"Reaching Up" -2

"Arise for our help, and redeem us for Thy mercies' sake." (Psalms 44:26) I thought I would be starting 45 today, but I need to say one more thing that God has put upon my heart regarding our reaching up to Him for protection. In this world (the world being the place in which we live), there are so many things that tend to bring us down (down meaning that we loose sight of the joy in which we should be living), that it is always good to have somewhere else that we can reach to other than this place. I would have no joy whatsoever in my life if not for the fact that heaven is waiting for me, and I for heaven; besides the fact that my wife is in the condition that she is in, I have many more issues that tend to press against me; like owing taxes, trying to keep up with work, and just getting out of bed some mornings; if it wasn't for this blog, I might try to sleep in most mornings. But besides anything that this world might put me through, my biggest and most important issue to focus upon, each and every day, is my relationship with the God that loves me more than I love myself. I can honestly say, I know God loves me more than I love myself; and because I know that, there is nowhere else that I can reach to for protection; not within myself, not to anyone else, and surely not to anything that is of this earth. As with most of the Psalms, the final verse usually summarizes or amplifies the meaning of the entire Psalm, which is true in this case also. "A Prayer for Protection" could be summarized by this one verse, "Arise for our help, and redeem us for Thy mercies' sake". God's mercy is never out of reach, because He truly does love us, and He is more than willing to redeem us; but it requires that we reach up to Him, unlike some may teach, where you can make God to be anything that you need or want Him to be; God is not here, He is there, and He is bigger than you could ever imagine... "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many rebound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet our inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Corinthians 4:8-5:1)