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Each time I take my granddaughters for a walk, I make sure that I check the stroller tires, as one of them has a tendency to lose air and become flat.
As I was using the air compressor to top up the tires the other day, I, too, was feeling rather flat: flat in spirit. I'm not really sure why. Sometimes, it just is that way. I expect that most of us understand exactly what I am saying. Sometimes, we are up, and sometimes, we are down. Our spirits sag. Life seems to be just one big disappointment or annoyance. Our energy deflates, and it is a push to get through the day or the week, or sometimes, even longer.
But as Christians, we are assured that the flat times will not always be with us, for the Lord God loves us. He is with us always and goes before us, clearing our way. His Holy Spirit lives within each of us, a breath of God guiding, directing, and granting wisdom, power, and energy to live as God calls us to live, even amidst the down times. Sometimes, I wonder if the flat times come so that we might appreciate even more the times when our spirit is renewed, invigorated, and inflated by a word from the Lord, or a God moment — when we know that what has just happened is not a coincidence at all, but God Himself Who has been at work within our day or special situation.
"Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon — from Mount Mizar." (Psalm 42:5-6 NIV)
None of us is alone in regard to flat days. The psalmist experienced and understood these days, too. Because he had a faith history with God, he also understood that they do not last forever. During his low days or weeks or months, he wisely turned his mind to remembering. He chose to remember how in due time, the Lord had always lifted him up. The Lord had always rescued him from his feelings of deflation and despair, and restored his spirit so that he could praise and glorify his Creator once again.
So, like the psalmist, may each one of us also choose wisely amidst our flat days. May we choose to dwell upon our own faith history with God and all the great and wonderful things that He has done for us in the past. Those memories have the power to begin to reignite and reinflate our tired or worn-out spirits with the hope of God within us and the promise of better days to come.
Prayer: Father God, thank You that amidst our down times — whether they be momentary or over an extended period — when we choose to remember our faith history with You, our spirits once again can be uplifted and strengthened. For You are a good God Who loves and rescues Your people — a wondrous God Who is able to draw us up out of the pit and to set our feet upon the solid Rock of Your unending love and goodness once again. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
Copyright © 2022, by Lynne Phipps <lynnephippsatlin@PROTECTED>, first published on the PresbyCan Daily Devotional presbycan.ca .
Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Reprinted from PresbyCan with author's permission
Atlin, British Columbia, Canada
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