Recuperation

Recuperation

Psalm 40:1-3
1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.

Pain, injury, stress, and circumstances can and do make healthy living a challenge. 2020 was a year full of all of these for me. I have been struggling with all of these.

But what I want to share about the next few days is about our “Road to Recovery”. From the first three verses of Psalm 40. Over the next three days, we are going to look at a process of recovery. Many times as Christians we want God to move instantly on our behalf, and while we initiate the process we very rarely complete the recovery. What is difficult is that not all recovery follows the same process, but there are times that recovery can vary.

But sometimes, we wallow in our pain and fail to try to recuperate at all.
The first part of Psalm 40 speaks of how God hears our cry and he lifts us out of the pits and places us on a new path. God places our feet on solid ground and we can be assured that He is present to keep us steadily on the path.

I want to draw your attention to the fact that when our psalmist mentions the pit in the first part of verse 2 and how God lifted him, the phrases reference danger. He was in danger and God lifted him up. But God wasn't done by just lifting him up; God set his feet on solid ground. Some translations read on the solid rock. He sets our feet on the solid rock and then as we start to walk he sustains us. One scholar even suggested this steadied me as I walked along could be interpreted and now I walk without fear.

God’s Word is truly rich in meaning.

Most of the time I have found myself in a pit...well, I confess... I wander. I have wandered more often than I'd like to admit. I have wandered and fallen into a pit. God is the one who lifted me out and reestablished my path. How many times have I wandered and fallen into a pit? I can't even count, but my point is that God doesn’t keep count – he just continues to help me.

Thank goodness that our Heavenly Father is so merciful and forgiving. So whether we wander into a pit by mistake, or we are pushed into a pit through circumstances beyond our control.

He lifts me up and sets me on solid ground and I recuperate. When we fall into the pit of illness, we often need to take time to recuperate. Many times we don’t. When we fall into the pit of grief, many of us don’t want to take the time to recuperate. We need to take the time to recuperate and to push ourselves without recuperating, we risk falling back into a deeper pit.

There are times in our lives when a hit has been laid on us and we didn’t see it coming. In those moments our heavenly Father hears our cry and he embraces us.

Triple D: What does recuperation look like to you? Take a moment and think about what it should mean and what would you need to do to make that happen.