Word Wednesday is here! Lucky week 13. Y’all ready for I Chronicles?
I Chronicles 14:15 (NIV)–As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move out to battle, because that will mean that God has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.
In case you haven’t seen a theme, I believe in spiritual warfare. We fight an enemy we can’t see, an enemy who is out to defeat us by any means necessary. An enemy that, if we could see it, would probably scare the uhm… double hockey sticks out of us.
It’s verses like this one that make me want to jump up and down and shout. Why? Because we have someone on our side who is bigger than any enemy we can face. I mean, check out I Chronicles 14. David is no sooner in place as king than the Philistines come after him. David asked God if he should go out and fight, and God gave him the instructions in verse 15.
Know why I love that? Because for a brief moment, God let David hear the heavenlies. He let the physical world and the spiritual world cross so that David could hear the heavenly Army that fought the Philistines. He let David know that God’s help–God’s warring angels–are real. God and the things of God are not vaporous, intangible things… They have substance. Can you tell that totally runs away with me?
How about you? When you read I Chronicles, what verse does God highlight for you? Share it in the comments or blog and leave us a link. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
-JB
Dawn Lucowitz says
This week there were a few things that struck me in 1 Chronicles. The first is not what I am going to write about, but love what this verse says. 1 Chronicles 18:9 – …..for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. I could very easily write a lot about this statement, but what really spoke to me personally were 1 Chronicles 11:9 – And David became more and more powerful, because the Lord Almighty was with him. And, 1 Chronicles 18:13 – He put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became subject to David. The Lord gave David victory everywhere he went.
These really struck me hard, because, for those of you who know me, let’s face it, I can be totally full of myself sometimes! I just think it’s so powerful to read that David was powerful because the Lord was with him, and that the Lord gave him victory everywhere he went. It’s pretty humbling to think about the fact that everything we do and have is from God. Sure we can work hard and do what we are suppose to, but still, what we have comes from God. I remember back to my senior season of basketball in high school. I worked out with a private coach anywhere from 4-6 hours almost 7 days a week in the summer. My teammates and I worked our fanny’s off during the season doing drills and practicing hard and really working together. The years leading up to that final season had been tough. We enjoyed a lot of success, but never in the big game. I just remember really believing all year that we were going to win our section. That after all the losses we had, I wasn’t going to go out without that title.
My friends and I played multiple sports together and seemed like we were always in a championship game but could never get over that hump. I honestly believed and still do that we never would have gotten where we did had we not lost all those other times in all those other sports. The culmination of my high school career was not only winning our section title, but going on to become state champions.
Looking back at that time in my life I really felt a lot like I think David might have. We defeated everyone that came in our path. We were not the fastest, strongest, tallest, or most talented. I always attributed it to our work ethic, desire and team work. I finally know better now. It was an amazing gift from God. He allowed me to spend the time I did improving and working hard. He allowed me to experience tough losses and disappointments so that when the time was right, I could experience tremendous victory. The more I look back, the more I see God in so many things that yea, I just didn’t recognize them as fully until now.
I don’t want to go through life ever forgetting that what we have is a gift and it can be taken away at any time. That there will always be seasons of disappointment and seasons of tremendous victory and God is there with us through all of them.
Jodie says
Love how you relate it back to real life, Dawn! Isn’t it amazing to look back and see where God’s fingers have been all through our lives? If more people realized what you said, that everything we have is from God, a lot of us would live a whole lot differently… Awesome comment!
Jen says
What’s that saying about “better late than never”? LOL
The verse I chose this week is 1 Chronicles 28:20- “Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work is finished.”
There are several things that have happened and are happening now that made this verse speak to me. One example was the time my first ms got forwarded to the agent by the critiquer. Things began happening SO fast that I was more scared of her loving it than of getting a rejection. After talking it out, I realized that I doubted God’s ability to keep that ball in the air. My writing has always been “all Him” (at least it is when I get myself out of the way!), and I knew that if I were agented, there would be higher expectations as far as the writing I produced. My fear was that God would fail me in some way and I’d crash and burn because I had no experience or training to fall back on. This verse is a reminder that He WON’T fail me. My job is to trust Him and simply DO THE WORK…. whatever it may be.