January 9, 2022
It’s 2:51 am. Been awake for the past hour. So I got up. Thank you for a new day. The song just popped into my head “New every morning is thy love” and I want to thank you for your love anew every morning. And I recognise that it’s not “new” in the sense that you’re now loving us differently, but I just woke up. I was dead (in sleep) and the way you show your love to me is going to be new to me today. Our daily bread. Something I’ve always heard and believed. But I never fully understood until this journey. You are indeed Jireh. You are (more) than enough. And I trust you, just for today, because I can’t see past today. Shucks I can’t see past this morning probably. So I will trust you, for today. And tomorrow? I hope to choose to trust you tomorrow too, but it’s not promised to me. Huh. Though based on your personal promises to me, I guess it is. But I am choosing not to take these moments for granted that you have promised. This time is yours Yahweh. To do your will in my life. Thank you for who you are.
Exodus 20:23,24 – Never make any gods of silver or gold, for yourselves. Never worship them. You must build an altar for me out of dirt. Sacrifice your burnt offerings and your fellowship offerings, your sheep, goats and cattle on it. Whenever I choose to have my name remembered, I will come to you and bless you.
Never make gods out of silver and gold, instead make me an altar out of dirt. No matter where you go, there is dirt. It could be clayey, sandy, loamy, but there is dirt. But what struck me, he wanted the most basic material for his altar. It’s what we walk on here on earth. That’s what he wants his altar to be made up of. Yahweh, you made us out of dirt. The most basic material. We are your altar. And no matter where we are, we can make an altar to you, both physically and spiritually.
Job 23:10 – But he knows the way I take; when he has tested me I will come forth as gold.
1 Peter 1:7 – Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps it all up, it’s your faith, not your gold that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
When we go through our tests and trials, we come out as refined/purified gold. Which is also everywhere on the ground in heaven. What are you trying to tell me, Yahweh?
Altar: from latin “altus”, meaning high or elevated.
Exodus 20:25, 26 – If you build an altar out of stones, never make it out of cut stones. If you use a chisel you make it unacceptable to me. Never use stairs to go up to my altar. Otherwise people will see under your clothes.
It’s not our efforts by ourselves that should be offered to God. We need to offer ourselves to him, He will mould us. Yahweh takes the most basic of materials and elevates it to himself. He made us in his image out of dirt. But it is he who elevates us (not we ourselves). It is his breath that brought us to life. The use of stairs to the altar would mean that we are elevating ourselves. But that’s not our job. We are to remain humble. When we are refined we are still the most basic material in heaven.
PRIDE: Satan is the father of pride. It was why he no longer had the continual access he had to heaven before.
When we elevate ourselves higher than Yahweh, when we forget who made us and where we come from, we are taking Yahweh out of the situation. We are trying to make ourselves more than we are. But even in heaven, after going through the fire on earth, we are still the most basic material without Yahweh in the mix. Without you there to elevate us. Without your breath sustaining. Without your mercy keeping us.
Yahweh, thank you for choosing us. For making us in your image. For elevating us. For imparting your breath into us. Without you, we would be trampled underfoot. Without you we can’t do anything. Even in heaven, we are inert without you! That’s what you’re trying to tell me!! We are…I am nothing without THE I am. We cannot do anything of our own. Dirt cannot even move without something or someone moving it. Neither can gold. We need to recognize your sovereignty in our lives. Even though you have given us free will, when we choose to now allow you to mould us, we are allowing Satan to do it. Something/someone has to move and shape us.
Yahweh, I choose you. To mould me. To bring me to life. You made the dirt and I will not choose to hand over dominion to someone that did not even make the base material. Even that he has to steal from you because he can’t make it. So Yahweh, I choose you (and I sound like Ash from Pokemon), but I really do choose you. You know me. You know what I am made of and what I can be made into. You didn’t steal me and even when Satan did, you bought me back. You didn’t steal or lie to get me back. You chose to maintain your own integrity. Thank you for teaching me and testing me, because at the end of the day, I will want to be YOUR base material, whether it’s dirt or gold. Thank you for speaking with me, for being a friend.
[I’m hungry. Last time I ate yesterday was about 5pm. A piece of black cake]
