You wake up with a cold; your brain feels stuffed into your skull so tightly that you can’t think, and you know the whole day will be fuzzy. Sometimes, the day is just too cold and gray. Sometimes, the bills are endless and the boss is unreasonable and the kids drive you crazy…and it all gets the best of you. Sometimes, it’s just too hard to be hopeful and bright and optimistic and confident.

(Aren’t these lovely thoughts for a Monday morning?)

Sometimes, like the Psalmist, we lie in the dust. And that’s pretty much it. We have no strength to get up or do anything else; we just lie there.

When we are tired, when the questions are too hard and there are no answers, when our eyes can’t see any rainbow through the rain, when we just can’t feel God in our day–then what? Where do we go? What lifesaver do we hang on to?

On those lying-in-the-dust days, what can revive us?

Do you know the second half of that verse? Revive me by your word. In his poetic songs, David found many ways to describe his tough times. He often talks about being in a pit or being surrounded by his enemies or being in the clutches of death and he cries out to God for help. Here, he says, I lie in the dust; revive me by your word.

I hope you share with us some of your lifelines, some of the things that get you through those days.

Here’s my lifeline: His word. Specifically, the words that tell me God is there, in the middle of those days, even when my spiritual senses feel too dull to see or hear or feel him. These are the words I grab and hold on to.

I started typing those out, but … it’s a long list! So I’ll just give you a few. These words promise that God’s presence doesn’t depend on my circumstances or my mood. He has said I am his, and his love always surrounds me. My days are in his hands.

On the gray days, that’s all I need to know.

The Lord is my shepherd… Ps 23:1

(Jesus said) “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23

It’s pretty amazing. God comes to us, claims us as his children, says, “You are mine. I will help you. I am with you. Always.”

Scripture: Ps 119:25