Cultivating History with God: Psalm 91
Yesterday, I was driving around town with my girls and found the best pick-up truck ever! It’s license plate read PSALM91.
The kids and I started quoting those promises. That God is our refuge and fortress. Psalm 91 has been a banner over our family ever since my husband deployed. It’s recently become more meaningful on a new level. I keep returning to it.
Last night, before we fell asleep, we tried to remember the parts we’d forgotten.
Around 2am, I was up in the night. I turned on my replica of an old-fashioned oil lamp and decided to sit inside my closet on the floor. I had to shovel some books over to find a seat. And then my eye caught the golden spine of an old journal.
January 2017
Written in purple ink (from the golden years when our lives were glitter and pink and purple)
Psalm 91, Cory Russell, Glad Tidings Church
- Turn to God for your number one source of comfort, peace, entertainment, and joy
- Memorize this Psalm and pray it back to the Lord all day long
- God will turn the hearts of fathers back to their sons and daughters. We will see a revival of homes.
- The church’s greatest days are ahead of us.
- Quit just coming to God when you need stuff and spend time with Him.
- The way we build confidence for the day of trouble is time with the Lord now.
- God doesn’t want a “balanced life”—He only wants you.
- What keeps you up at night? That’s a good way to know where you’re heart is at.
- Slow down. Dial down. Cultivate. Open your Word and say, “Here I am. I’d like to get to know you.”
- Abide in Him.
- Crisis, shaking, and glory are coming, so dial down. Simplify. And rearrange your priorities.
- Go to bed and wake up early to get up and pray. None of that other stuff matters. And what you’ll give your future bride is your history with God now.
I let this sink in as I sat in the dimly lit closet.
Dial down and make history
Men and women, what you’ll give your future spouse someday is your history with God now.
Parents, what you’ll give your children in the future someday is your history with God now.
Shepherds, what you’ll give your future flock someday is your history with God now.
In 2017, Russell explained the Lord’s heart in our trials: “These years have been difficult because I’m thinking of what I need you to look like most in 2020.”
2020 was my first year navigating life as widow. It was also the year the world caved in. And Russell was right. What I survived off of in 2020 were the prayers and tears and history with God that I developed in 2012, 2015, 2017, on and on.
Selah.
