Sunday Cuppa with Susanne
How about kicking off your shoes, grab a cuppa and let’s do something outside our usual posts? Care to spend a bit of time thinking about something else to your day?
Recently someone sent me a great version of the 23rd Psalm, from Japan. I’d like to talk this one through with you. It’s called: ‘The Lord is My Pace Setter
‘The Lord is My Pace Setter….I will not rush’
Sometimes it seems there is just so much to do, or so much I could do but don’t have the time….or it’s less of a priority. However, when we take being a Jesus Follower into our view of time, He will help us set the urgently desperate from the desperately urgent. He will even slow us down enough to find His Pace. Care to work at the pace of the Great Creator?
That’s takes practice in being still enough to help His voice. That’s takes time to rest in trusting His ways above our own.
‘He makes me stop for quiet intervals’
Don’t know about you but that is on the urgently desperate list. Working from deep within, with the direction of the Holy Spirit means I must find those quiet spots in my day. When do you find them? Is life such a rush that hours and days and weeks flying past …and now it’s 2013.
‘Intervals’ – an interesting word. The whole of creation works with intervals: times of rest, times of work, times of relating and times of just doing nothing. Winter is followed by Spring and growth. How easy it is to fill that space with TV or even a good book rather than feed our spirit with His food.
‘He provides me with images of stillness which restore my serenity’
Wow, He will give us images of stillness? How we need to practice that one! Then what does it mean to be still, to stop and gaze at life. We are so busy that stillness is often another foreign concept. The stillness of a lake doesn’t mean there is no life there. The stillness of the wind doesn’t mean ‘nothingness’. What a challenge to find that ‘stillness’!
‘He leads me in the way of efficiency through calmness of mind and His guidance is peace’
Calmness is another of those states of mind we need to practice. That means an absence of fears, doubts, troubling thoughts…and this list goes on. The only way this can happen is for our heart to so trust Him that nothing – nothing – can shake us from His foundations.
Efficiency? Listening to His voice and following His leading can bring us to a greater efficiency. What a thing to say…and to practice. Instead of going ’round that mountain for the fifth time, what does He say needs to be done. Practicing that stillness will bring ideas and ways of doing things we could never have imaged before. We need to try it more!
We can learn to follow after that peace and let it be the Guide to what is correct and where to head for the next answer. We can learn to settle into His peace rather than a false ‘doing nothing’ while our mind is going a million miles an hour.
‘Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, I will not fret, for His presence is here’
OK, what does it mean to ‘fret’ as most of us live in that condition most of the time? Our mind thinks it has to solve things, to find the answers. Really trusting His presence, trusting that He has the very best in mind for us also takes practice. Jesus can take away the anxiety about tomorrow, especially since we can’t see what tomorrow holds. Does your heart trust Him that much?
‘His timelessness, His all importance will keep me in balance’
‘Balance’ means….all things in proper order, aligned or working in harmony. So it’s His ‘timelessness’ my spirit needs to soak in to help my balance? Yes, He is outside time…and space…and…. In fact, some writers talk about God being in 8 dimensions at once. That’s hard to get my mind around but He is definitely outside my little time and space world. He knows tomorrow and next year and into eternity. So can I trust His love?
‘He prepares refreshment and renewal in the midst of my activity by anointing my mind with His oils of tranquillity’
Where do you start with this one? Back to His guidance, allowing Him to refresh and to ‘ anoint’ us. How the busy world needs this! How I need this! Just think about ‘the oils of tranquillity’. What a good picture this is, beyond the oils of massage, the oils of a car or the WD40 oils! May we learn to let Him anoint our head, our minds with His refreshing oils.
‘My cup of joyous energy overflows’
Joyous energy …. another great idea, a great word picture for your mind and spirit. There seems to be so little joy in the world, especially after watching the nightly news. Where is joy in your life? Sometimes my spirit bubbles 
with joy in a song, or at the sight of a beautiful rose….but joy, well that’s another concept we have to look for and learn to practice more.
‘Truly harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours’
So the results of all those hours you’ve spent doing whatever, what’s the fruit? What will you carry with you into eternity? Certainly not the pay check as that’s something for now and so easily spent. Grumbling, complaining, conflict with others …. ouch, if that’s what He sees as our fruit. Is there anything you’re doing that will bring eternal fruit? …..Raising and teaching children in Godly ways, loving others, allowing Him to teach you great truths. Yep! Those sorts of things will count as well as just listening and obeying Him!
‘I shall walk in the Pace of my Lord and dwell in His house forever’ Amen
Forever! Yep! You are an eternal being, an eternal spirit who will live somewhere through all the eternities to come! What we don on the Earth is very, very important. That’s why we need to practice that tranquillity, calmness, serenity, quietness to hear His voice. Then remember ‘to walk’ means to put one foot in front of another’. It’s a process. Just like learning all these great qualities of the Holy Spirit. He’s after overcomes, not someone who is perfect already. Only He is perfect. So continue to join me in learning how ‘to walk’.
Here is the whole Psalm. Print it off and pin it to your toilet door, or on your frig so you can see and practice it often.
‘The Lord is My Pace Setter
‘The Lord is My Pace Setter….I will not rush’
‘He makes me stop for quiet intervals’
‘He provides me with images of stillness which restore my serenity’
‘He leads me in the way of efficiency through calmness of mind and His guidance is peace”
‘Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, I will not fret, for His presence is here’
‘His timelessness, His all importance will keep me in balance’
‘My cup of joyous energy overflows’
‘Truly harmony and effectiveness shall be the fruits of my hours’
‘I shall walk in the Pace of my Lord and dwell in His house forever’
Amen
Author and date unknown. Have a God-blessed 2013!
Susanne Fengler, Blog Author
PS. You will find this same ‘Cuppa with Susanne’ on my other blogs:
www.conflictsollutions.mentorsnotebook.com/blog
www.hearinggod.mentorsnotebook.com/blog
www.totalwholeness.mentorsnotebook.com/blog
Tags: Sunday Cuppa - 23rd Psalm
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