during difficult times

Yesterday was a difficult day for me, and really this week. Though Deb is a strong, good support, and we had a nice and fun time Tuesday evening. While good fellowship and working relationships remain, work has had its challenges for us. I have a couple friends who have cancer. And I've had challenges on a personal level.

I was thinking of these words from this psalm this morning:

From the ends of the earth I call to you,
I call as my heart grows faint;
lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

In seeking to honor the newness of the new covenant, while acknowledging differences between the Old and New Testaments, I believe we sometimes draw false lines between the two. In this psalm is the fear of the Lord, and vows made to God. The former is just an intrinsic part of knowing God. God is a father, and a god of all grace, but he is not a god to be trifled with. His name and person (in three persons) should be held in reverence and awe. And vows today are replaced with our simple words. We should make commitments and carry them out.

That is important because we need to understand this prayer in context. We don't simply pray for a lifeline from God and then go on living our lives in our own ways, apart from God's will, in disobedience to him. And as we were reminded at my work in chapel yesterday, in our weaknesses we can find God's strength.

So it's important for us both to be those readily acknowledging our need to God, and committed to living in faithful obedience to God. We certainly will fail along the way, and that's where confession of sin and God's continued forgiveness to us in Christ comes in. But it is a mistake to believe that we can't live lives of faithful obedience to God. That can become a pattern of life for us, deviations from it being exceptions.

Does this make sense to you? What would you like to say here?