These are the names of the
mighty men whom David had: Josheb-Basshebeth the Tachminite, chief among the
captains. He was called Adino the Eznite, because he had killed eight hundred
men at one time. And after him was Eleazar the son of Do-do, the Ahohite, one
of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were
gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel had retreated. He arose and
attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand stuck to the
sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day.
—2 Samuel 23:8–10
What's a devojournal??
It's what I call the connection between my devotional (Bible reading, or Bible Study, or prayer time) and my journal.
It's how I get the word of God from my eyes and ears to my brain where meditation happens till I can put it into my own words. Isn't this how thoughts get transformed by the renewing of the mind? Isn't is by meditating on God's thoughts? I think it is.
It's how I get some transformed thinking from my brain, down my arms, to my fingers. That's where the connection is made on journal pages with my pen, not on the screen with my keyboard.
I don't pray at my computer desk, but even if I did I would hand-write thoughts because there's just something about forming the letters and seeing my own handwriting. I'm sure there's some kind of neurological whatnot which happens when my knees, eyes, ears, brain, arms, hands and fingers all participate together to get some truth and transformation from God's heart into mine. It reminds me of the old, "the head-bone's connected to the neck-bone, the neck-bone's connected to the shoulder-bone" basic anatomy song! Well, my knee-bones are connected to my eye-bones, and my eye-bones are connected to my head-bone, and all the way down to my finger-bones connected to my devojournal!
So, it’s morning. My knee-bones are
cramped, and my heart-bone's on the word of God kind of like David's mighty men and their hand-bones on their swords for so long that their muscles cramped and sort of froze there.
I won’t let go of the Word of God. It's my sword.
I won't take off my armor because it is saving righteousness and truth, peace
and faith. And if my knee-bones get stuck on this yellow life preserver which cushions them, I'll just remember the mighty men. It's real.
That’s what the life preserver
is all about. First I knelt on carpet in front of the white couch. That was
where I began to go heart to heart with God. The carpet was cushion enough,
partly because my knees were two decades younger and partly because I was just
learning to pray. “Teach me to pray.”
We don’t have that couch
anymore. We moved and the floor by the bed was wood. I placed a rug there when
my knees and my prayers were still young.
We moved again, and I used a
rug and then a nice quaint “prayer pillow.” Then I needed the big guns because
my knees were getting sore and my prayers were growing up. They had to. Life as
I knew it hung in the balance, and all I could do about it was pray, pray,
pray.
I learned to pray God’s own
words right back at Him. The boomerang Bible is powerful and effective. It’s
true that the prayers of a righteous man avail much. Such a man is made
righteous through Christ, and only through Christ. And the righteous who pray
God’s heart straight out until their own hearts know no other language are
transformed. God Himself says it, and I know it’s true. Hear God’s heart. Learn
God’s name. Speak His heart in His name. Now pray.
Do this and you’ll be going to
Home Depot for a pair of gardener’s knee pads or searching your garage for a
spare life preserver. Mine’s yellow and square.
Pray like this, using His Word,
and you’ll be praying His name, and your prayers will be answered.
Connect with God’s Heart
I have included excerpts from my prayer journal to help you get started with your own journal.
The Lord brings victory! He does! He has! He does what He says He's going to do. I have that
assurance. And I'm beyond grateful that He says good things.
He said He will heal-and He has.
He has given victory in the battle against this disease and has given me rest from the fear of it.
Thanksgiving is my “not
forgotten,” my “remember truth,” my active amen. That’s because amen finds its root in aman, Hebrew
for “truth.” And truth is a compound word in Greek, a-lethei, meaning “not forgotten.”
It’s odd to say that my
thanksgiving is related to my “not forgotten.” But isn’t that what the holiday
Thanksgiving celebrates? And isn’t that the meaning of “Do this in remembrance
of Me”?
I don’t own a clothesline, and
I don’t hang the wash, because my brand-new washing machine has an aged
companion at its side: my trusty drier. It doesn’t stop on its own anymore. It
just dries until someone opens the door and it pants to a stop. Sometimes I
pull warm clothes from its old mouth and bring them to my nose. I remember
doing this when my grown sons wore boy clothes and ran through grass and
crawled through dirt. The sweaty scent of their T-shirts mingled with boyhood
scent until grimy hands pulled the tops off. I remember the scent that never
quite washed out, and I embrace it still. I hold it and fold it up, and
sometimes my heart is like a dresser drawer. Is it okay to say “Thank You” and
“Amen” in the laundry room? I do that with God because somehow in the little
thank-yous I find an answer to the question, “How was trust in You strengthened
in me today?” Sometimes the answer goes way back to things remembered.
written by: Carolyn-Elizabeth Roehrig
(adapted from my devotional-PISTEUO!)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment