July 13, 2022
Good Morning Yahweh. It’s late or rather I’m late. Woke up at 12am and put on a sermon that apparently was so soothing that I fell asleep and did not want to wake up. But I am up. I apologise for my tardiness. It’s a new day. Thank you for life. Thank you for your grace and your love. Yahweh, I ask for a spirit of humility. Not to see myself as less than, but to always see you as more than.
You are more than able to do all that you need to do – without me. You don’t need me in order to share your word – but you want me. And that is a heady thing that can make me feel I’m more “important” than I really am. And I don’t mean to sound pessimistic about who you desire me to be, because I am not. I guess the right work is balance. Help me Yahweh to find the right balance between humility and – sigh, still not finding the right word. But will say this much (I think this is it), help me to be confident in you. To be confident. In who you desire me to be. To be confident in what you have asked me to do. Not over-confident: but confident in you. Trusting you for everything.
Forgive me Yahweh, for every word that is not of you. For my frustration with things that happen or rather my reactions to the frustrations of this world. Thank you for your grace and for offering it freely to me. It definitely wasn’t free. But it was free to me and I am thankful for that.
Confidence: an assurance or firm belief in the integrity, stability or veracity of another. Trust/reliance in one’s own abilities or fortune. Safety or assurance of safety. Boldness/courage.
Job 11:18 – You will feel confident because there’s hope, and you will look around and rest in safety.
We can trust Yahweh because of the hope we find in him. Some words make me smile. But this scripture is essentially repeating the same concept.
Batach: to trust, have confidence.
Betach: security, confidence, safety, without a care.
I really like the last one, “without a care.” Don’t worry or stress: you can rest in me. There is nothing to be afraid of. And funnily enough, “without a care,” has a different connotation to “don’t care.” For me anyhow. Don’t care gives a whatever attitude: it doesn’t matter to me. Whereas, without a care gives an idea that whatever comes, I won’t worry about it. It does matter, but not gonna stress it.
But the word(s) that made me smile was the one translated to “look around.”
Chaphar: to dig, search for.
And it honestly brought a visual of digging, searching for treasure – a place of safety and then lying down in the space that was dug out, all cosy. The way animals do in their burrows. And in a sense we do have to “find” safety by seeking Yahweh. We just don’t have to search far because you are near.
Psalm 57:6-7 – My enemies spread out a net to catch me. (My soul is bowed down.) They dug a pit to trap me, but then they fell into it. Selah My heart is confident, O God. My heart is confident. I want to sing and make music.
This is such a contrast. The difference between digging for yourself to find safety and digging to trap someone.
Karah: to dig.
They are both digging: one in search of, one to harm. They both end up in the space that was dug. But one is safe because of what they were digging for: searching for Yahweh. The other fell in and hurt themself. You don’t have to dig far to find safety in Yahweh, but you do have to dig far to harm someone and in return, harm yourself.
In the end the one who searched/dug for Yahweh is confident in him. They are safe and they can sing.
Isaiah 12:2 – Look! God is my Savior. I am confident and unafraid, because the Lord is my strength and my song. He is my Savior.”
Noticing a trend here: confidence in Yahweh created an abundance of joy, of singing. I think it makes it hard to be silent.
Romans 5:3-5 – But that’s not all. We also brag when we are suffering. We know that suffering creates endurance, endurance creates character, and character creates confidence. We’re not ashamed to have this confidence, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Brag: usually not a word viewed favourably. But the Greek word used is:
Kauchaomai: to boast, to glory (I boast, I glory).
I can be proud that what I am going through will produce something good in me. I saw the boast or brag where you go about shouting from the rooftops, ” Oh!! I’m suffering for God! See? Look at me?!! I’m suffering for God!” It’s a heart acknowledgment that, “Yes, I’m suffering because Yahweh knows what he hopes to produce in me.” Yahweh is confident that it will produce something good.
Romans 12:12 – Be happy in your confidence, be patient in trouble, and pray continually.
Or as the English Standard Version puts it:
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
This is my prayer, to be constant in prayer. To always seek your face. To rest in you, where there is safety.
This song is in my thoughts now:
“I’ve got confidence. God is gonna see me through. No matter what the case may be. I know he’s going to fix it for me!” (Andrae Crouch)
Thank you for the confidence that I have in you.
Ask for What is Needed
I am noticing a disturbing trend. I was at a prayer session this morning and they kept insisting that because Yahweh knows what we need, we don’t need to ask him for anything: we should only praise Him and He will provide. And I absolutely believe that he will provide, but I also believe that he does want us to also ask! If that wasn’t the case, then 50% of the Bible must be a lie because they are numerous instances of people asking Yahweh and getting a response AND also Yahweh telling people to ask of him.
Case in point: the only way to get wisdom is to ask for it. We can praise Yahweh all we want (and we should), but unless we ask him for wisdom, we won’t receive it (James 1:5). There are many things Yahweh provides without us asking, but there are others that we need to also ask.
Connectivity
I have no internet at work. It’s kind of strange when we think about it, how much we have come to rely on that connectivity. I had to pull up some maps: shucks no internet. Then I forgot and wanted to research something: no internet. What’s actually worse though is that our phones are connected to a network that is internet based. So guess what? No phones either. Fun times.
