"And Largely Living"

"LORD, by Thy favour Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled." (Psalms 30:7) Does God shine upon you? That might seem a little strange to start off with a question like that, but it makes a perfect way to start a conversation; better yet, how about asking, Do you know when God shines upon you? I guess that depends upon what shine means, right? Well, it is much like the instance when Jesus was transfigured, then Moses and Elisha appeared with Him, and God spoke, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him". (Matthew 17:1-5) Only, what I am talking about is a little less Holy; but the general point is that God makes you aware that He is blessing your life, and so much so, that others can see His blessings being poured out upon you also. On certain occasions, and in a certain way, our attitude of knowing that God is smiling down upon us is based in the way that we are thankful towards Him in our hearts; it's much the same as you would place your confidence in the sun's ability to warm your face, because you see the sun is shining; if you have ever experienced that for yourself, or can picture what I am talking about. Now, regarding God hiding His face; I can think of more than one occasion in my own life, when I actually was hoping that God was hiding His face; more like, hiding His eyes from what I was doing! But in all seriousness, what David is speaking of, is when that shinning sensation you get from God shinning down upon your life seems to be gone, much like when a cloud passes between you and the sun; you don't even need to be looking at the sun, yet you can still tell when it happens. After which David uses a word call "troubled", as in, "and I was troubled". I want to take this opportunity to go back to something I said the other day about, What is your night? Because there are two very different reactions that we can have to the night appearing upon our lives: we can retreat into our little cave, like a child hiding under the blankets, or, we can know that it is time to get things done! This word "troubled" that David is using here takes on both of those reactions, but puts the greater effort into making hast, as in trying to get to the bottom of what is wrong with this picture... "Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." (James 1:16-18)