I sat down to write this post and as I quieted my heart and mind because I have so much going on within me. I spoke simply, “Lord, help me to write.” Then I heard myself say to myself, “This is the place that I integrate.” ….. just …wow.

Integrate is to combine to become whole. Yesterday I heard myself say in the car, “I need to change some things.” Yes. I talk out loud in the car. I pray. I sing. I listen to myself. But here, I write and that has been a hit or miss on the blog this year. Ive written 7 posts outside of a Lent devo, compared to 57 outside of a Lent devo the year before. So Ive been in some kind of tucked away place.

I came upon a quote today on Facebook that I had posted from 2018. It’s a quote from a blog post about God being our help. How the people on two sides of the sea experienced Jesus and the miracles He performed but had totally different outcomes of the heart. Its a post about “how we respond to every circumstance in life” will reveal where our heart is. There is no help without a true understanding of where we are. God can not fix what you will not admit. Jesus knows that all things begin at the core. He always goes after the hearts of men because He is our real help and that starts at the root.

What was the quote?

 

Life is not about circumstances, it’s about heart stances.

Sunday2Monday.blog

Life circumstances haven’t been terrible. We’ve had no major struggles or troubles. We’ve walked through 2 major disasters, 2 hospital stays, 2020, joblessness, painful relational things, and transition in our lives. This year has been a cake walk compared to all that. And yet, I have found my heart struggling the most this year. Wrestling the normalness and the day to day. Wondering and being plagued by the what abouts and the I dont like its.

At the beginning of the year the Lord talked about teaching my hands to war. I haven’t felt like I’ve learned much of anything about being a warrior. This saying comes from Psalm 144.

Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
    who trains my hands for war,
    and my fingers for battle…

Psalm 144:1

The Lord my rock – trains my hands for war…

That word hands in Hebrew is Yads – Here’s a little excerpt:

It’s a little stick, a stylus, a pointer. Usually long and thin, often elegant and decorative, it’s enlivened by a tiny hand at the end with a slim index finger pointing forward, leading the way. It’s called a yad, the Hebrew word for hand, it’s used as a place-keeper and guide while reading the Word of God. This one (pictured below)was on display at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.

The yads are objects of ritual meant to protect the scroll from getting tattered or dirty from human touch. “As an object and a symbol,” Daniel Belasco, consulting curator for Pointing the Way, writes, “the yad insists that focusing on what is directly before us may lead to the divine.”

I had written in my journal – hands is the word Yad meaning created by words. What my words create in my life is the hand I use to war with. What am I creating? What my words are pointing out to me is the direction that is leading the way forward. ….. and thats concerning because I’ve been grumbling. ALOT!

Last night in our Bible Study – we talked about godliness. Here’s an excerpt:

Godliness is like a fragrance that comes out of a life that’s demonstrating the victory of Jesus over all the forces of evil. A godly person draws everything from God, refers everything to God and sees God in everything.

Jude 1: 14-16 “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge every one, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly acts they have done in their ungodly way, and of all the harsh ungodly words sinners have spoken against him. These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.”

You’ll notice there that at the very center of that description of human life and character and nature at the close of this age, the word ungodly occurs four times in the one verse. Ungodly men, ungodly acts, ungodly words and ungodly way of life. That’s one of the facts that we’re confronted with in contemporary society—ungodliness is rampant.

Do you see the one primary expression of these ungodly men Jude says, “these men are grumblers.” Grumbling is a sure mark of ungodliness just as persistent praise is an evidence of godliness.

Earlier this year, I had been focusing on not using my words in controlling ways or not being too critical and negative toward my family. But now as I’ve cut off the output I can see that these are symptoms of a root issue. Remember, Jesus always goes after the hearts of men because He is our help, and real help starts at the root. We tend to think that complaining and grumbling is a part of life. It’s just something we do when we do not like something. But by what the Lord is teaching me. It is a way of using words to war against your life, creating and focusing on what is directly before me, in a negative way. And it has led me to a pathway of death called ungodliness. I thank the Lord for revealing this root because It’s not the life circumstances that will dictate whether or not we will make it. It’s the heart stance that will dictate whether we will make it, based on if we keep our hearts turned toward Christ.

Look what Jesus did in Matthew 26:26-28 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” ²⁷ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, ²⁸ for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

The One who would die by a death on the cross did not complain that He had to die. Rather, he gave us a way to remember what He did and in it, He taught us two great principles. Bless and give thanks in all things. Bless and be thankful.

When we bless – we speak life over our lives and when we are thankful – we recognize the goodness of God in the middle of the mundane. Right smack in the center of the normal and the day to day where the enemy comes to hit us at our weakest point. Jesus makes a way of victory for us to become YADS – His hands that war with words of blessing and thanksgiving!

Psalm 18:33-35 He made my feet like the feet of a deer
    and set me secure on the heights.
³⁴ He trains my hands for war,
    so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
³⁵ You have given me the shield of your salvation,
    and your right hand supported me,
    and your gentleness made me great.

David is celebrating the Lord’s goodness to him during his wilderness experience. We too will walk through wilderness experiences and we will learn to bend the bow of bronze. What does that mean? Learning to bend the bow of bronze means to learn what God is teaching you, whatever that may be!

He is training his warriors to war.

What is God doing right in front of you?

It’s right there, if we are watching, that may lead to the divine!

God is at work….. can you see it?

Thanks for Listening,

Starla