A conversation about some PSALMS (Psalm 199: 65-72)

     One of my favourite Psalms is the 119th Psalm. (It's probably my most highlighted and marked Psalm right now). I call it the "alphabet Psalm" because this Psalm is a Hebrew acrostic poem with twenty-two stanzas, one for each successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet (i.e Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, He, Waw, Zayin, Heth, Teth, Yodn, Kaph, Lamedth, Mem, Nun, Samekh, Ayin, Pe, Tsadhe, Qoph, Resh, Shin, and, Taw). Each of the eight verses within each stanza begins with the Hebrew letter named in its heading. (IT'S POETRY WITHIN POETRY!!)
    In this Psalm, I'm drawn to the stanza under Teth (Psalm 199: 65-72). It goes, "You have done many things for me, LORD, just as you have promised. I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgement and knowledge. I used to wander off until you disciplined me; but now I closely follow your word. You are good and do only good; teach me your decrees. Arrogant people smear me with lies, but in truth I obey your commandments with all my heart. Their hearts are dull and stupid but I delight in your instructions. My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees. Your instructions are more valuable to me than millions in gold and silver". This stanza (and the whole Psalm, really) is what I want my heart posture to look like towards God and the Word.
    It reminds me that God IS good and that He DOES good (v.68)! One of the words I was drawn to in this stanza was the term "smear" (v.69) and after looking up the meaning of it (of course I've heard it in context before in books and such but I wanted to see what it actually meant) it gave me a powerful visual of what approaching God might look like sometimes. The act of smearing someone means to "damage reputation, coat or mark something messily or carelessly with a greasy or sticky substance" or as a noun it's simply a mark. And that made me visualize someone coming before God absolutely covered by mud or flakes of dried clay, bruises and markings, with labels covering their body, possibly some bandaids on their knees. And they still raise their arms in worship, reverence, and surrender because of how good God is. And as they are in God's light, their marks and mud and smears vanish because they are pure in God's eyes.
    At the end of this stanza (v.72) David says that God's instructions are more valuable to him than millions of gold and silver. That reminded me of a passage in Acts (Acts 19:19), where "a number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire. The value of the books was several million dollars.*" (Greek 50,000 pieces of silver, each of which was the equivalent of a day's wage). Hearing the Gospel was worth more than millions of dollars and the new believers willingly burned their books after hearing it.
    This Psalm is what I want my heart posture to look like towards God. So captivated and devoted to his Word. Having the Bible be the most valuable to me. Knowing that God is good, that he does good, and that He keeps his promises.  

Let's talk about the word DEVOTION

     Okay. I love words. I eat them up. And I've noticed how God will pursue my love of language when I read the bible. This time was no exception. I was reading Colossians and came across the word DEVOTE and I decided to Google the definition of the term DEVOTION. This is what it said: Devotion to God implies ardent affection for Him-a yielding of the heart to Him with reverence, faith, and piety in every act, especially in prayer and mediation. 
    Once I found that out, I Googled what ARDENT means (because I never heard of it before) and it means something along the lines of "a warm feeling; passionate; enthusiastic; burning, glowing." And having an ARDENT DESIRE means having "earnest, enthusiastic, to seek or desire earnestly, to have ardent love." God wants us to have a burning desire for Him and His way of life (think of a volcano here).  
    Next, I searched for what PIETY means. "To give to God reverence and worship that emanates from a holy life; it includes the sense of being dedicated, concentrated, earnest, faithful, and loyal with an implication of intensity and intrinsic sancity."
    After that, I simply googled the word DEVOTED to see if it was any different from its noun form. To be devoted means, "to cling to Jesus and to steadfastly persevere with Him." Then I searched up what steadfastly meant and it means "to be firmly fixed and not subject to change, to be firm in belief and dedication, and to be loyal and faithful."

All of this is so beautiful to me because it shows me, through words that God wrote himself, how much God loves and how much he wants to be loved by us.❤ 

Strawberries and Jesus

 Jesus is so cute. I'm making vanilla muffins right now. The recipe doesn't call for strawberries but I added them anyway because it sounded delicious and I felt Jesus say, "I like strawberries 😊" The Jesus who took my place and died on a cross and endured so much pain, mockery and suffering by the hands of his own people, the Jesus who casted out demonic lies from my body and mind and completely changed my life just told me that he liked strawberries?? 
I love him so much. 🥹🍓

He's the sweetest Dad

 I've always loved birds. I don't know if it's because of Luke 12:23-24 or maybe because I hear God's beauty when they sing. Regardless- I love birds. Last night, I was reading Psalm 23 and writing some notes down. Since I was outside, I was enjoying the birds and the late night sky. It had been a good day. Muffins were made. I had just  finished listening to a podcast episode I had been saving for that night (Psalm 23 with Stasi Eldredge). I heard a noise that caused me to turn to the opposite side of the swing. And there was a bird on the armrest of the swing. It was the cutest bird. God cares about the little things! That's so sweet of him! He didn't have to show me that bird, but He did! He's the sweetest Dad!❤

Muffins and Jesus

 Last night I was making muffins and as I was sitting on the kitchen floor (periodically balancing on my tiptoes as well), the kitchen was loud and full of after-dinner-clean-up. The dishwasher was getting loaded, condiments were being put in the fridge. Music was also playing so we were having fun listening to 80s/90s artists. As I was sitting on the floor and resting against the island, I got this picture of Jesus just being with us. Like he was sitting on the island top, swinging his legs, just listening to us and smiling with some much joy, love, and warmth. His face was glowing. And as I dwelt on this image, I got so happy and started smiling like crazy to myself because Jesus was just hanging out in our messy, crowded, music-filled, muffin-making kitchen and just vibing with us. (The muffins turned out beautiful, by the way)