Give In?? TFW

Happy Thursday, Faithful Weigher's!

  I don't always like the world's sayings about the different weekdays because they are all made and given by the Lord.  However, yesterday just seemed to be a "Hump Day" for me.  My energy level was not there and it did seem to be a struggle to keep moving and stay focused on the task at hand.  Things seemed to get mixed up and burned, as did my dinner on the grill and the eggs I was attempting to boil.   God, in His mercy, carried me through the day.  Maybe not on the wings of eagles but none the less, I know He carried me because He is faithful!

Sheri Rose challenged us this week, on her short video, to find a verse, meditate on it and see how it applies to our lives.  Just one verse.   Where do I start when the scriptures are FULL of verses that I should be applying to my heart and life?   Usually, when I just go to something that I am already reading, such as Jesus Calling, The Daily Bread, a book in the Bible I may be reading through or a book study I am doing, God is so faithful to bring me to a verse that I need to hear with my heart. 

In our book and handout, the first "New Life Recipes" is "Give In".  The verse in Ezekiel 36:26 says, " I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you.  I will take out  your stony, stubborn hear t and give you a tender, responsive heart." (NLT)   The NIV  and several other translations say …"and give you a heart of flesh."   From my NIV notes, the word "flesh" in the Old Testament usually meant a symbol of weakness and frailty.  In the New Testament it usually means the sinful nature, opposing God.  In this verse, however, it means the opposite of a hard, stone heart but one that is pliable and teachable.   This helped me understand this part of the verse better.   In this  part of the book of Ezekiel, these are the prophesies and promises that God had made to Israel.  God is telling them that  He will give them, His people, a new heart.  He, also, will give us, His daughter's , a new heart and a new spirit.   When will He do this, we ask?  When will a new heart and a new spirit replace our "stony, stubborn heart"?  This is the part that I started to ponder.

Sheri Rose asked us to take an honest inventory of our deepest desires.  Hmmm...what ARE my deepest desires?  Can I list them off from the top of my head? No...she said my "deepest desires".  I have to dig down past my immediate "I want's".  Down through the "I wish's".  Down to the yearnings of my heart, some even so small that I dare not form them into words, at this point of my life. 

But one of those yearnings that has words is for the salvation of my children.  I have to say, this is my most deepest yearning. I know that this within God's will for all souls that are lost.  One verse that comes to my mind is 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance."  God is patient and I, too, through His mercies, will be patient and trust for His will to be done in my children's heart and lives.    When you get to that deepest yearning, Sheri Rose asks us if we want that more than God's will for us, or in my case, for others?  Now, this is DEEP!

So, I went down deep but on the way down there, I found that I had to climb over some stony areas.  I went back to those areas and stopped on top of the stone piles.  Are these desires in line with the will of God?  Am  I desiring to do things, which are noble and even scriptural, that just may not be in His plan for my life?   Perhaps they are in His plan for someone else's life that I have seen and I am only wishing that it was for me?  Hmmm…..perhaps these are the "stony, stubborn" areas of my heart that I need to "give in" to the Lord, confess my stubbornness about my wants and wishes and allow Him to give me a "tender, responsive" heart to His will for me in these areas.  They may just disappear once those blinders of "this is want I want to do" are gone!   May He fill my heart with desires to fulfil His perfect plan and will for who He created me to be and do for His glory.

My sweet Faithful Weigh Friends, don't pass by this opportunity that God has brought to you to. Go digging down to see your deepest desires through the eyes of God, who created you and knows you from the inside out.   Do you wonder what this has to do with weight-loss?  Perhaps you will find on your way down to your deepest desire, the "want or wish" to be "skinny" or to look like you "used to" look way back when.  Perhaps God's purpose for bringing you to this is to stop climbing over those heavy, stony places and "taste and see that the Lord is good" and His will for you is to live in His freedom. 

Blessings to each of you today.

Mary Ann