Store Up

Ps. 119:11 is a verse i memorized a number of years ago with my children.  NIV84 says "I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You."  Wonderful verse! And we are to hide His Word in our heart.

Last night I was reading Ps. 119 in the ESV. That version says "I have stored up Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You."

The point is the same.. we need to be learning.. memorizing.. God's Word. But I really love the ESV wording.. "Stored Up"  It is a picture of preparation.. of making ready.  

And we don't wait until the panic moment to grab Words and hastily try to learn them, we store up during the "good" times. Proverbs 6:6&8 points the lazy sluggard to look at the ways of the ant. I think the ant's ways apply to learning Scripture and this thought of storing up..

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise....
7 8 she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.

Prepares her bread... the Word is our daily bread.  I picture us preparing it by being in it.. reading.. studying..learning it..

And gathers her food... She is storing up during the time of plenty to be ready for lean times.. difficulties.. 

We need to be preparing.. to be in the Word daily, reading it.. studying it.. learning it.. and we need to be gathering it up.. storing it in our hearts knowing we will have it  for the battle we do each and every day with our flesh, the World and an enemy who is relentless in His pursuit.

How are the people (you and I) to prepare?

We know we are to wait on the Lord... the Bible tells us that numerous times.  We are even told that we will be blessed for waiting (Isa. 30:18)... but what are we to do in the meantime?

Matthew 25:1-13 is the Parable of the ten virgins. These virgins are attendants to the bride. In the Jewish culture, the attendants "served the bride by helping her prepare, watching for the return of the bridegroom and sharing the joy of the wedding feast."  When you read the parable, you will see that 5 have oil for their lamps and their wicks are trimmed.. they are ready for the bridegroom. The other 5 are not ready and when the bridegroom calls they have to run to find oil and end up missing the bridegroom.

The lesson, obviously, is that we are to be ready for the bridegroom's return. The key is to actually have a relationship with the bridegroom, Jesus.  If you do not know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, then you are not going to be glad for His return. I would urge everyone reading to make sure they have that personal relationship with Jesus.  Here is a great way to know that... http://web.mac.com/cwbc/Country_Woods/FAITH_.html  

If you do have a relationship with Jesus, then you are to prepare for His return. The parable in Matthew 25 shows that "Christ assigns us personal responsibility to help prepare the bride for His coming."

So again the question is how do we prepare? By being about our Father's business.

From Genesis to Revelation, God has written us a guide book of love letters. We are to spend time daily in the Word and in prayer developing our relationship with Christ and as we do this, we will learn all we are to be doing. Things like...

Watch and Pray (Matt. 26:41)

Walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5)

Be my witnesses (Acts 1:8)

Go and make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20)

Be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:9)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart (Prov. 3:5)

and so much more. But lest you feel overwhelmed, we are never told to do any of this on our own and in our own strength. In fact, God promises:

"I can do all this through him who gives me strength." Phil. 4:13

"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3

Get in the Word... Seek Him (He promises to be found see Jer. 29:13-14)... Ask God to show you what He has for you to do (Eph. 2:10) and to give you all you need to do it... and then walk in Faith trusting Him to do just that!

"Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts." Isa. 26:8

Lord, that You that we aren't to just sit here and wait. You have things for us to do.. good works.. kingdom work.. purpose. Draw each of us into Your Word and into a state of listening to hear what You have for us to do and then give us the courage to do it! Thank You for not sending us out in our own strength and abilities, for we would surely fail. Thank you for giving us all we need.  We praise You Lord for your first arrival on earth and look with excitement towards Your return. Haste the day, Lord, haste the day! Amen.

Marshall Your Troops

God led me to an interesting verse recently... "Marshal your troops, O city of troops, for a siege is laid against us." Micah 5:1

Do you ever read a verse and think "Now where did that come from and what does it have to do with me and my life?"  But knowing that all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking and correcting.. I knew this one had as much value as all the rest and I was certain God led me there.

So I read it again... Marshal your troops really popped out at me and has stuck with me ... other translations say Muster yourself.. gather... prepare... so I did a bit of digging and found that the Hebrew word used here for Marshal is gadad and it means to penetrate, cut, attack, invade.. it can be to cut into OR to cut oneself, to prune... PRUNE!  That immediately took me to John 15:1-2 where Jesus says "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."  

For me, I feel God is saying "There is a battle raging and you need to get it together!  Get rid of all that excess dead stuff in your life that doesn't serve a purpose or glorify me.  Surrender and let me shape you into the person I have planned for you to be as you walk through this battlefield." 

I also like the definition included the word Prepare. We need to be prepared for battle everyday.  The Word tells us we are in a battle and we also know we have weapons to aid us in the fight:

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds."  2 Cor. 10:3-4

We need to be in the Word daily... sharpening our swords... making ourselves ready.

Praying your troops are marshaled and you are prepared for the battle... you are in it whether you want to be or not and whether you acknowledge it or not... BUT remember that the victory has been won!