July 31 | Psalm 4:1-8

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DAILY READING

Psalm 4:1-8

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REFLECTION

Knots

by Kim Starr

Have you ever been in knots about something? Maybe it is your child, who you raised in the church, but who wants nothing to do with going to church or having their own children baptized. Maybe it is waiting for test results to determine if you have a disease. Maybe your knots are whether you should move to another city, look for a different job, find a new home, or break up with your boyfriend/girlfriend. You get the idea, and I am sure something immediately came to mind.

Do you pray about your knots? Some people don't pray about their knots at all because they believe they can solve their knots on their own. Some of us pray about them for decades, while others pray for only a short while. If we do pray, we often ask God to give us a remedy for our knots, have compassion on us, and let us know he hears our prayers.

Often the longer we pray for relief from our knots, the more we wonder if God heard us. We don’t see anything changing. We don’t feel God standing right by us and seeing us. We still have our knots and, no matter what we try, they do not go away. We want an answer!

What do we do then? Sometimes we continue to fret about the knots. Sometimes we try to resolve the knots ourselves. Sometimes we enlist others to help us figure out how to make the knots go away. Sometimes we realize the best way to handle the knots is to turn them over to God: wholly, completely, and unequivocally. And then we need to let the knots go.

It is really hard to not think about the knots anymore and to have faith that God is handling them. But that is what we should do. Releasing those knots to God gives us peace. It allows us to lie down and sleep. It allows us to live protected and secure. We know that God has the knots under control and, in his perfect timing, the knots will be resolved.

PRAYER

God, please take my knots – each and every one – and help me so that I don’t think about them anymore. Instead, give me faith to remember that you have all the knots and you are dealing with them. Give me peace, sleep, and safety and help me be content that the knots are securely in your care. Amen.