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Have you ever had the run-away blues? The run-away blues are those days, those times in your life when you’d just love to run away. When the thought of going to the airport and catching the next flight out to anywhere else, rather than where you are, sounds like a really good idea. Run-away blues—who hasn’t had those days?
David expressed it so well in Psalm 55. He was in a bad place then; his enemies were threatening him, his mind was a jumbled mess, his heart was in anguish and he was frightened. Now mind you, that was the condition of King David, a man after God’s own heart, who was chosen by God to be the King of Israel. I mean, come on, David, why would you want to run-away? But listen to what he wrote:
I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm” (Psalm 55:6-8).
David was doing what he was supposed to do, as God’s-appointed king, and yet he longed to fly away and be at rest. Are you right now where David was then? Well, aren’t you glad he was inspired by God to put his feelings in writing and leave them for you today? It says that you aren’t condemned for feeling like you want to run away. Even kings have those times. But you have a God who cares and who can bring release and relief for you, right there where you are.
After expressing his run-away desires and fears to God, David then says:
As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice. . . Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken (Psalm 55:16-17, 22).
I just want to remind you of these words of hope, from a king who wanted to fly away from where God had planted him. Even in the midst of doing what God has called you to do, you can lose your bloom and the enemy can steal your joy. If that’s where you are, just call to God—cry out to him. Cast your cares on the Lord, and he will put a new bloom inside you, and your desert will become a garden where you’re blooming again, and the joy of the Lord will again be your strength.
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