I woke up with fear on my chest and sorrow in my heart and to His voice... His voice .. His beautiful.. magnificent voice... "The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty." (AMP) Psalm 29:4 The last verse of that same psalm speaks forth this... "The Lord will give unyielding and impenetrable strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace."
I don't know about you but I need... absolutely .. 100% need the Lord's gift of unyielding and impenetrable strength... and I need to be His and I need His peace....
I woke up this morning with heart sickness and lacking air at the remembrances of places I have traveled and things I have touched..... Not the things you would suppose .. not the abuse... not the horror... but the being left alone... being so left alone in such dark places that my heart would faint over and over and over again... the things in life that declare to a child safety and belonging lacking .. oh so very much lacking...
His voice came rushing to speak towards the fear that was present... the fear that stole my breath away was full of the lies of not belonging.... being able to identify them as lies was powerful for me .. as they tried to lay a hold of my heart and press in their message I was able to push back...
1 Peter 2:10 .."For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
I know what not being a "people" per se can do to one's life... no safety, no security, no sense of well being, no sense of belonging... this morning I thought of what my friend teaches about the heart of an orphan... No place to call their own, no family name to bare....
I have had this picture of an orphan in my head for days since I heard him speak on it... I have pictured a child walking the streets... looking up at faces .. faces all around... I have seen a picture of this child watching other families .. other children holding onto the hands of parents... being held in the arms of parents... being nurtured and cared for and loved and protected from the elements as when rain would begin to fall...
I have pictured this child watching others eating and feeling their own hunger .... I have pictured this child in the hands of strangers who for a period of time might take them in... but that child never fully belongs... never fully as the rights of a son or a daughter in that place.... knowing in their heart that if they disappeared no one would notice... their absence not felt by anyone.. the seemingly insignificant placement of an orphan... facing the world alone
And I hear Christ's words .. when I was in prison, when I was hungry, when I was naked, when I was sick.... My heart knows what that need is... the heaviness of heart when naked and sick and hungry and locked in a cell no one comes....
Fear would have told me today that all will be taken away... that that place once touched is not truly far removed... I have seen relationships falter... I have seen communities torn apart... and this morning the lies that awoke me to the dawn were screaming their assault.... and while upon my soul they could affect my emotions... the strength of the Lord roared in stronger...impenetrable... unyielding... magnificent.. and along with His peace He spoke to me head over to the computer to place fingers on a keyboard and meet Him there...
And His comfort rolled in with the dawn and He, He who stands firm, immovable, impenetrable... He who stands strong ... wrapped His arm around and spoke, "For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God." I am His daughter and nothing ... nothing can separate me from that placement....
I have learned that though my mother and father forsake me (place in that blank mother and father whatever you would.. church, friends, family... etc) The Lord will receive me, the Lord will hold me close, the Lord will take me in, the Lord will take me up, the Lord will take care of me........
So I pray for you my friends today that in places of your heart where an orphan type tendency would exist you would feel the comfort of Father .. where fear would rage in and declare that you are no one's.. belonging no where.. that the truth of you now being a people.. and now having received mercy will strengthen you from on high... and His peace will flow unto you and invade every portion of your being...
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