The LORD is my portion; I promise to keep your words. I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law. At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules. I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts. The earth, O LORD, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes!
Psalm 119:57–64, ESV
These words spring from a faithful heart. We all face the struggles of life, but these words are meant to be an encouragement to the soul and not a condemnation in the realization of our failure to follow them. Have you ever had that “mountaintop” faith experience? I know that I have attended an event or a conference and left with such vigor and anxiousness to go out and change the world for Christ, but within a short period of time, I find that many of the things I had wanted to do are sitting on that long to-do list that seems to continually grow. I think most of us have been there at one point or another. We can become disheartened because we feel that nothing is different, and we have accomplished little and have failed to keep to what God placed in our hearts. God knows our shortcomings, but He also knows our hearts. He doesn’t excuse our failures, but He is gracious and forgiving. We are His children and He seeks that our hearts receive His teaching and continue to strive for that perfection, but not to be bogged down when we don’t achieve what He places in our hearts to do in the way we think it should happen. In our realization of our shortcomings, we find our great need for God to do the work within us and our need for His forgiveness. It isn’t that He meets us part way, but when we cry out in our frustration and sadness, He covers us with His covering and does the work in and through us in the world. As we grow and learn his statutes, they become embedded in our very beings and a part of our way of viewing all of our Lord’s Creation. Let God’s Holy Word be written upon your heart and proclaim this all your days.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.