Psa 73:23 Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand.
Psa 73:24 With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory.
Psa 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
Psa 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psa 73:27 For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You.
Psa 73:28 But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works. (NASB)

“With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory. God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Sometimes I have to ask myself if I really believe that. My heart and my flesh may fail me but God is the strength of my heart.

During some of the most trying times it is easy for me to rely on my old nature to take charge of a situation. And as I have learned over the last 40 + years, sometimes my heart and my flesh give me the wrong answers.

But God is faithful to me. He is there to answer the difficult questions that arise from circumstances in our lives. One such event arose this evening where I was put into a situation. I needed to make a decision to please another person and possibly protect them from harm due to a poor decision that was made on their part, or go with my gut instinct and say “no, I can not help you in this way.” As I contemplated all of the scenarios I began to allow fear and frustration tell me what I was going to do rather than the voice of God. All along God was right there nudging me to say “no, I can’t help in this situation, but I can help you in another way.”

My options began to weigh heavy on me. It was as if I had a bridle on and was being pulled from one side to the next. I finally made my decision… I was going to go against my gut instinct and decided to go with my flesh. The decision seemed wrong, but I felt it would help out the person better than the decision that felt right.

God is a God of great mercy and grace. He will enlighten our spirit to His ways but still give us the freedom to choose our own. And whatever we choose, He will always be there for us afterward. It was an incredible learning lesson for me. And when the evening was over, the right way did come to be the way we chose. As I was beginning to make the decision and follow through with it a situation came up which didn’t allow me to follow through with my wrong choice, so my default choice, the right one, become the only choice. Isn’t God amazing…

Psa 37:24 If he stumbles, he’s not down for long; GOD has a grip on his hand.

So what did I learn from this? I learned that to save my integrity with men I must make the right choice when it is presented to me. And to save my closeness to God I must make the right choice as well. Verse 25 tells me that I desire nothing on earth besides God. I was trying to please another person today rather than please God and He was gracious enough to remind me of that this evening.

Thank you Lord for being patient and kind. You are above all things and are always there to guide my decisions. Please help me Lord to remember to listen to You when You nudge my spirit and please forgive me when I forget.