I confess – I am sometimes the ultimate power walker.  Blinders on – full speed ahead.  But today was different.  This was different.

We assembled in the quiet stillness of the early morning.  We came in prayer, we came in praise, we came in peace – not in protest – although we came to the same streets that have been home to protesters not all that long ago.  Except for the shirts we wore, with the message of peace written on the cross, no casual observer would have recognized us as members of the same group.

Why?  We defied description.  For those who love to put a label on a person or on a group and thus dismiss them, they would not so summarily be able to declare us described and dismissed, labeled and left for insignificant.  There were both genders present in our group and multiple age groups and multiple skin colors, multiple education levels, multiple church affiliations, multiple political affiliations – we were not a one label fits all kind of a group.

I think we looked a lot like America and I know we looked exactly like Revelation 7:9 as we gathered at the courthouse, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.  They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”

We came to pray over our city and by extension over all the hurting cities across our country.  We came to pray for the people of our city and for the people of our country.  We came to pray over them, for them, with them – we came in peace, we came in prayer, we came in obedience to the One who calls us to stand in the gap as intercessors in prayer.

“if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Our land desperately needs healing right now.  But our country will not be healed until our hearts are healed.  And our hearts will not be changed nor healed apart from God.  God is the Maker of our hearts.  He is the only one who can fix them. We cannot heal our own hearts.

Our country surely needs a heart transplant right about now if she is to survive. But for her to get that transplant, I first need a heart transplant of my own.  Let it begin with me.  (just like the song, “Let peace begin with me”)  If I am willing, maybe others will be willing as well.  The promise is in Ezekiel 36:25-29, where God says,

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.  You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God.  I will save you from all your uncleanness.”

God gives us new hearts and He also gives us something else that the world cannot give us – unity.  The world is all about division.  God is all about reconciliation and unity.

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.  And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”  (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

Jesus prayed in John 17:23, ” . . .  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.”

And so we prayed where protesters had once prevailed.  We prayed for God’s presence and protection and most of all His peace to come upon our battle weary city and nation, ushering in His healing touch upon our land.  We prayed John 14:27, where Jesus said,

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

We walked in our city with a much needed message of hope and of peace.  And with every step my feet took I thought of these words from Isaiah 52:7,

“How beautiful on the mountains (in the cities and urban streets) are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’ ”

Oh Lord, continue to direct my footsteps, our footsteps, as we step out in prayer, standing in the gap for those we love and for those we don’t even know, but You know them, Lord – and You love them.  Make us faithful to pray for our country, for our community, for our children – that we might remain free to worship You and to proclaim Your name, for

” . . . where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”   (2 Corinthians 3:17)

sincerely,      Grace Day

 

 

I confess – I am still undecided.  If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?  What say you?  If I speak but no one is there to hear my voice, have I said anything?  (my cat doesn’t count, she never listens to me)  If I write but no one reads my words, have I written anything?  (again my cat doesn’t count, she can’t read)

If my identity is my job, when my job is gone, who am I?  If my identity is in my relationships, when my relationships change or end, who am I then?  If my identity is in my possessions or achievements, when they change, does my identity change as well?  If I exist only as I see myself reflected in another’s eyes, when they are gone, do I cease to exist?

I may feel like the lone tree in the forest but I know that there is One who does hear me when I fall, my Heavenly Father.  Psalm 116:1-2 says,

“I love the Lord, for He heard my voice; He heard my cry for mercy.  Because He turned His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.”

“In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God.  From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came to His ears.”   (2 Samuel 22:7)

“Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.”  (Isaiah 65:24)

I like knowing that not only am I heard, but I am answered!  And I like knowing that I have value in my Heavenly Father’s eyes.  We all do.  I am not just an unknown, unseen, anonymous tree in the forest.  My Heavenly Father created the forest and He knows every tree in it.  If I fall, He will know, because He knows every tree by name.  He knows me by name.

“Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?  He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.  Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”  (Isaiah 40:26)

It is estimated that there are one hundred thousand million stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.  And there are an estimated one hundred billion galaxies in the universe, which will increase as telescope technology in space improves.  So you do the math, dear readers, it is too much for me to comprehend.  And yet we are told God knows every star by name.  (after all, He created each star, He sustains each star, why wouldn’t He call each one by name?)

So it’s not much of a stretch for God to know every tree in every forest.  In fact, in Matthew 10:29-31 we are told, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will (notice) of your Father.  And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

I am not only heard, I am seen.  (as Hagar was in the desert, as Job was)  “But He knows the way that I take;”  (Job 23:10)  Job couldn’t find God, but Job knew God could find him, because God saw Job and heard him and knew exactly the way that Job took.  

God knows the way that I take today and everyday.  I am not only heard, I am not only seen, I am known, I am named.  And so are you, dear readers.  You are heard, you are seen, you are known and you are named by your Creator, God.

“My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place.  When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.   . . .   Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord.”  (Psalm 139:15-16, 4)

Job said of God, “Does He not see my ways and count my every step?”

Job knew that he was not overlooked nor abandoned by God despite his dire, current circumstances.  Still Job had to ask, “why?”

“What is man that You make so much of him, that You give him so much attention, that You examine him every morning and test him every moment?”  (Job 7:17-18)

In Psalm 8:4-5, David asks God the same question, “what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him?  You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

Then Psalm 100:3 tells us why.  “Know that the Lord is God.  It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.”

“The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.”  (Psalm 145:9)

God made us and because we are His creation, the work of His hands, He has compassion on us and He cares for us.

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  (Ephesians 2:10)

I have identity in being God’s workmanship (some translations say masterpiece) and you do too.  Continuously changing circumstances will not change my identity in Christ.  Dangerous days need not cause me to walk in fear.

“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life; You stretch out Your hand against the anger of my foes, with Your right hand You save me.  The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; Your love, O Lord, endures forever – do not abandon the works of Your hands.”    (Psalm 138:7-8)

We are heard, we are seen, we are known, we are named – we are loved.  God has promised He will fulfill His purpose for me and He has promised to fulfill His purpose for you, too, dear readers.  God will not abandon the works of His hands. (that’s you and I)  So I will cast all my cares on Him, knowing when I fall, He sees me, hears my cry, catches me, comforts me, confirms in me the purpose that He put there and enables me to continue as more than a conqueror. 

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”    (Romans 8:37-39)

sincerely,       Grace Day