What My Heart Longs For…
The past few weeks have been rather challenging for me. There are some things on my heart that are trying to make sense in my head. I know that there are some things I have to change; some areas I need to re-focus. This does not do much for producing a daily post. Thus, I have struggled with the kinds of things that I should write about. Being exceptionally busy has not helped. Even today as I begin to type, I’m not there yet, but I do know what my heart longs for…
Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness will live in the fertile field.
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And the effect of righteousness will be peace,
And the result of righteousness will be quietness and confident trust forever.
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Then my people will live in a peaceful surrounding,
And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places. Isaiah 32:16-18 (AMP)
With so much fighting and negativity operating in our world today, my heart cries out for justice and righteousness to infiltrate our land. For if we could realize that fighting among ourselves is the major work of the enemy, and we would reject our inner striving for dominance and yield in submission and trust to the One who made us, then we could put an end to the strivings and live in peace, as Isaiah writes above in "undisturbed resting places".
There is a "fight" going on, and as much as we would like to ignore it, the target is to dominate our world with chaos and destruction. And, because it’s everywhere, all around us, it’s hard to pick one place to concentrate on. Nehemiah upon returning to his homeland, Jerusalem saw devastation and destruction all around hm; and the captives who had returned there seemed helpless to do anything about it. Even with the resources and materials he had been graciously granted by the king of Persia to rebuild Jerusalem- the task seemed overwhelming. Yet he knew he had a mission, and more important he knew that God had sent him and favored him on that mission. The God who commissioned him began to download a strategy. For the next several days we are going to look at some of the strategies employed by Nehemiah and see if there is something we can utilize in our efforts today to "live in a peaceful surrounding".
Maria