Puzzling Pieces

Our family will occasionally work on a puzzle together that takes a week or so to finish it. Recently, we began working on a thousand piece puzzle of an old-fashioned carnival. After spending an hour on the border, I was stuck. I decided to walk around to the other side of the dining room table to get a different view of the work in progress. Instantly, I was able to see things with a whole new perspective, and I was able to start filling in the missing pieces.

I was reminded of Asaph’s psalm of despair. He was discouraged that wicked, evil people prospered. He said in Psalm 73:4, “They have no struggles.” In verse twelve, Asaph laments that the wicked are free of troubles and accumulate wealth. Then, we get to verse seventeen, and everything changes. Asaph comes into the presence of the Lord, and he receives a new perspective. He sees clearly the end of the wicked. Beautifully he says in verse twenty-six, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

So many times I despair about problems. I choose to either stay in my hopeless state or gain a new perspective by opening God’s Word. I never regret choosing the latter. Oh the joy of God personally speaking to my weary soul in a specific passage of Scripture! Sometimes, when God shows me a special verse, I will write out the passage, date it, and post it in my home as a reminder of God speaking to me during a difficult time. 

Trials will come. We will have good days and bad days. There will always be people that upset and disappoint us. God has graciously given the tools we need to put our puzzle pieces together. May we choose to run to His Word to gain a new perspective and be encouraged in the midst of pain and disappointment.