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“I’ve prayed all I’ve known to pray. Done everything I knew. Used all my formulas and those others have shared. But the calamities just keep coming one after another!”

Have you found yourself thinking or saying this?

Many people are right now. I add myself to the list after a recent round about with flu that become acute laryngitis that flared up an old cycling injury, aggravating a nerve and then turned into strained ribs.

SO WHAT IS GOING ON?

Psalm 57:1 says, “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!
For my soul trusts in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,
Until these calamities have passed by.”

Shakespeare once said when sorrows come not as single spies, but in battalions. David called them “calamities”. In fact the word he used here in Psalm 57 can be also translated as “rushing upon”.

Do you feel rushed upon one after another after another? You are not alone.

There just are times when calamities and battalions rush into our human existence and flip our tables over.

As we reach for our faithful tips, formulas, use our spiritual gifts and pray, pray, pray, we can find ourselves floundering when what worked now isn’t.

Let’s just be real. This is how it is sometimes.

When I asked Holy Spirit about it all, He told me to go sit in Psalm 57:1, and that’s when it clicked.

The point of our tips, formulas, lessons learned, spiritual gifts, is that they lead us into the shadow of His wings.

They point us to Him.

It’s so easy to take refuge in our tips, formulas we have gained, or the expertise or journey of others. But our refuge is in Him.

Trust takes us to places when our formulas won’t. Trust takes us into grace. There is something that happens in grace that no tip, no formula can.

LET’S GET PRACTICAL

So if this your experience right now, then I invite you to stop, stand up and hand it all over, the battalions, the calamities, the events, the injuries, the reports, you name it, hand it to the Holy Spirit.

You might want to pray this?

“Holy Spirit I hand you ……… I give it all to you and release it into your hands. I trust you. I trust your grace is enough.

Holy Spirit would you show me a picture of what it looks like for me to be in the shadow of your wings.”

Wait and be aware of any picture or scene or song or feeling that comes over you after asking Holy Spirit this.

Thank you Holy Spirit you have us covered. You are enough. Your grace is taking us to places our formulas, tips, etc have not. Thank you you are faithful.