Psalm 117 O Praise the Lord all ye nations: praise him all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.
Ah Friends, another week has gone by and another day devoted to thanks and praise has arrived. As I keep saying, when in doubt, thanks and praise is the best answer. Well today my spirit was in a bit of a funk. The arthritic body was tired, suffering from a lack salt water and sunshine: Oh for a dip in the therapeutic ocean! (smile) Sleep was also hard to come by, partly due to the unseasonal thirty something Celsius degree weather we’ve been experiencing this weekend. To make matters worse, I could not figure out why my A/C wasn’t working. I’d put it on before going out to do some repairs on my car, which meant being out in the hot sun in a friend’s driveway. That was frustrating enough since we had to redo certain things, while the sun’s intensity increased, then to get home and no A/C. Hn! I was ready to blow my cool. I checked everything I could, even went outside and tapped the unit a few times. Note, I said tapped, not slapped, (smile) though I was sorely tempted, and amazingly, my language wasn’t very flowery. That’s the truth children. I resisted the temptation; did not let my bosom become foolish. Aren’t you all proud of me? (smile) Even when I realized, that my turning off the main switch for the furnace a few days ago was the problem, I didn’t get too upset with myself. In all this, I did no serious sin. Wow! ‘Praise the Lord…For his merciful kindness is great toward us.’ Now does that mean I’m getting better? I surely hope so. And the point of it all? If I can improve my patience level, then there’s hope for us all. But Friends, it takes a conscious effort, that’s very worthwhile, for there are many tangible benefits. Your spirit doesn’t get thrown out of sync; what anger and impatience does. You think and react more positively in terms of solutions to the problem. You don’t take out your frustrations by destroying stuff, or abusing anybody, including yourself, which saves you money, physical, emotional and spiritual energy, as well as pride. But the biggest benefit of offering thanks and praise when you’ve encountered an intractable problem, is that it takes your mind off yourself and the problem and places it on God; where it should have been in the first place. Oh people, how often do we hear that the first place to run in times of difficulty is to the Most High, but yet we still turn to Him last, only after all our man made solutions have failed. That’s where we flounder most of the time; trying to rely on our own limited resources. That’s also a form of sinful, selfish pride, since from day one, the Lord said to seek Him first when things go wrong, not last. But enough preaching…Steups! I dislike that word, cause it conveys a..a sense of force..of brow beating, which I detest. So let’s just say enough discourse for today. That’s not what some of you are thinking though. (smile) But seriously Friends, let’s start putting this aspect of going to the Lord first into practice nuh. It will certainly benefit us as individuals, societies and nations. Let’s do as Bruh David advised: ‘O Praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.’ Much LOVE!…always remember…our God…He is the key…the answer…to every, everything…
Ah Friends, another week has gone by and another day devoted to thanks and praise has arrived. As I keep saying, when in doubt, thanks and praise is the best answer. Well today my spirit was in a bit of a funk. The arthritic body was tired, suffering from a lack salt water and sunshine: Oh for a dip in the therapeutic ocean! (smile) Sleep was also hard to come by, partly due to the unseasonal thirty something Celsius degree weather we’ve been experiencing this weekend. To make matters worse, I could not figure out why my A/C wasn’t working. I’d put it on before going out to do some repairs on my car, which meant being out in the hot sun in a friend’s driveway. That was frustrating enough since we had to redo certain things, while the sun’s intensity increased, then to get home and no A/C. Hn! I was ready to blow my cool. I checked everything I could, even went outside and tapped the unit a few times. Note, I said tapped, not slapped, (smile) though I was sorely tempted, and amazingly, my language wasn’t very flowery. That’s the truth children. I resisted the temptation; did not let my bosom become foolish. Aren’t you all proud of me? (smile) Even when I realized, that my turning off the main switch for the furnace a few days ago was the problem, I didn’t get too upset with myself. In all this, I did no serious sin. Wow! ‘Praise the Lord…For his merciful kindness is great toward us.’ Now does that mean I’m getting better? I surely hope so. And the point of it all? If I can improve my patience level, then there’s hope for us all. But Friends, it takes a conscious effort, that’s very worthwhile, for there are many tangible benefits. Your spirit doesn’t get thrown out of sync; what anger and impatience does. You think and react more positively in terms of solutions to the problem. You don’t take out your frustrations by destroying stuff, or abusing anybody, including yourself, which saves you money, physical, emotional and spiritual energy, as well as pride. But the biggest benefit of offering thanks and praise when you’ve encountered an intractable problem, is that it takes your mind off yourself and the problem and places it on God; where it should have been in the first place. Oh people, how often do we hear that the first place to run in times of difficulty is to the Most High, but yet we still turn to Him last, only after all our man made solutions have failed. That’s where we flounder most of the time; trying to rely on our own limited resources. That’s also a form of sinful, selfish pride, since from day one, the Lord said to seek Him first when things go wrong, not last. But enough preaching…Steups! I dislike that word, cause it conveys a..a sense of force..of brow beating, which I detest. So let’s just say enough discourse for today. That’s not what some of you are thinking though. (smile) But seriously Friends, let’s start putting this aspect of going to the Lord first into practice nuh. It will certainly benefit us as individuals, societies and nations. Let’s do as Bruh David advised: ‘O Praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.’ Much LOVE!…always remember…our God…He is the key…the answer…to every, everything…
SCRIP-BITS 