The Orbit

The path taken by one object as it circles around another object is called an orbit. I have orbited around many things. Sometimes I have been held in the orbit of guilt as my mind has rehearsed again and again my faults and failures. Other times I have been held in the orbit of anger and resentment as the faults and failures of others held me in it's gravitational pull. Being trapped in the orbit of either guilt or anger is a miserable place but I have a secret weapon.

When I wake in the night orbiting around and around faults and failures there is only one thing that break the gravitational pull. "At midnight I rise to praise you"(Psalm 119:62) When I turn my heart and mind towards God I am drawn into His light and love. Praising God and focusing who He is sets me free.

"About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bonds were unfastened." (Acts 16:25,26) Praise and thanksgiving is so powerful that not only does it set me free from the negative orbit but it can have an effect on all those around me as well. 

Orbiting around faults and failures either mine or others always produces sorrow.  I am so grateful that I have been set free, ransomed, from the negative gravitational pull of this orbit. Orbiting around the Jesus Christ with songs of praise and thanksgiving I have obtained joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing have fled away.