Tight Places

restnova.com

This morning I had to perform a three-point-turn in front of a group of builders. They were digging up the road ahead of me.

Oh the embarrassment.

I’ve been driving for over 25 years now, and it’s a manouvre I know perfectly well how to perform…Except when I have an audience.

The road was exceedingly narrow. There were parked cars all around. Oh the pressure! Come on Ange. You can do this. Just keep calm and carry on.

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  quotesgram.com

The builders, seemed to enjoy the opportunity to help a damsel in distress, and soon got involved, beckoning me backwards, gesticulating wildly.

I’m happy to report that I made it, unscathed! But I must admit, it was quite a relief to pull away and get out of that tight spot!

I’ve just been reading Psalm 118, and I came across the following verses:

From my distress I called upon the Lord. The Lord answered me and set me in a large place.

Psalm 118:5

My bible notes showed me that the word ‘distress’ here, literally means ‘tight place’.

The Psalmist is proclaiming that in his distress; his predicament; his tight spot, he called upon the Lord, and the Lord provided an enlargement, a rescue plan, a way of escape, a broad place -God sets us free!

telegraph.com

Maybe you’ve lost a job or have financial pressures. Maybe you’ve got a job, but you’re up to your eyeballs in stress. Perhaps you’re battling with ill health. Perhaps, like me, you’ve got a house full of teenagers…Wow – can that feel overwhelming at times?! Or a house full of little ones, and you’re exhausted with sleepless nights. Perhaps you’re going through a difficulty in your marriage.

Life is full of pressure, that’s for sure.

I just want to encourage you today – if you’re in a tight spot, if you’re feeling like the pressures of life have got you hemmed in, then call upon the Lord! He is our strong deliverer! He may not remove the situation entirely, but He is the God who is able to ‘relieve us in our distress,’ (Psalm 4:1). He is the God who takes our burdens upon His own shoulders, saying: ‘Cast your cares on Me, for I care for you!” (1 Peter 5:7)

I pray that if you are in a tight spot today, that you will know God as your deliverer. I pray that as you wait on Him, He will renew your strength, and you will experience Him lifting you up, on wings as eagles, into a broader place, where you will find the space to breath again!