Come Learn Rest Ministries

Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.
~Psalm 71:6

Sometimes, I feel like I am in the grocery store forever. Usually, it is because I stop and examine so many product labels. I want to know the ingredients and content of what I am eating so that I can stay physically healthy.  Likewise, I want to know that I am spiritually healthy.

In his book The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential, N.T. Wright notes: The Psalms are the steady, sustained subcurrent of healthy Christian living. They shaped the praying and vocation even of Jesus himself. They can and will do the same for us (pg. 23).

This week I have been praying through Psalm 71 daily. As I read the first two lines of verse 6, I think of Jesus who modeled for us what it means to lean upon the Father in both life and death. And I am reminded to lean upon God while interceding for myself and for others who need to be sustained and supported by God’s presence.

More importantly, I am invited to stop and examine the content of my spiritual life. I wonder if people around me would label me as a person of continual praise of God. Are your prayers and mine continually filled with praise of God? The Psalms certainly help us make it so.

By grace alone, may the spiritual content of our lives be you, Lord…Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen and amen.