Episode 50: Psalm 71:5
Transcription
Before we get started today, friends, I have a really exciting announcement. I have written a book and it’s getting ready to launch into the world. I wanted to share it with you because I believe it will be a helpful resource and I want as many people to read my story as need to hear it. The book is a memoir and it’s a deeply personal look into caregiving and relationships. The book is called Yes, Father: A Daughter’s Journey to Forgiveness and is the hopeful story of my journey of caring for my father with Alzheimer’s while learning to forgive him for his past.
If you’ve longed to restore a broken family relationship or have cared for a parent with Alzheimer’s, you’ll relate to my struggle of hanging on to hope in the midst of difficult circumstances.
In this memoir of faith and forgiveness, you’ll discover how:
God is able to bring opportunities for forgiveness through broken circumstances.
Our Father demonstrates His love as we learn to heal from past scars.
Relationships can be restored even through the most painful times.
God can renew our families and reforge them into something powerful.
If you find yourself in the midst of wrestling with forgiveness, then Yes, Father: A Daughter’s Journey to Forgiveness offers a hopeful path toward reconciliation and healing.
The book will be available as an ebook or paperback and released on July 29th. As we get closer, I’ll let you know how to pick up your own copy. Thanks for allowing me to share this big news with you, and let’s continue to our prayer for today.
Today’s verse is Psalm 71:5
I’ll be reading it from the King James Version.
For Thou art my hope, O Lord God; Thou art my trust from my youth.
Let’s pray together.
I have a very simple prayer to pray today, Jesus. My prayer is to believe these words and for you to build them into my life as the foundation of my every day. I want to take this as a promise, clutching it to my chest, knitting it to my bones, You writing it on my heart. Anything apart from this, doesn’t hold weight, doesn’t keep a promise, doesn’t sustain me in my need.
So create hope in me. Be hope in me. There are many things in this world that flaunt themselves as my savior, as my defender, as my hope; but help me to look past them, to discard them, never to believe in them. Teach me to believe in You instead. You are not a pixie dust dream, but You are solid and real. You are with me, blooming faith in my heart, teaching me to abide by Your truths. You are the courage in the midst of adversity. You are the light in the deep gloom of night. You are gratefulness in a sea of poverty. You are comfort in the depths of despair. You embody hope and I pray that my eyes see it, my ears hear it, and my heart believes it. Don’t let me be deceived by any counterfeit. Be the song of hope, defying the dark, crying out freedom against an oppressing world.
And when this hope seems far way, when all presses against me, when I am trembling and afraid, be still a lifeline of trust for me. You created me in my mother’s womb; You have known me every second of my life. I am, inside and out, created for Your glory. Who else is there better to trust? But I don’t. It is too hard to live in this world without my own plan. So take my plans from me. Take my pride, take my confidence in myself, take my independence and rebellion. I want to surrender to You, trust only in You.
Because You’ve been there; You’ve proven Yourself. Every day there is new evidence that a Creator made a world for me. You give me the gift of Providence and I don’t ever want to take it for granted or assume that I had anything to do with it. I thank You that instead of being the master of my own destiny, I am a humble apprentice, following behind my Master, assured that He will take care of me. Help me to surrender to Your will.
Jesus, as we pray today, we know that these are desperate words, asking for Your help. We are not strong giants of faith, but You teach us to be. Slowly, every day, You instill us with more than we had the day before. Today, whatever we are holding onto, help us to let it go. Help us to trust that in the midst of being without employment, in the midst of a divided world, in the midst of war and disease and conflict, in the midst of relationship turmoil, in the midst of betrayal and fear and complication, that You are here. You are good. You are able. You have us in the palm of Your hand. Weave together hope and trust in our spirits, that we may be uplifted by Holy Spirit.
I pray this in Your name. Amen.
