What Are You Reading? – Look Up

well hey ladies and happy Monday morning I hope that you are having a great start to your Monday and hopefully this will give you just a little bit of insight and just something to meditate and think on I'm finding myself on a bit of a psalm kick recently and so we're going to be in Psalm 19 today. Um, but you know, I, um, I was in a conversation recently with someone and my friend was just kind of saying about a circumstance or even not even so much the circumstance that she was in, but just, um, in general about just life, life events and life things happening and just saying, you know, sometimes I wish that God would be, would show up like he did in the old Testament, that it would be so evident and so present. And, um, so we got to talking about that. And as we were talking, you just, it, it began to be kind of this conversation where we said, well, maybe we're just not looking hard enough, right? Maybe we tend to think that God's going to show up in these big ways and we tend to reserve our time to listen to the still, the small and the quiet, right? And so I want to give you a small kind of illustration and just a moment that I had years ago. My nephew you now is eight years old and um but this was when he was probably I want to say he was about six seven or eight months old somewhere in there and I was sitting on the back porch and he was just sitting right here and I had him turned away normally I have him you know sleeping on me you know with his you know all curled up on my chest right um but he was just sitting sitting and looking out we were looking out in the backyard and um the trees so where we were in the backyard, the trees, you know, those tall Georgia pine trees that we have, the trees were just blowing in the wind. And it was, I remember thinking that, man, I wish we were at the beach because this was in the summer. And it happened to be a day where it was a little bit cooler than usual in the humidity. And I remember thinking, you know, I wish we were at the beach. And it was as though we kind of were there. I know this sounds a little strange, but the wind, you know that sound of the wind blowing through the trees but it was actually so loud and such a rippling effect it literally sounded like waves passing through um the treetops and so we were sitting there we were watching I just remember talking to him and he couldn't talk back to me yet you know he didn't have didn't have any words but you know he'd point um and things like that as they'd start to ripple and they would all bend in the same way and then come back and um and so that's just the power of our God. It just reminded me that sometimes I don't slow down to really look at these, to look at the things of God and actually look up and see the things that he does do on a daily basis that we're not even aware of. So that being said, I want to turn to Psalm 19. And maybe you're on vacation. Maybe you'll be going on vacation. Maybe you're going to the beach or the mountains or something like that. And a lot of us take vacations in the summer. And a lot of you probably know this psalm, but I just want to remind you to focus on the things of God. And so verse one says, the heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech. Night after night, they reveal knowledge. They have no speech. They use no words. No sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens, God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other. Nothing is deprived of its warmth. And so I just want to encourage you, wherever you are, you know, to either take time to watch a sunset or to watch a sunrise. And just think and meditate on this scripture. And it doesn't even have to be on vacation. You can do this at home. even if you can't clearly see where the sun is rising maybe you don't have that but you can watch the sky light and that's one of my favorite things to do is to sit somewhere and get with God in his word early in the morning and then have a moment where I can see the world starting to come to light where I see the new day dawning and so you know in those moments where we keep thinking why doesn't God show up or is he really even present and I know that some of those can be such difficult struggles right and when you're in the moment it's hard to think otherwise but even just that longing for the God of the Old Testament to show up and do these big grand actions he's doing them sometimes we're just not paying attention so I guess that's what my focus is for you today is to just look up to um you know pay attention and to give thanks to God of just you know that the heavens creation everything declares his goodness it all is to his glory and so um find today your your challenge for today is to find at least three things you can either comment on this video you can um comment on the facebook group if you want to our women's facebook group something or even just to yourself write it down in a journal something that you find three things today that are things you wouldn't normally stop and recognize. For instance, one for mine is there's this tree out in the parking lot, a magnolia tree that's here at the church, and it's right near, and every time it blooms, it's one of my favorites, it's the most beautiful tree. And so many days I pass by it without even really looking, but then on certain days I look at it and I just think, wow, that's a really beautiful tree. You know, so take a moment today to have a wow moment, to have a lord your creation is really beautiful moment and um just remember that all of it declares the glory of god so that's my little bit of encouragement today it's very simple but just a reminder for you to look up and to thank god um for for his wonders for his gloriousness and that to remember above everything else that um this glory and with the heavens and the sun it's like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and of course when we say bridegroom we're thinking of jesus and just the goodness of Jesus and him saving us. So I hope and pray that that's a little bit of an encouragement for you today and that you will find just things to rejoice about today, that you will find reasons to look up and say thanks God. So I hope that you have a great Monday and I will see you next week.

Originally published at warren.church.