Summertime brings us many beautiful days of sunshine, fair winds and great times on the water. Summertime also brings us a more than a few days of thunderstorms and high winds. How we handle the good weather, and the bad weather is important to our relationship with God.
If life were to be composed of beautiful days of sunshine, we would be tempted to forget how important it is to stay connected in prayer to the Lord. Think about it, when things are going just peachy for days on end, we can become distracted and forgetful of just how important God is in our lives. We can even begin the slippery slide into remembering the importance of our salvation in Jesus Christ because things are just going along so well.
For many of us, it takes a good storm to blow into our lives to help us refocus our lives, and our prayers on what is of utmost importance. Keeping our eyes on Jesus is where we need to be. Keeping our focus on the Lord, and filtering out the distractions is what we should be about. The boating, camping, fishing, etc are to be enjoyed for sure. But remembering that as the author of Psalm 16:8 reminds us in the first part of verse 8, I keep my eyes always on the Lord. We need to keep that focus in our lives lest we miss the opportunities the Lord sets before us. And when the storms roll in, as they will, we remember the second part of verse 8. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. We know the Lord is always with us. We have His love in our lives. And we can find comfort and shelter in the storms that we will not be shaken with the Lord at our side. He has our backs.
Enjoy the golden days of summer and remember to keep in prayer.
PRAYER: Father, we thank You for the beautiful days of summer we are blessed to enjoy. The times we spend with family and friends enjoying your creation are precious to each of us. Thank You for those gifts. And Father, we are blessed to have you by our sides with the storms roll in. Help us with Your Holy Spirit to keep strong in our faith to stay on course in those storms. Help us to not be shaken by the turmoil that can enter our lives. This we ask in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.