No Shortcuts

Scripture:
"Though I walk in the midst of trouble; You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me." Psalm 138:7

Observation:
There are a few things that jump out in this Psalm. David does not once ask for trouble to just go away. He does not ask for the situation to be removed from him. He claims the goodness of God, asks for strength and then proclaims the end result of his walking through trouble.

David did not pray pie-in-the-sky type prayers. This Psalm was grounded in the reality of his situation. He did not escape a magical solution that would pull him out of his circumstances. He simply focused on God and owned the fact that he had to face his circumstances and fight through what was before him.

Application:
Shortcuts. When I think of the world I live in today, that is what comes to mind. We are a people of shortcuts. Computers, calculators, cell phones, PDA's, self-check outs, book summaries, etc all are designed to make things run more efficiently and get what we want in a shorter period of time. I have trained myself to seek out a quick, easy, efficient and effective method to anything. Just yesterday my mother and I saw a spider that neither of us had ever seen. It was a really weird looking creature. I pulled out my iPhone, hit google, and in a matter of minutes knew that I was looking at Gastercantha, a spiny backed spider native to Florida. 15 years ago discovering that information would have taken weeks of research.

The thing with God is that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He has not changed His methods with the evolution of the world. He has not upgraded His tools of communication. He does not have a facebook page. He does not text message. He did not setup a data base and give me a google tool to search it. And He does not offer a simplified plan for working out our faith. That is where my frustrations come to bear weight on me.

Prayer:
I ask You for forgiveness. I whine way too much about my circumstances. There are many times that I come to You seeking a solution to a problem; not to further my relationship with You. I have made an idol of circumstances and sought the god of easy solutions. I have acted foolishly in doing this.

I will no longer bow down to my circumstances. I will no longer seek shortcuts to problems. I desire to have my prayers shift their focus from escape and instead focus on my desperate need for Your strength to carry me as I walk through the problems of life.

I ask today that You magnify Your name in my life today. I pray the You prove the greatness of Your glory by the fruit made evident in the outcome of my choices. In the midst of my struggles, when I am at my weakest moments, I pray that you revive me, stretch forth Your hand before me, and carry me through by the power of Your right hand.