Gum
Psalm 40.2-3 (Passion Translation)
“He stooped down to lift me out of danger from the desolate pit I was in, out of the muddy mess I had fallen into. Now he’s lifted me up into a firm, secure place and steadied me while I walk along his ascending path. A new song for a new day rises up in me every time I think about how he breaks through for me!”
For the last 20 years, I’ve always carried round some ‘EXTRA’ with me. Wrigley’s Extra – a pack of blue gum. It’s always in my pocket, close at hand. Why? Because it’s refreshing, it’s cleansing, and you never know when you might need it!
Psalm 40 is well known for its illustration of how amazing God is when he saves (rescues) us. God lifts us out of a muddy pit and sets our feet on firm foundations. But what has struck me as I’ve been reading this psalm again, is how God then does something EXTRA, something ‘over and above’, something he didn’t need to do.
He puts a new song into your life.
Grab a hold today of this truth about God. He wants to give you EXTRA today. He wants to pour out a grace-gift into your heart. It’s like the overflowing abundance of God illustrated at the water into wine at the wedding in Cana. It’s the extravagant Christmas present when you only expected an average one!
He rescues you AND he gives you a grace-gift. He gives you something EXTRA!
What is the grace-gift God is giving you today? Ask him, ‘Lord what are you pouring out into me today?’. It may be amazing peace that you didn’t realise you really needed. It may be the gift of his joy that you find hard to naturally live in. It may be a person, someone you have booked in to meet with later today.
Look out for the EXTRA of God for you today. Act towards others with the mindset of God’s abundant, generous nature. The EXTRA with you.
Prayer — Lord, thank you that you don’t just rescue me, but that you give me EXTRA – a new song, a song of your love for me, that is a resource for the day ahead. Remind me throughout today of your generous, abundant nature and help me to reflect that to others.