A BETTER WORD

Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart

so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will

praise him again--my Savior and my God!

Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will

remember you...  each day the LORD

pours his unfailing love upon me... Why

am I discouraged? Why is my heart so

sad? I will praise him again--my Savior

and my God! (Psalm 42:5-11, NLT)

The word I picked out for the new year was "Balance." 

My church begins each year with 21 days of prayer and fasting, and after a very stressful and overwhelming 2025, I was looking forward to kicking off 2026 with a peaceful time of prayer and devotions that would set the tone for the days to come. This is not, however, the way it played out.

Right from the get-go, I was bombarded by unexpected frustrations and disappointments at things that didn't turn out as I had hoped they would. Instead of peace and balance, I felt rattled and thrown off course. 

I wrote a post about it on my other blog (Thanking God for Being so Patient and Longsuffering), so no need to go into it again here, except to say that the Lord, in His infinite mercy and grace, used those days of stress and turmoil to reveal some better words for me to focus on such as patience, trust, and unoffendability, all of which can lead to the peace and balance I so desire. 

I love what Mary, from Visits With Mary shared on her blog about how she had been humming the old Frank Sinatra song, "I did it my way," when she heard the  Lord put the words in her heart, "You should've been doing it MY way--blessings would have been more abundant." 

God used those words to remind me that His ways are not my ways, nor His thoughts my thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). All the frustrations and fears that had rattled me were just tests. They would not have been able to affect me the way they did had I been resting in Him and trusting in His sovereign plan instead of focusing on my own expectations. 

"Don't project," I felt Him speaking to my heart, "I know the end from the beginning, and am in total control."