Psalm 119:148 Still Calling

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night,
that I may meditate on your promises.

Psalm 119:148

My son moved away from his home town over a year ago. He was drawn to the big city by a job (from which he's since moved on through two additional new jobs), and a girl (with whom he's since bought a house and created a home).

He still calls me or, more often, texts me.

When he's feeling under the weather, he Googles his symptoms and then calls me. He trusts I'll have some sort of insight into the meaning of his symptoms and the complexities of the Google results. Cancer is always listed as one of the possible causes of every symptom.

When he has questions about money or about the tantalizing possibilities of yet another new job, he calls me, putting his faith in my years of experience. Sometimes he follows my advice.

By the act of calling me, he not only reconnects with me but lets me know he still relies on me, even though the actual need for my guidance is dwindling rapidly.

Our conversations usually begin with a question not unlike numerous questions he's asked before. I ask him some questions in response, helping him think it through and come up with his own answers. I seldom offer any advice that he hasn't heard before from me before.

In the year since he moved away, the frequency of the calls and texts has dropped considerably. It's not that he's forgotten me, but he's developed more confidence in his ability to solve his own problems and answer his own questions. He has more faith in the principles he's learned to base his life upon.


We're told in the Word that we need to call on the Lord. Why?

It's not as though we have to check in with God every time we face a choice, asking his advice and waiting for his answer. There are only a few limited categories of choices, a short list of universal sins and elemental biblical principles to apply to those situations.

As we mature in our faith, those statutes will pop into our minds automatically, without the need to actually open the pages of the bible or bend the knees in prayer.

And yet we still need to call on the Lord.

Calling on the Lord begins in the worst of times.

I called on your name, Lord, from the depths of the pit.

Lamentations 3:55

But to really build a confident faith requires discipline. It requires carrying on a conversation with the Lord according to a regular schedule and practice.

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.

Psalm 55:16-17

Casting aside the foolishness of an immature faith doesn't come automatically with age. I know plenty of older men who are still chasing after the evil desires of youth. Sometimes I'm guilty of that myself.

A lifetime of habitually calling on the Lord helps to purifies the focus of the heart and ingrains habits of righteousness.

Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

II Timothy 2:22

In the act of calling, faith finds its voice. In the act of obedience, faith finds its confidence.