The Lifter Of My Head

Many years ago my daughter gave me one of those little triangular flip calendars that each day has “a daily reflection” & a scripture passage to go with it.  I read it every morning before I begin my day & it seems that a certain theme tends to run through them each week.  The theme this week has been a lot of uplifting & encouraging words; and, I’m so thankful for that, because I’ve needed them as my week has gone on.  I’m going to share just a portion of each of the “reflections” for the day & the scripture passages.  (Maybe someone else needs these encouraging words too.)

Sunday – “Overflow my heart with Your love, peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, and mercy until my attitude is a blessing to all people at all times.”  Psalm 26:2 – “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart.”

Monday – “Pour out Your Spirit afresh in my life and wash away all negative attitudes and feelings.”  Psalm 51:10 – “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

Tuesday – “Lord, fill my mind with Your truth and keep me undeceived.  Help me to take charge of my thoughts and refuse any that are in opposition to Your ways.”  Jeremiah 17:10 – “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”

Wednesday – “I want to dwell in Your presence, where everything makes sense and all is truth and there is always hope.”  Psalm 15:1-2 “Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?  Who may dwell in Your holy hill?  He who walks uprightly and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart.”

Thursday – “I praise your name and glorify You as the lifter of my head when I am down.”  Psalm 100:1-2 “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!  Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing.”

Friday – “Purify my heart and help me to not fall into the trap of the enemy by clinging to any attitude that is ungodly or doesn’t glorify You…”  Psalm 101:2 “I will behave wisely in a perfect way.  Oh, when will You come to me?  I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.”

Saturday – “I pray that wisdom and understanding will be abundant in my life.”  Psalm 103:1 “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”

Each day during my prayer time, one of the things that I ask of the Lord is to help me take every thought captive – so that none of them will become words or actions that are sinful – that will grieve Him – or anyone else.  (That is based on this:  “…we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,”  2 Corinthians 10:5b NASB)

But, how easy it is for all those uplifting thoughts & scripture passages & prayers to fade when you’re faced with a “challenge”.  When you’re confronted with the idea that some of your actions and/or words were either done/said with a wrong attitude that affected someone else – or they were wrongly perceived to have been hurtful.  This happened to me a few days ago & has weighed me down with frustration & caused me to doubt my ability to even be a decent friend.  This kind of thing causes me to want to withdraw – I guess to nurse my wounds.    

I haven’t been able to let it go fully – obviously – since I felt the need to discuss it here.  You can apologize for the real (or perceived) wrongs (which I did) but it can still be hard to put it behind you when you sense that you hurt someone. 

So as I’ve pondered all the daily thoughts & scriptures & prayed about the situation, the one that seems to jump out to me is the one from Thursday.  The thought from that day is based on Psalm 3:3  “But You, Lord, are a shield around me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.”  NASB  So hopefully, as I do my very best to praise & glorify my Lord, He’ll lift my head and give me peace about this situation.

Another passage that comes to mind as well is:  “Blessed [gratefully praised and adored] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts and encourages us in every trouble so that we will be able to comfort and encourage those who are in any kind of trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”  (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 AMP) 

So I believe that when any of us are faced with challenges similar to this one – where we question our worth, get frustrated, upset or depressed – we need to let it go & not allow it to negatively impact us.  Easy to do?  Not necessarily.  But, we need to first offer our thanks & praise to God.  Then we need to ask Him to lift our head above the fray & so that it doesn’t cause us to doubt ourselves or others or Him.  Finally, determine that we’re going to seek His peace and move on.    

Lord, be the lifter of my head today.

Written by Karran Martin – August 17, 2024 

[All bold emphasis is mine]

The calendar I referenced & quoted from is:  Prayers for Emotional Wholeness by Stormie Omartian