“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” Psalm 42:11
Lord Jesus, occasionally we feel as emotionally empty as the Grand Canyon. Disconnect, disillusionment, and disappointments add up and dam up, until they can’t be ignored. To be vulnerable is to be human; to be vulnerable, careful, and wise is to be yours.
In those moments, we don’t need clichés, chiding, or cheerleading. We need you to be a living Christ when deadly perils lurk. Like Cain angry with Abel (Gen. 4), David glancing, then peering at Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11), a famished Esau smelling home cooking (Gen. 25:29-34), Asaph craving any story but his own (Psalm 73)—we too are capable of making choices we’ll regret, hurting people we love, dishonoring the God we adore.
Lord Jesus, you saved us from hell, now save us from ourselves. Save us when we lapse (or leap) into Gospel-amnesia—when we’ll reach for a moldy Moon Pie quicker than we’ll feast on grace-manna.
We make King David’s cry-and-choice our own: “O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” Jesus, thank you for being 10 times better at finding us than we are at wandering from you. So very Amen, we pray, in your powerful and grace-full name.