayer.  What were they thinking as they were thrown into the furnace  …  the lion’s den  …  the cistern  …  the cell.  Did they waver in their faith, or did i...

Here’s a thought for the day  … Psalm 91:14 – “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him” So much here to meditate on.  God speaking to us says that I will deliver him that SETS HIS LOVE UPON ME.  What does it mean to set your love upon God?   I’m sitting here drinking a cup of coffee as I’m writing this.  I love a good cup of coffee first thing in the morning.  I’ve set my coffee mug UP and ON the table beside me.  I trust it will hold the cup and not drop it.  I trust it will keep it from spilling.  In a grand sense, I trust it will hold that which I value.  In the same light, I can trust that when I set my love upon God, He can hold it, value it and protect it.  We all have the capacity to love.  And without even knowing it, we can give many different things our love.  People, hobbies, things, philosophies, dreams, work, etc....