What’s the Shape of Your Faith?: Passion (Heart)

 

 

 

This weeks Faith Shape asks what is YOUR HEART’S passion? I am not telling until the end of the story. This is something I wrote about a year ago. The story is not real, the people are not real, the parents are not real, but THE NIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR IS REAL. I apologize ahead of time for the length (I think this is a record for me) You have to know below is my passion becasue you will find a lot of words in CAPTIALS. Grab a cup of tea, or coffee, sit back and I pray you are blessed.

 

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Sarah (which by the way, means Princess). She lived in a house with her mother and father, and she enjoyed all the things that little girls do; playing with dolls, riding her bike, and dressing up. Her father was brave and strong and she knew that he would always be there for her, to take care of her. Her mother would bake her cookies and sit her on her knee and tell her fairy tales. Stories about princesses and knights in shining amour who would always live happily ever after. Sarah would always cast herself as the princess, and she’d look forward to meeting her handsome warrior someday.

 

That was Sarah’s life as a little girl, a life when she was happy, when she had everything she wanted.

 

But then as the years went by, her mother got sick and passed away. She grew up to be a paramedic, a job where she could try to save peoples lives. Sarah loved her job, but she would have been happier were it not for the fact that her father, her big strong father, wasn’t the strong father that she remembered from her childhood. Instead of him taking care of her, she was taking care of him, and it hurt to remember him how he was. Hurt even more to realize that some day, some day soon, she was going to be alone in the world.

 

Those were the times that she would wonder if there was a mighty warrior to come along and save her, a knight in shining amour her Mom described so long ago. Someone to come take away her aloneness and fear. For Sarah suffered from depression and anxiety, how much longer can she hang on with this shattered heart that resulted, from this thing called life. And what use was it to have a name that means Princess, if there was no Prince. But as she laid her head on the pillow that night she knew that those were only fairy tales, and that fairy tales did not happen to real people.

 

I am here to tell you, what Sarah didn’t know, was

THERE IS A MIGHTY WARRIOR who is MIGHTY to save.

 

In Zephaniah 3:8 the Lord is telling his people to wait and I will pour out my jealous anger toward your oppressors. Strong defines this type of longing as an active term. Here we see we should be active in waiting for our mighty warrior. An example of this is a mother who is buying clothes or preparing a room before childbirth.

 

No matter what is happening around us, no matter what our human eyes can see, the Lord is saying here, “Trust me to carry out my promise….” HANG ON. Are you actively waiting on the Lord?

 

God is both a God of justice and holiness, exacting judgment upon those who oppose him, and also a God of love and compassion, showing this to his faithful followers.

 

Isaiah 65:19 says “ I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in My people; The sound of weeping and crying will no longer be heard in her.

 

What is troubling you? What is causing you distress, have you been in a situation that all you see is pain around you?

 

Zephaniah 3:16 says “do not let your hands fall limp.” The Hebrew word for “limp” is Raphah, it means to be disheartened, to give up”. In Jeremiah 50:43 it is described as “agony, like a woman in childbirth.”

How many times have we all been in situations that seem just too painful? Where is God? Where is my NIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR to rescue me from my shattered heart?

But in Zephaniah 3:15 it says “….the Lord the King of Israel is with you….” I suggest this is in a very personal sense.

Ezekiel 39:29 “I will no longer hide My face from them, for I will pour out My Spirit on the house of Israel.”

Satan wants us to believe, that God is NOT going to save you, but the Lord is saying “wait for me, I am coming, and when I come I am coming with my jealous anger”

Zephaniah 3:8, describes what is felt by a husband whose wife had been wronged somehow. He is angry because she has been hurt. He wants to protect her from all harm.

Zephaniah 3:17-19

Your God is present among you,
a strong Warrior there to save you.
Happy to have you back, he’ll calm you with his love
and delight you with his songs.

“The accumulated sorrows of your exile
will dissipate.
I, your God, will get rid of them for you.
You’ve carried those burdens long enough.
At the same time, I’ll get rid of all those
who’ve made your life miserable.
I’ll heal the maimed;
I’ll bring home the homeless.
In the very countries where they were hated
they will be venerated.

We are called Brides of Christ, looking ahead to the time when we will be united with Jesus our groom. The bride is to prepare for her wedding by keeping herself pure and focused on the groom.

When I looked up the word love in Zephaniah 3:17, in Strong’s this is the type of love a husband has for a wife, a synonym is “love sick”, “find irresistible”. This type of love is see in Song of Solomon over TEN times.

This is not the agape love Christ has for us, but the love a MIGHTY WARRIOR who is eager to save.

I like the New American Standard version because it describes Christ as a VICTORIOUS WRRIOR who is mighty to save. May I suggest your NIGHT IN SHINNING ARMOUR?

 

Song of Solomon 7:6 “How beautiful and how delightful you are, My love, with all your charms!”

Zephaniah 3:17 says “For I will rejoice over you with sounds of joy”. The Might Warrior has come to save His bride.

Zephaniah 3:20

On Judgment Day
I’ll bring you back home—a great family gathering!
You’ll be famous and honored all over the world.
You’ll see it with your own eyes—
all those painful partings turned into reunions!”
God’s Promise

But life continued for Sarah and she ached for her Night in Shinning Amour she dreamed about so long ago. Along the way she met someone who showed her she did indeed have a Night In Shinning Armour and that her Night had written her a letter. In this letter the Night has asked her to wait actively, to hold on, to long for Him, as He longs for her, he is promising to return, to save her from all her broken heartedness. For when the time is right, I will be there, I AM your Mighty Warrior. For when the day comes, he says, I will take great delight in you, Oh Bride, I will take away your fears, and will have a great feast in your honor, and we will see each other face to face.

That night when Sarah went to bed she felt peace like she had never known, she had the promises of her Might Warrior. She knew she was not alone no matter what she had to face in the meantime, and that some fairy tales are true.

You see sisters my passion is to tell you, you are loved. No matter what you are going through, no matter where you are in your life. I blog because I want other women to know they are loved. And the big bonus in all this, you guys are teaching me a lot. My passion is not profound, it is simple, but I just want you to know GOD LOVES YOU.

picture from Complete Gallery Art

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