“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him. Psalms 28:7 NKJV

I love to read the Psalms. There are history lessons, there are prayers and pleas for God’s help, there are confessions, and there are hymns and praises! The Psalms offer us wisdom, comfort, empathy, thanksgiving and joy! No matter how we are feeling, we can probably find a Psalm that shares our emotions.

Some mornings we lie in bed awake, knowing the alarm will go off soon. And we contemplate our day and all that has to be accomplished at home, at work, at school, for our families, for others, for ourselves (and we are usually last on this list!). We dread getting up and beginning the day. I remember well days like this. How would I get it all done? And then on my way to work, I would see a beautiful sunrise, or hear a song on the radio (that I just had to sing along with), or stop for the school bus and see the kids getting on talking and laughing, or even just see the azaleas in bloom in yards along the way. God always provided just a little something to give me joy and peace and help me realize that everything will be alright because the Lord is my strength and my shield. And will I trust Him to get me through each day.

We all face stress and frustration and anxiety and seemingly insurmountable tasks, but we do have one great advantage. The Lord is with us! He not only equips us for the “fights” of the day (strength) but He also is our protection (shield). He is our companion and champion. He will give us joy, encouragement, strength, comfort, care, and peace. If it doesn’t all get done today, tomorrow is another day. (This was always one of my favorite sayings; I confess I can be a bit of a procrastinator.) But the truth of the matter is that our God is with us in all of our struggles and He will help us if we just look to Him.

On some of our toughest and busiest days, we too often try to do it all on our own. But we just have to pause a moment and say a short praise or prayer to feel that some of the burden has been lifted off our shoulders. My “go to” on those kinds of days, was “thank you Lord for giving me the strength to get through this day” (or next chore, next assignment, next chauffeuring, next meeting…) Or a heartfelt “thank you, Lord, for a spectacular sunrise”!

Let our hearts greatly rejoice in our Lord who helps us and praise His name! This week let’s try to find the Lord in even our busiest and most stressful days. He is waiting for us to come to Him so that He can help share our burdens and our lives.

I thank God for each of you! And I thank you for joining me today to rejoice in God, our strength and our shield.