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An enjoyable afternoon was had by all as an anointed Shona Glennie led the women in a psalm filled session of praise and worship and then moved into her talk focussing on the power of praying the psalms.
We learnt that ‘praise songs’ is the Hebrew meaning of psalms and that with few exceptions each of the 150 chapters is separate and complete. Most of the psalms (73) were written by David.
Interlacing her talk with personal encounters and little stories – like the story of three women walking along a narrow brick wall (maybe one brick wide) they were called Fear, Feeling and Faith. Fear got up on the wall looking everywhere before she started wobbling and fell off. Feeling was not going to let this happen and so she got down on her hands and knees and she too fell off the narrow wall. Faith got up and focussed her eyes firmly on Jesus; she looked at what was ahead of her and forgot about the wall so she made it. Faith in God and God’s word was another focal point.
Reading from the Word for Today March 2006 (this is now abridged) she told the encouraging story of the palm tree – you can cut it down but you can’t kill it. It thrives under attack. Its nutrition comes from its heart. The palm tree bends but it won’t break – tropical storms can blow most trees away but not the palm tree it is resilient. It bends all the way to the ground yet when the storm is over it straightens up again.
We are meant to bend and not break. God promises to give us strength to endure the unendurable, and his willingness to promote us is in direct proportion to our ability to endure. The palm trees depth exceeds its height – and the roots stretch out in search of water and God’s plan for us is to go deep, to stay connected to him and never be uprooted, barren or blown away.
Shona encouraged the women to put their trust in God when going through a trial and not ask ‘why me’ but ask ‘what do you want me to learn here? We all grow stronger as we trust in God and go through.
The previous week before the meeting Shona was given Isaiah 54.2, and she believed God was telling the women present to: Enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch out the curtains of your dwelling. Spare not. Lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs.
The Hebrew’s were masters of using God’s word – and Shona encouraged us to read scripture, sing scripture and place scripture around our house and workplace. The psalms cover every situation we can think of – are we in a dry place, depressed, feeling hopeless, needing encouragement? Every emotion known to man is expressed in the psalms and Shona not only voiced many of the psalms but also handed out a page of quotes from the psalms to help the women as they then formed groups of three to pray specific psalms according to their own needs.
It was truly a blessed time.