Sunshine

Job 11: 16 – 17

For you would forget your trouble, as waters that have passed by, you would remember it. And your life would be brighter than noonday; darkness would be like the morning.

This is how I think it is best to conclude our thoughts and musings over Psalm 35. We have a vindicator. Better still, we have a father who loves us with an infinite love. In the end, we win. There may be sorrow today but the sun will arise in the morning. Then your grief, your woe will be as the waters of the river. Yesterday’s water is long gone and with it your remembrance of yesterday’s distress. The sun will shine on you again. So bright will your life be that even your darkness is as bright as the morning sun.

This is God, the Father’s will for you. He wants to be light in a dark place for you. He wants to rescue you from your deepest depression. He wants to give you wings to that you can change your plight to flight. He will give you wings of eagles with which you cease flapping and learn to soar.

For our part, we have to increase in trust and decrease in control. There is ultimate power in surrender but oh, what a strong person it takes to surrender their will to God. Ego is a sounding death knell and that bell tolls for us.

What does it take to actually install God on the throne of our lives? How do we surrender our will and our brilliance to the degree that there is room for Him to work in our lives? Our miracles are in our cessation of managing our lives. Once we finally learn how to let go and allow Yahweh to actually function as the God of our lives, then we will live in peace, power and harmony. This is my prayer for you today.

Waiting to Fly

Isaiah 40: 31

Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

I have been learning a lot about this verse recently and I discovered that I had no idea as to its real meaning. We all want the result that this verse promises. Some people think this is just poetic language with no real meaning. Well, they would be wrong. This is an actual promise from God that you can begin living today.

It took a bible teacher to unveil what this verse really stands for. Dr. James B. Richards of Impact Ministries reveals that the word that we translate into the English word “wait” has a much richer meaning in Hebrew. The Hebrew word used in this verse is qavah. It does not mean to sit around on your hands waiting for God to do something; far from it. In fact, the NIV Bible translates this word as hope. Both of them are right but each is only a nuance of the fullness of the Hebrew meaning. Dr. Richards explains that the most illustrative rendering of this word would be to intertwine. And now following his cue and doing my own brief study on the word I can concur. One of my sources says “to bind together by twisting.” Doesn’t that sound like intertwining? The word also expresses expectancy and looking patiently. We wait not because we are waiting on God or that He is tardy but rather that we are expecting something to happen. We have a hope, a joyful expectation that God is on the scene and about to show Himself.

There is also, within this word, a sense of unity; getting together, binding together. Think of it as harmonizing. It is getting together in one accord. We are one, we harmonize. We are of one mind, one voice. It is to bring into unity, oneness.

I would also interject into this verse and this word the sense of stillness from Psalm 46: 10 where God tells us to “Be still and know that I am God.” The New American Standard Bible reads, “Cease striving and know that I am God.” In other words, when we cease striving in our own strength, when we still our hearts and minds for a moment, then we can experience God and His strength. Then we can be united with Him, intertwined around Him. When our lives become intertwined with God, when we stop running off half-cocked, then we can actually experience what is promised in today’s verse. We will, “gain new strength; … mount up with wings like eagles … run and not get tired … walk and not become weary.” This isn’t a metaphor. This is God. When we bind ourselves together with God, entwine ourselves with Him, wait in expectation of the good that He is, when we bind ourselves with Him in harmonious unity of heart and mind, then we will have a real experience of His strength. 

We can run around in our own strength going places God isn’t even leading us and completely wear ourselves out. It is so like listening to an orchestra where one person is out of tune. Your whole day is loud with the cacophony of discord. Instead, we can start each day listening for the sweet sound of His voice singing in our hearts and join our voices to His. We allow Him to sing the lead and we set ourselves in harmony with Him. When we do this we really do enjoy the power of His might. We get more done, with less time and effort. He has ways that we may not yet understand but this I know, His answers and His blessings flow to us when we are intertwined around and with Him. We enjoy life. We breathe more easily. Everything is better. 

Dad is waiting for you to come connect with Him this day. He has been waiting on us for years. Before you run out of the house, wait a moment. Take a deep breath and join yourself with the Father. Get in harmony. I think you will find your days much more melodious and smooth.