Hi, everybody who still hangs on to the hope of me writing again. It's been a really long time...and a lot has happened. Sometime I should write a post to tell of my wondrous adventures in the past...7...months. Wow that's embarrassing. But today I wanted to tell you about something I've been thinking about.

I was reading through the Psalms recently. I was moving through the passages that king David wrote. And I noticed a pattern. Maybe I wouldn't have paid attention to it if I hadn't been experiencing the same pattern in myself for the past few years. As the chapters went on, I saw David either praising God for wonderful deeds or for just being God (which is praiseworthy as well), or David was crying out to God, needing help, and holding on to the hope that God is coming...because He has in the past.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that every believer in Christ has experienced this very pattern. God is not someone to constantly bring us through hard times, but He also likes to purify us and make us more beautiful.

I'm not saying God is predictable.

God is not a mere machine that controls us, his mere robots.

But I do know that God brings us through difficult times. He wouldn't be a loving and perfect father if He didn't. That doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt, though. I understand this...I go through it first hand every day. But finding the pattern in Psalms encouraged me. (Not by saying: "Hey, look, I'm just as good as king David." Or "I'm going through things too, but I don't write down my troubles so that they sound all poetic and then put them in a book"-please don't misunderstand my meaning.) Going through the Psalms, I saw David as a joyful king...and I saw him as an admittedly broken king. But in king David's hard times, he ended with trusting in God and offering up the praises that God so desires and deserves. And in one of the next Psalms, David was praising God for delivering him.

I want to encourage you. Though the times might be hard-keep trusting God. You are moving toward the time of easy praise. And while you are waiting, praise God still. He always deserves it.

And if you are going through a time when God is blessing you (in an obvious way)-praise Him for that too.

Jocelyn