His Steadfast Love is Clear

I admit I'm feeling a little disheartened lately.

We've got a lot going on.  Our annual adoption update, planning our 10-year anniversary vacation, selling our house, applying for jobs, and getting a grip on my health.  Amongst all that is everyday-life responsibilities.

Oddly enough, I feel like I am really growing spiritually while at the same time feeling like God is not being overly clear-spoken.

I have to cling to His promises, His truths, and what is clear. 

I've been reading a lot in the Psalms lately, and I have been both encouraged and taught a lot.  I've also been re-reading the book "Fear Not" by a compilation of authors.  Here are some bits & pieces of what I have been learning lately:

- God's chosen path for me may be a more difficult one than the one I would choose, yet it may be a more fulfilling one.
- I can only see the steps in front of me.  I cannot see around the curves ahead.  My future here on earth is unknown to me. 
- The future is in God's hands.  He knows the best path for me.  He can see all the steps ahead.

- There is no problem so big or too hard for God to solve.
- The reason I know this is because He solved the hardest problem ever - a perfect God forgiving sinners who deserved death.  He managed to do this without breaking any promises nor compromising His perfect love and perfect justice.

- God's love is absolutely steadfast.  Man will fail me.  But God = steadfast love.  Just look at these verses:

• "But I, through the abundance of Your steadfast love will enter Your house..."  Psalm 5:7
• "But I have trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation."  Psalm 13:5
• "Remember Your mercy, O Lord, and Your steadfast love, for they have been from of old."  Psalm 25:6
• "All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness..."  Psalm 25:10
• "For Your steadfast love is before my eyes..."  Psalm 26:3
• "...save me in Your steadfast love!"  Psalm 31:16
• "Blessed be the Lord, for He has wondrously shown His steadfast love to me..."  Psalm 31:21
• "Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens...How precious is Your steadfast love, O God!"  Psalm 36:5 & 7

- God is the God of comfort.  Nobody - not even my sweet, caring husband who knows me so well - understands me the way God does.

• "Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.  The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer."  Psalm 6:8-9 

To quote John MacArthur in my Bible's notes on the above verses, "Out of his dire straits, boldness surprisingly breaks through as he addresses his enemies.  This boldness has only one basis, that the psalmist's confidence is wholly grounded upon his Lord's attention and ultimate intervention." 

And here is one of my favourite comfort verses:

"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted 

and saves the crushed in spirit."  

Psalm 34:18