Poor and Needy

"Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy." Psalm 86:1

Fifteen years ago, I decided I needed to more proactively memorize Scripture.  I am so glad I followed through on that because there's nothing like God's Word to comfort and encourage when you are facing hard times.  The first full chapter I memorized way back then was Psalm 86.  Every night, I say the psalm to myself as I'm falling asleep.  Sometimes I get through the whole psalm, but often I just make it to the first verse.  I do feel very poor and needy but thankfully, the psalm goes on to describe how it is that we can call on God in our neediness.  He hears our cry in the day of trouble (verse 6), there is no one like Him and no deeds compare with His (verse 8).  He is great and does marvelous deeds (verse 10).  His love is great toward me and he has delivered me from the depths of the grave (verse 13).  He is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness (verse 15).  And verse 17:  "Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O Lord have helped me and comforted me."

God has given me many signs of His goodness and he has helped and comforted me.  Let me give a couple specific examples.

A number of weeks ago, someone called me to tell me that God had awakened her in the middle of the night and impressed on her that she should give Andy and me a check for a very specific amount.  She said she was going to send the check to us and we were not to return it because God had told her to do this.  The check came a day or so later and I was shocked to see the amount for $740.00.  I wasn't sure what to do with it, but decided to just stick it in the bank in a designated category for our health expenses.  When later that month, I was figuring out our visa statement and adding up all the co-pays, doctor visits, prescriptions and expenses related to health, I was so amazed to discover that the total came to $743.00.  Wow!  Talk about God giving us a sign of His goodness!

We feel God gave us our home and property that we enjoy, but with Andy's illness and my preoccupation with taking care of him, we haven't had the time or energy to take care of upkeep and maintenance recently.  We have so many beautiful trees on the property but with that beauty comes a lot of leaves to rake up in the fall.  Again, someone felt God was leading them to help us out and offered to come with their family and rake up all our leaves.  They came yesterday with their 4 children and raked for 4 hours.  It was a beautiful day and they seemed to really be having a good time outside doing all that work.  What a relief to have that job taken care of.

I confess that in spite of these and many more signs that God is taking care of us, this morning I was struggling with feelings of worry and fretting.  What is our future financial situation going to be like?  How quickly will Andy's illness progress?  How will I ever take care of him?  But God's Word comforts and helps.  Here are the verses that spoke to me today:

Psalm 32:7:  "You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance."

Psalm 62:1-2:  "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken."

Yes, there is no doubt that I am poor and needy, but "God is my refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble."  (Psalm 46:1)  Fortunately, I don't need to depend on me but I trust in the One who knows the end from the beginning and gives careful attention to every detail.