rivers

"You oh Lord are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high." Psalm 3:3

Sometimes we simply cannot hold our heads high. Sadness, shame, confusion and the weariness of the world around us all conspire to weigh our heads down and leave us looking at our feet.

At times like this we need to be honest with God & tell him how it hurts, rather than hiding behind some kind of 'it'll be OK' smiling-with-gritted-teeth dishonesty.

Yes - we trust and believe that one day it will be OK - but sometimes life just hurts and our heads and hearts are too heavy for us to bear alone.

But not too heavy for God - his loving care hold our heads up. Like Moses when he led the Israelites in battle against Amelek (see the story here) who couldn't hold his arms up any more, so was supported by his friends when he needed to sit down - so sometimes we are so weary that we need God to step in and hold us up. Sometimes we need to surrender our struggling to 'hold things together', admit that we can't - and trust in the God who can, and will.

This surrender needs to mark our lives beyond the hard times though. Especially in the times when we have plenty to hold our heads high about. When we are proud and full of ourselves, we need that same surrender lest we walk along with our heads held so high that we forget to look down, and so trip ourselves up......

God - the lover of our souls and holder of our hearts: hold our heads and hearts whether we're too weary or too proud - that we may honestly say 'you are my glory', and so sleep in peace........