Unshackled – Part 2

I posted this on my Facebook page today and it ties into the second part of what I wrote about yesterday.

“Some might think this photo is morbid and I’ve been wondering for a couple days why I immediately thought it was so beautiful (found it on bing by Ingrid “Drowning Bride”). Then today I thought of Psalm 18, one of my absolute favorites since I was a kid. It paints a truly breathtaking picture of someone who is being completely overtaken by darkness, drowning, helpless….but the Lord hears their desperate cry and comes to the rescue! He has faithfully drawn me out of the deep waters of life so many times. Those are the times I cling to Him like a drowning rat. Yet He still calls me His beautiful Bride.”

STEP 6: PRAY, PRAY and KEEP PRAYING – picking up from where I left off yesterday, this verse as well as Psalm 18 are particularly comforting to me and powerful to pray over myself and into my life, especially when I’m feeling down. Again, feel free to use my words or find your own, but focus on the truth of GOD’s words.

Isaiah 41:9-10

You are my servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away; fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

“Please God help me to remember that I am your child, your servant and that you are not my Father to serve me, but teach me what it means to serve you. Your word says you have called me your servant. Please help me to really understand what that means.

“It says you have chosen me and not cast me away. I don’t feel chosen for anything but garbage and I do feel cast away. If you have chosen me and not cast me away, please fill my heart and my life with your purpose. I can’t go on in this useless emptiness!

“The verse says to fear not and to not be dismayed, but God, after everything I’ve been through I AM fearful and I AM dismayed, to the point of wanting to die! How can I not fear? How can I not be dismayed? Your word says not to, so please show me how.

“It also says you will strengthen me and help me. How is it that I feel so weak and helpless? I am asking you to be true to your word, to strengthen me and help me. It says that your hand is victorious. Why do I see only defeat in my life? Where is your victory? Please be true to your own word and hold me up and bring to pass your victory – your victory over sin in my life, over the depression that overwhelms me, over the darkness that consumes me, over my emotions, over the lies of Satan, over my thoughts that are not from you.

Amen.”

STEP 7: REPEAT – The last thing I will ask you to do is to read this Psalm out loud to yourself when you get up in the morning and before you go to bed at night. You don’t have to try to believe what it says or even understand how it could apply to you personally. Just begin making a choice whether you feel like it or not, to speak God’s word to your heart. The Bible says that faith comes to us by HEARing the word of God. Please start nursing your spirit back to health on the pure milk of His gracious promises. You may not feel any different after reading it the first or second or 50th time. It may still be a struggle to get up in the morning. But the more you repeat it, the more you will hear it, the more it will soak into your soul, the more you will eventually be able to believe it!

Psalm 18:1-19 & 28-49 (NIV)

¹ I love you, Lord, my strength.

² The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield^[b] and the horn^[c] of my salvation, my stronghold.

³ I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I have been saved from my enemies.
⁴ The cords of death entangled me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
⁵ The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.

⁶ In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.
⁷ The earth trembled and quaked,
and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.
⁸ Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.
⁹ He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.
¹⁰ He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.
¹¹ He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
¹² Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
¹³ The Lord thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.^[d]
14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
¹⁵ The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, Lord,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

¹⁶ He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
¹⁷ He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
¹⁸ They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
¹⁹ He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me….

²⁸ You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
²⁹ With your help I can advance against a troop^[e];
with my God I can scale a wall.

³⁰ As for God, his way is perfect:
The Lord’s word is flawless;
he shields all who take refuge in him.
³¹ For who is God besides the Lord?
And who is the Rock except our God?
³² It is God who arms me with strength
and keeps my way secure.
³³ He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
he causes me to stand on the heights.
³⁴ He trains my hands for battle;
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
³⁵ You make your saving help my shield,
and your right hand sustains me;…

³⁶ You provide a broad path for my feet,
so that my ankles do not give way….

⁴⁶ The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God my Savior!
⁴⁷ He is the God who avenges me…

⁴⁸     who saves me from my enemies…

⁴⁹ Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing the praises of your name.