I've been struggling lately. I'll admit I thought when I came home for the summer all of my troubles from the school year would just vanish. Unfortunately, this is not the case. I've realized that I am the BIGGEST overthinker. I've also realized it's hard to trust God in a time of transitions. (I talked about that in my last blog so if you haven't read that go check it out!)
It sounds horrible to say that it's hard to trust the big man, but it just is. We're human and we're made doubtful, albeit some more doubtful than others. My struggles vary from worrying about the future and worrying about the present. However, I've been blessed enough to attend my home church this summer, which was something I dearly missed in college. We've been exploring the Gospel of John for the year. A few weeks ago my pastor was touching on prayer. He mentioned how we're so quick to ask other people to pray for us and our situation before we've even prayed over our situations ourselves. Woah.
Before college I was very intouch with my prayerful journey and that journey came to a close in college. It's not something I'm proud of, but it's just the ugly truth. This summer I've been trying to regain that journey and become a prayer warrior again. My prayer has been for God to reveal himself to me in a way that would trigger praise. If any of you know me well, you'll know where this is going.
This past week God has revealed himself to me in two beautiful ways that ended up tying together. It was a combination of a new Bible study and, y'all guessed it, the beach. I've written Instagram posts before about my connections to the beach, but it just never fails to amaze me how God speaks to me there.
I took a one night trip to the beach with one of my best friends and in those few hours I spent on that beach God was talking to me the whole time. I sat in the sand and prayed. I stood in the water and prayed. I soaked up those warm rays and prayed. I could go on and on and on about everything the beach means to me so strap in.
"How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they are more vast than the sand!" Psalm 139: 17-18
Let's unpack this. I was first shown this verse back in middle school at a D-Now weekend. Ever since then it has stuck with me. The verse starts praising the Lord of His thoughts that He holds of us. This was something I never even considered. Of course, I know the Lord loves me and He thinks of me, but I never bothered to think how MUCH He thinks of me. This verse says His thoughts of each and every one of us is VAST. So vast that its sum is greater than every grain of sand on the earth. Now I need you to really, truly consider this. How many GRAINS of sand are on this planet?? You set your hand in the sand and it very well has hundreds of grains, you sit in the sand and your legs are covered in thousands. How about how much sand you bring back in your car after a beach trip? Now think about the WHOLE BEACH! Not just Gulf Shores, Destin and PCB, but Mexico's beaches, Australia's beaches, Belize's beaches. Think about all of the sand under the water. Now factor in all of the deserts on this planet. It is literally impossible to comprehend this number, it's greater than our wildest imaginations. That number, whatever it may be, is how many thoughts the Lord has of you. Again, woah. Every time I consider this I am in awe of my God. His thoughts are infinite and unsearchable.
"'Do you not fear me?' declares the Lord. I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier it cannot pass; though they roar, they cannot pass over it." Jeremiah 5:22
I'm not going to lie, this is a scary verse. Here God is trying to show just how powerful He really is. All of the ocean on our planet is enough to wash over all of the land. I mean He already did it once. But our merciful Father promised to never let that happen again. He uses the sand as a barrier. He says the oceans roar with greatness. Now let me tell you, that one day I spent at the beach, those waves were roaring and definitely took me out quite a few times. Let's look into all of this symbolism and how these two verses connect. Roaring waves symbolize out struggles. We have stress, anxiety, sadness bad grades, financial struggles, family issues and so many other issues in our lives. Nobody's life is perfect and everyone has their own "roaring ocean." BUT GOD, in His merciful, gracious ways doesn't let those oceans overtake us. How does he stop that? With the sand....and what's the sand? HIS THOUGHTS Y'ALL! Our Lord knows and hears all of our struggles when we reach out to Him. He's fully aware of our oceans. However, His powerful nature won't let those struggles overtake you because He thinks too highly of you. He knows your talents and passions and purpose on this earth. All of those "grains of sand" block your "roaring ocean" from taking over. Yes, the Lord is to be feared for this power, but more over He is to be worshipped for holding this power and granting us mercy.
Psalm 145
If you have the time right now, I highly encourage you to pause and take the time to read this Psalm. I started a new Bible study this week through She Reads Truth called "Psalms for Prayer." I've known I needed to be more intentional with my prayers, as I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. When I started this study on day one I was again in awe. God has a habit of leaving me like this. Psalm 145 is a prayer praising God's greatness. It is a stepping stone on ways to address God when we really can't put His greatness into words. After my days at the beach, I was struggling on how to praise God on everything I was thinking because I'm just so overwhelmed by Him. This Psalm practically fell into my lap. The author, David, uses just about every word of "praise" he can to address the Father, such as extol, bless, commend, declare and many more. My study gave four ways we should approach prayer. Call out to God. Go boldly to the throne. Ask instead of worry. Talk to God as your Father. All of these are things I know I need to work on in my prayer life and I encourage you to try to add to yours.
Between my pastor's words, my new study and the Lord's beautiful creation I've been left awestruck this past week. God has been speaking to me lately. I hope this blog can encourage you to look into how you're talking to the Father.
From this I also would LOVE to hear from some of you! I would be so welcome to praying over everyone who found and read this blog. So how can I be praying for you this week? Text me, call me, DM on any of my socials, how ever you can get in touch with me I would be delighted to lift your name up to our Father. Everyone needs words of encouragement when they're going through roaring oceans. Let me help you today.
Until next time,
Matt