CHARIOTS? what in the world? That verse "befuddles" me. I do NOT trust in chariots or horses. do I? ...that is, well, I mentioned that we are studying the book of Esther. No mention of the name of God anywhere in this book. Oh, but GOD is very much at work in every last small detail, behind the scenes working out his plan...loving and protecting his people. Awesome. Anyway, last week Beth Moore mentioned that it is "tough being a woman in a mean world". Yes, you better believe it. Here are some pts. she gave us...
1. Meanness always has a history. (in the case of Haman - "wrath" it goes all the way back to King Agag "powerful, angry" during Saul's reign)
2. Meanness perceives a *threat*. (real or not)
3. M is contagious. (one mean word deserves anther, right?...)
4. M is curable. (don't be overcome by evil, instead overcome evil with love)
THAT is a lot to think about, isn't it?
This is going to be long, because everything I have been reading is tying together, but it has been helpful to me, so I pray it is worth the words to be helpful once again :). In the book "Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands" (Paul D. Tripp) he really does speak to this very issue. "If you really pay attention, you will realize that people and situations do not force us to anger...(one person may be angry stuck in traffic, another not)...We do not respond to people and situations in the same way because we do not bring the same heart to them." He then goes on to talk about the desires of our heart that James speaks to waging war - we want something, don't get it, etc. It is not WHAT happens TO us that determines how we feel, respond...RATHER, what happens TO us is just like a window showing what is already in our heart. Ok, so what hit me is the part about meanness being a response to "feeling" threatened. We had a 5 year old situation that brought out the meanness in my mommy heart. Someone little was "bullying" my child (that was a REAL threat...) turns out, the other child's parents were saying "look at __, you should be like her..." In response, this child took out the felt frustration in "meanness". Dissolved with love. However, this got me to thinking about chariots and horses. When I feel threatened, insecure, scared...do I pull out my trusty "battle" transportation of retaliation, sarcasm, MEAN comeback, (gossip, slander, malicious talk with intention of returning pain for pain) OR in grace am I able to set aside all of the devil's earthly stuff of war in exchange for TRUST in the NAME of my true ONE and only Deliverer? Oh YES! I will. ...and while on this earth, doesn't appear that I will run out of drills to practice running to the safety of the NAME above all NAMES.
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