Stay thirsty for God's living water

Daily we hear the sound of aircraft from Cannon Air Force Base circling above our home in Portales.

Our grandson shouts with glee as we run out the door to see them.

After living in Roosevelt County for 42 years, I feel proud to have the base as neighbors. And yet, every time I see the airmen or their wives and children, my heart clinches within me. The sacrifices these young families are enduring are a horror beyond imaging to most of us.

link Pat Cantwell

The answers are in Psalm 91.

That is why I was so excited to find a book, “Psalm 91, Military Edition,” by Peggy Joyce.

Thirty-two years ago, when my son developed a seizure disorder, I was told by a Cannon pilot’s wife to pray Psalm 91 over him. This wife explained to me that she had been living in total panic every time her husband flew until she began to pray Psalm 91 for both of them.

At that time, my son was 3 and had been diagnosed with a seizure disorder of unknown origin, with no specific medications to treat it, and no research being done in that disease area.

So when the pilot’s wife told me about Psalm 91, I felt like I had been dying of thirst and she had given me cool water to drink.

I memorized the Psalm and spoke it over and over my son. A month after we returned from the hospital in Houston, our son was seizure free.

Let’s look at Psalm 91. It can be divided into three parts.

Verses 1-2 describe what you do. You decide where you live. You either live in the shelter of the most high God and abide in the shadow of the Almighty or you don’t. Then you say to the Lord, “You are my refuge and my fortress.”

“I trust you God.” “I love you.”

That is all you do. Do it with all of your heart.

In the second part, verses 3-13, God tells you what he will do for you, forever.

Let me list a few of the blessings:

• God will deliver you from the deadly pestilence, from the snare of the trap, from arrows that fly by day, from the fear of the terror of night.

• God will cause you not to be afraid of pestilence that stalks in darkness, of the destruction that lays waste at noon, of a plague coming near your tent.

• God tells you 10,000 may fall at your right hand, but it shall not come near to you.

• God will give his angels charge to guard you in all your ways. You will tread on the lion, serpent.

Finally, in verses 14-16, God speaks directly to you, saying:

• “I will deliver you; I will answer your call; I will be with you in trouble; I will rescue you and honor you.”

• Then the greatest words of all: God says to you, “with a long life I will satisfy you and show you my salvation.”

May you also drink this Living Water.

Pat Cantwell writes about faith for the Portales News-Tribune. Contact her at:

[email protected]