Up Close And Personal

I was having another difficult day yesterday, with a long day and a late evening class and knowing that I had to get up early in the morning and start all over again, and I was talking to the Lord on my way home, needing a word of encouragement. He kept talking to me and saying everything that I wanted to hear, but for some reason I couldn’t believe that it was really Him talking to me. I kept saying, “Of course that’s what I want to hear, but is it really you saying it?” and “I trust you, but I don’t trust that I can really believe it’s you talking!” It was really ridiculous I know, but that’s the way I was feeling, and thank God for His faithfulness because when I got home and checked my emails, there were two encouraging words for me from unexpected places. I hadn’t even had the energy to read my emails, and I didn’t even want to write my blog post, but after I read the emails I got the strength to keep going.

One email was from a friend who was forwarding me an encouraging word she’d gotten that day from an online service that sends out those kinds of things daily. I’d forwarded the information to her a while back about how to get on that email list, and I receive the same encouraging word, but when I’d read it in the morning, even though it made me smile, I didn’t “get it” until my friend sent it to me. She pointed out a word that spoke clearly to her and a situation she’s dealing with, and that same word meant a great deal to me but in a very different way. That’s how the Holy Spirit works – we each may hear the same thing, but it means a world of difference to everyone who hears it, and it speaks worlds of difference to each one of us.

The second email was a Verse of the Day that I get through BibleGateway.com and this one is from the Voice translation. It was Isaiah 25:5, “Because You stand up for the poor and weak, You comfort and empower them in their distress, giving them safe harbor and cool shade when it’s hot; You shelter them from their oppressors’ blows as a strong wall holds back the driving rain.” I can’t even begin to tell you what reading that meant to me. All I can say is that it was exactly what I needed to hear.

Verses 6-9 continue, “The Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, is preparing a feast, a feast for everyone on this mystical mountain, with aged wine and good food, the finest wine and choicest meat. And God will swallow up the oppression that weighs us down. He will take away the heavy shroud that is draped over all people of the world. God will swallow up death forever. The Lord, the Eternal, will wipe away the tears from each and every face and deflect the scorn and shame His people endure from the whole world, for the Eternal determined that it should be so. And in that moment, at that glorious time, people will say, (People): ‘This is our God! We put our hope in Him. We knew that He would save us! This is our God, the Eternal for whom we waited. Let us rejoice and celebrate in His liberation.”

When I read those verses, there really is nothing that I have to say except thank you Lord. On my way home, as I spoke with Him, the cry of my heart was to ask why it was that I face situations that bring me feelings of scorn and shame from the actions and words of others. And it has always been like that – even before I was born again – there have always been people who have tried to bring me down, to crush my spirit, to oppress the love that I have inside of me, to oppress my own self, who I am and my beliefs. This has always happened, and the cry of my heart to Him was, “Why?” And His answer came back that I have always been His, and because of that, even when I didn’t know it myself, other people knew it, because spirits recognize each other. The difference is that now that I am born again, I have His strength to call on, I have His word to build me up, I have His faithfulness to lead me through and out.

“This is our God! We put our hope in Him. We knew that He would save us! This is our God, the Eternal for whom we waited. Let us rejoice and celebrate in His liberation.” It is powerful to say those words thinking of all of the people that we are saying those words with, because there is always a group of people who truly follow the ways of the Lord. But it is also powerful to think of those verses very personally, “This is my God! I put my hope in Him. I knew that He would save me! This is my God, the Eternal for whom I waited. Let me rejoice and celebrate in His liberation.” He is the God of all, but He is also our own personal Savior, our own best friend, “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1) We can know Him as Lord of all, and we can also know Him as our Lord, we can know that He hears our prayers, and that He is there for each and every one of us, up close and personal, which means that there is nothing that we can’t bring to Him and nothing that He will ignore that concerns us. He is our God – all of ours – and also mine and also yours. He is all things to all people, and He is exactly what we individually need when we individually need it.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan