I will!

 As I took a walk yesterday, I was reminded of the refrain that has repeated itself over and over in my mind and heart over the years...it is the refrain repeated in Psalm 42 and 43...”Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help and salvation of my countenance and my God.” Jesus said in John 16:33, “...In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Our lives in this world will be difficult, full of grief on the heels of great joy, life in the midst of death, tears of laughter that lead to tears of agony. God said that He brings the rain to fall on the just and the unjust...those who walk with Christ will see days of affliction just as those who do not know Him.

 But His word also says that, for those whose lives are rooted in our relationship with Him, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5). This is not to say that our pain is not real or that our grief is not disabling...I have walked through days when I couldn't function for the heartbreak weighing on me, driven to distraction by searing emotional pain. But the psalmist here is calling us to change our gaze and look to the only One who is faithful and able to walk through every storm with us; He alone is our salvation and our God! I will yet praise Him! This is the same God who walked out on the water of a storm-savaged sea and bid Peter to walk with Him! I will yet praise Him! This same One, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, bids me to ponder what great things He has done, take Him at His word, and walk forward with Him, today. I will yet praise Him! When I realize that nothing separates His great love from those that He calls His own, I can't help but praise Him! 

There is nothing I will face alone; He will work all things together for my good and His ultimate glory...I will yet praise Him! And on the day I draw my final breath, I will see Him face to face...and I will yet praise Him!

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)