Bible.com.au: Reading Plan - God’s ways, our ways

Reflection:

Some of us enjoy making plans, or anticipating how events may unfold. Of course, when they don’t go to plan, we feel deeply challenged.

Our friend, Catherine was expecting to give birth to their second child and go straight home. Instead, their baby was taken straight to the Neonatal Intensive Care. His oxygen levels were dipping. Catherine was allowed to visit him, but he was attached to tubes, and on IV antibiotics. It was very stressful. On day 5, the baby became even more unwell, and they were doing more tests. Nobody knew the outcome. In the middle of that day, Catherine went to the cafeteria and had a coffee. She felt tired and weak. But as she sat, she began writing out Psalm 139 in her notebook. “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful…” As she wrote, she felt a rush of thanks. It wasn’t peace, or healing, or a phone call to say that everything was okay. It was a rush of thanks to God – an overwhelming sense that God was God, and his works were wonderful, in the middle of it. She was at her lowest point, but she wanted to praise God. She clutched her coffee, tears streaming down her face, and said thank you to God.

I think it’s a challenge for all of us. Can we praise God today, in the middle of it, without knowing the outcome of our fears, or without waiting until things get better?

Prayer:

Lord, I thank you for the opportunity to praise you right now, in the middle of these worries and fears. Thank you that you are still God, today and your works are wonderful.

Psalms 139:1-24

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

1You have searched me, Lord,

and you know me.

2You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

4Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely.

5You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

7Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

8If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

11If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

12even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

15My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

17How precious to me are your thoughts, God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand—

when I awake, I am still with you.

19If only you, God, would slay the wicked!

Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

20They speak of you with evil intent;

your adversaries misuse your name.

21Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,

and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?

22I have nothing but hatred for them;

I count them my enemies.

23Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

God’s ways, our ways

Day 4 of 14

NIV

Psalms 139:14-17

Days

Psalms 139:1-24