New Jerusalem Bible
Zephaniah
Zion, have no fear,
do not let your hands fall limp,
Yahweh your God is there with you,
the warrior-Saviour
He will rejoice over you with happy song,
He will renew you by His love,
He will dance with shouts of joy for you
as on a day of festival.
Would you consider meditating on this with me today and tonight. Can it be that our God sings, dances with shouts of joy for us! How amazing is He. Brennan Manning called it the furious longing of God for His own. What a delight He is. Almighty God humbled Himself to come and rescue us. I am in awe of the grace, that I was born in a time in history as this. In my family. I am so thankful for how well I am doing. I have my health, I have food to eat and a roof over my head, but there are those who don't have a home and God is using them in more ways to spread the gospel, that we can imagine. His goodness is seen by His mighty hand. If you cannot see His hand trust His heart. I like that one. Find true contentment and love and purpose your heart longs for in trusting in Him. Simply tell Him when you don't. Ask Him to increase your faith, read your bible. Pray for the Spirit to teach you. Get with friends who love you and the Lord. Ask them for encouragement to believe. As far as you are concerned and those in your life, He created it, He can handle it. Some days it is praying for grace to make it and putting one foot in front of the other one. It is not always this great strength and joy. It is being able to get through my day and trust Him with even that. I remember what my friend Penny says no matter what is going on in her life, every day is a gift. Then I remind myself, He has brought you thus far, He will carry you home. Our true home, with perfect rest and peace and joy. But we can taste this Promise Land here on earth by trusting Him and resting in His finished work for us, His Son.
May we encourage one another in the faith to press on with His faith and keep our eyes on the One who is faithful. This holiday may we not only remember those who fought and gave their lives for our freedom in this country, but remember this is a picture of Christ who fought the awful blood, horrible suffering, rejection battle and won the victory over sin and death and evil for us on the cross. He felt our pain. He bore our suffering, guilt and shame. By His stripes we are healed. He came to set the captives free, us! May we live more and more in this freedom and victory that is ours in Christ. It is by His perfect life, His blood, His death but also His resurrection, the Gospel of Christ, that give us life, hope, love and freedom to live and even to die. Knowing He has had victory over death for us. Those who are His, have eternal life with Him forevermore.
Our Warrior-Saviour has come.
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