Hello friends! I hope you're all having a wonderful day.
It's the monsoon season here in Arizona, so we've had quite a bit of rain lately. It's so nice. I love living in the desert, but sometimes I really miss rain. It's really cloudy here today, though the rain hasn't started yet.
The rain has caused a bit of nostalgia for me. I grew up in a place with a lot of greenery and rain, and it's strange sometimes not to have that where I live now. The nostalgia has caused me to think about my life a lot, and I wondered...
Do we ever really stop reevaluating our lives?
Do we ever stop learning about ourselves?
This week has been amazing for learning things about myself. I've been reevaluating my priorities, and, while I'm not done yet, I think I may finally be getting myself together. Of course, sometimes that's exactly when God likes to shake us up a bit, but I'm okay with that. God and I have talked about a lot of things this week, and I finally feel like my priorities are in order. I've been filled with so much joy this week that I don't even know how to express it.
But David did. The book of Psalms is my favorite book in the Bible, so today I want to share some of my favorite Psalms about joy.
Psalm 5:11 - But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You.
Psalm 16:11 - You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
The line I highlighted is one of my favorites, and it's well worth remembering. True joy is only found in God's presence. That's where I want to stay, no matter where I am or what I'm doing.
Psalm 27:6 - And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me; And I will offer in His tent sacrifices shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.
Psalm 32:11 - Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for all joy, all you who are upright in heart.
51:12 - Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.
There are so many Psalms it would take a book just to list the ones that are about joy, or rejoicing, so I won't list them all here. Whenever I find myself needing encouragement, I turn to the Psalms, so I encourage you all to read some of them for yourselves.
In the interest of Bible study, I searched long and hard for a study about King David. I finally found one. I've been reading a great book: Facing Your Giants, by Max Lucado. As it leads you on a journey through David's life, it details ways that we can face our own giants, whatever they may be. I'm really enjoying it and it's helpful to apply it to my own life. Plus, it's a great study about David's life-from lowly shepherd boy onward.
I just love sharing book recommendations with all of you. I also enjoy sharing movie recommendations.
Lately, I've been watching When Calls the Heart. I'd already seen season 1, but it had been so long that I'd forgotten everything that happened. I'm now almost caught up through season 3. I know there are more seasons, but I don't think I can watch the rest of them yet, which makes me so sad! Somehow, in America, we're always a couple years behind on Canadian TV shows. I have this same issue with Heartland.
In the grand scheme of things, this is still a tiny issue, however, and my week has simply been filled with too much joy to be down about it.
I hope you all have a marvelous week! Until next time, friends!
