30 Days of Thankfulness ~ Days 7-9

"Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!"

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭146:1-10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The last few days I will lump together again because this passage encompasses so much of what I've needed to remind myself of.

The last few days have found me stressed, anxious, worried and tired for a myriad of reasons.  Small, always needing of something children at my feet, friends hurting, family distant, and a heated national election campaign coming to its exhausted end. In all of this I finally sighed a prayer while my face was in a toilet cleaning my house today, "God, I'm too tired to be thankful. Nothing good seems to be happening. How can I be thankful?"

And then He says, "Praise me! Don't look to elected leaders. Don't trust their plans. Look to me. See what I have made?  I am forever faithful, I hold the marginalized and vulnerable in my hand. I   won't leave them downcast. I see the broken and lonely. Put your hope in me! My reign has not ended and never will. Praise me!"

I am so thankful he doesn't leave us to figure it out. He reminds us who He is and what He is done and all the reasons we have to be thankful.