Rebuild me Lord

My devotional this morning was one of my favorite chapters in Isaiah! Listen to the Lord's heart here...

"For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my promise of peace shall not be removed. O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in metal, and lay your foundations with saphires. I will make your pinnacles of jasper and your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones! In righteousness you will be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you! This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord..." Isaiah 54:10-17

We have all been through tramatic events or storms in our lives, but here the Lord says that when you are servant of Him, He takes those events that tear our walls down and He rebuilds our walls with the most precious stones! He tears down walls of shame, pain, bitterness, hurt, and anxiety and He rebuilds them with the very most valuable of material, trust, joy, peace, and love! When I first gave my life to the Lord, He had ALOT of rebuilding to do in my heart! Through much work and many, many storms, He truly has laid a strong foundation in my heart of deep, deep, love and trust for Him. 

Life with Jesus is an amazing adventure and He leads us to wholeness!

 He knows what we need, just cling to Him. He is always faithful! You will come out on the other side with a beautiful, strong, faithful foundation! The beauty of the Lord is that we can come to Him just as we are broken and bruised, but He loves us way to much to leave us that way... Let Him rebuild you...

"He drew me out of the pit of destruction and set my feet upon a rock, He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God!" Psalm 40:2-3

"Cloud of Witnesses"

"I dont have time to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets... who through FAITH conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weaknesses, became mighty in war, put armies to flight! You see... Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside EVERY weight and sin which clings so closely and let us RUN WITH ENDURANCE the race that is set before us!

Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire!"

Hebrews 11:32-12:1-28

All the mighty warriors of the Old Testament and now also the New are watching YOU run this race for Christ! They cheer you on! What if God saved you "for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14) Paul encourages us to "look to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the JOY set before Him endured the cross" (Heb 11) God has not called us to fight a physical battle like the amazing warriors in the Old Testament, but to fight a spiritual battle, one that is fought with PRAYER and WORSHIP, the WORD ,and simply STANDING FIRM in your faith! Its amazing to think that God can take our ordinary, normal, I-grocery-shop-every-Tue-in-my-pajamas-life, and turn it into something that He can use to show the world who HE really is!

This all consuming fire, this savior of the world has called you to be a warrior in His army... He has called you to be a bondage-breaker and a city-shaker and a world-changer! So throw everything that slows you down aside and run this race for Christ that one day we may say along with Paul "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith!" 2 Tim4:7