He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake..
Psalm 23:3 KJV
Sometimes we become discouraged with the direction of our lives. Circumstances are not of our choosing, not the plan we laid out. God’s timetable isn’t meshing with ours. But to keep others around us pacified, we paste on a smile and trudge through the murky waters.
Be encouraged. The Lord has promised He hears our pleas and knows our situations. He will never leave us. Our God is not a God of negativity, but of possibility. He will guide us through our difficulties and beyond them. In Streams in the Desert, Mrs. Charles E. Cowman states, “Every misfortune, every failure, every loss may be transformed. God has the power to transform all misfortunes into ‘God-sends.’ ”
Today we should turn our thoughts and prayers toward Him. Focus on a hymn or a praise song and play it in your mind. Praise chases away the doldrums and tips our lips up in a smile. With a renewed spirit of optimism and hope we can thank the Giver of all things good. Thankfulness to the Father can turn our plastic smiles into real ones, and as the psalm states, our souls will be restored.
Father, I’m down in the dumps today. You are my unending source of strength. Gather me in Your arms for always. Amen.
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Today’s reading was adapted from Daily Wisdom for Women: 2013 Devotional Collection with permission from Barbour Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reading was written by Eileen Key.