Settled

There is nothing like the presence of the Lord. Nothing can or ever will compare. The anointing breaks the yoke and fills our being with total peace, puts all things into perspective, reminds us that He alone is ruler of our universe, and leaves us wanting more, but knowing that we can start…or start again.

What if we are in that place on our journey though, where we cannot even recall the last time He truly showed up? And the dry desert wilderness is what we have grown most familiar with?  In Luke 2 Mary and Joseph had to back track to see what Jesus was doing. I am sure if we have walked any distance with the Lord, we know this one well.  We can’t figure out when He seemed to stop communicating with us but suddenly realize He told us something a ways back that we were not really willing to hear. So in revisiting the last thing He spoke, we acknowledge that the Lord was indeed conversing, or trying to. Perhaps it was just that we weren’t really listening, or responding. And like the boy Jesus it’s almost as if He whispers “Well how did you not know?”

That’s easy, it’s like this Lord, I am human, fleshly, rebellious, disobedient, stubborn, unbelieving and I think I have a better idea, so at times, I take matters into my own hands. There are at least one hundred scenarios for how we have lost our way, took a wrong turn or set up camp in the median as we attempted to cross to the other side. This is all part of the journey. The key is that it not become a destination.

The real question is though, has it been settled in our heart of hearts? It is, when all of our wrestling has ceased. At the core of every man there is a fight as to who is going to sit on the throne. And that question gets answered when all of our trust issues have been resolved once and for all, we know that we know we are His and it is well with our soul.

I tell my husband all the time that he saved me. He just laughs. I guess the better choice of words would be that he rescued me. Our story is Hosea and Gomer. I was on a path to self-destruction, ran away at age 16 and never returned home. Went from one bad choice to another and another. Looking for love in all the wrong places, hell bent on a search that required an extreme love that would set me free. And love indeed presented itself.  But not the superficial Valentines love. Our first meeting was “Do you know my friend Jesus?”

From there it was a God encounter church service and my journey began. In reality it was the first 5-7 years of our marriage that my husband prayed for me, tried to disciple me and loved me so unconditionally that it melted my hard heart. I was not easy to love, independent, and full of rejection. I am not sure where the battle ended and the embrace began but it was in response to a true Father Heart love. My husband adores the depth of my being and God used it to settle all the wrestle, hurt and pain. Healed it all, and God’s love through a man is why I am who I am today. That is why I say Hosea and Gomer.

Don’t miss the point. It’s not about my story. It is how powerful the love of God is. It heals all, covers all and it is for all.

Are you enroute or is it already settled in you? The purpose for our journey to wholeness is in the jewels he makes out of the ruins. He has need of all of it.

But we’ll get to that….