Day 102 Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 16: 21-22, Deuteronomy 17 & 18, Luke 14: 15-35, Psalm 57: 1-6

Psalm 57: 1 (ESV)

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.”

I love verse 1 from Psalm 57 and the imagery of God as a bird where one can find refuge during storms. I’ve been watching live cams on YouTube of bald eagles laying eggs and then both the mom and day eagle taking turns sitting on the eggs to incubate them. There was one video where the mama eagle spread her wings over her baby eaglets to shield them from the rain. Here's the video - Mama Eagle - Mombrella. We are like the baby eaglets taking refuge under God’s wings from the storms. Whenever I’ve felt a major loss in my life, I always felt like God was holding me in the palm of his hand and taking care of me and shielding me from the depression that was threatening to overwhelm my life. I don’t know how I would have gotten through those intense periods of loss without Christ in my life. I used to wonder how anyone gets through an intense loss without God in their life. How frightening it must be to think you’re all alone in the world with nothing outside of yourself to help you get through your life. I began to understand that without a strong faith in God, how easy it would be to turn to drugs and alcohol to help cope with feelings of pain and loss. Drugs and alcohol provide an escape from your feelings, if only just for a little while. I was lucky. My faith in Christ helped me to deal with the feelings of pain and loss, and I didn’t need to escape these feelings. With God’s help, I was able to move through the grieving process quicker and come out of it much stronger.