The Plumbline

Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. (Psalm 73:25-26 NLT) Winston Churchill reminded us, "Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it." When contrary winds come into your life, rise or fall, the choice is often made in the perspective you maintain. Maintain a low perspective, only focusing on the negativity you see coming your way, or maintain a much higher one, seeing Christ's encouraging eyes beckoning you forward instead. The choice is pretty clear to me - his strength is available when we keep the right perspective. True it is - health fails and our spirits grow weak. In the midst of weakness, we can find our greatest strength. It seems a little bit of an oxymoron that we can find strength in weakness, but when that exchange of strength happens, we soar. Our strength dwindles, but his strength picks up when we are wil...

I stand silently before the Lord, waiting for him to rescue me. For salvation comes from him alone. Yes, he alone is my Rock, my rescuer, defense and fortress. Why then should I be tense with fear when troubles come? (Psalm 62:1-2) Joyce Meyer says, "The eagle has no fear of adversity. We need to be like the eagle and have a fearless spirit of a conqueror." As you might imagine, standing 'silently' in the midst of situations where you can be pretty apprehensive or that evoke the 'fight or flight' response is doggone hard. While fear has a 'paralyzing' effect in most of us, we experience and immediate 'ramping up' of all those stress hormones that make us ready to bolt. Adversity comes our way, and we just don't know what to do with it. Is that really true? Don't we know we are supposed to take it to the Lord and allow him to show us how it is to be dealt with? Yes, we 'know' that, but do we actually believe it and stand firm in...