30 Days with the Word – January 28
30 Days with THE WORD
January 28, 2021
John 1:1-2, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He (the Word) was in the beginning with God (NKJV).’
It is easy to feel you’ve been marked for target practice, isn’t it? I have the privilege of walking with some people, both women and men, who the Lord has laid on my heart, and who are each going through some stuff. We all have some stuff we are wading through, maybe even drowning in on some days, right? The prevalent thing I hear is, ‘I don’t think I can take any more, Michelle; I’m tapped out. If another thing comes my way, I’m going to lose my stuff.’ I imagine we all have been there a time or ten; in fact, some of us might be there right now, running from the firing squad with a bullseye marked on our back.
Did you know much of what you have been through, or are in the midst of, or fixin’ to face is a result of a choice you made? I wish in school we taught more about the repercussions of our decisions. I could have saved myself a lot of heartache and my children and others so much hurt if I had made better choices, been willing to be taught and led, put people above things, thought of others higher than I listened to my own desires, if…For instance, I have battled an eating disorder since I was fifteen, so for almost forty years I have wandered in this wilderness as a result of my unwillingness to see myself as God sees me and accept the purpose He has had for me all along. A choice I made has now affected my entire adult life and it has affected anyone around me as well. It is difficult to teach yourself to eat, no joke, and do so healthily, on the backside of life. I didn’t see that at fifteen when I wanted to have jurisdiction over the only thing I could control. So, we make beds we have to roll up and carry on our backs, hobo-style.
But it’s really cruddy when it’s done to us, when it’s beyond our control, when it’s out of our hands and someone else is at the helm. It’s a little different when we look in our own mirror and see ourselves staring back, but what of it, when someone else is looking back at you, and you’re crying ‘Mercy!’ God’s Word has encouragement for you. It says, in Isaiah 54:17, ‘”No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment, you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,” says the Lord (NKJV).’
What a powerful Word when you are looking down the barrel of a gun, the voice of your enemy ratcheting in your ear, the attempted assault on your armor deflected from your harm, the destruction destroyed before it even reached you because your God said, “You are Mine and your righteousness is from Me!” (And the Word Nerd in me wants to remind you, ‘shall’ signifies a promise, so this is not only God’s Word, but it is a Word given with a promise from Your Father.)
