Hitting the Mark

The thing I love about the Lord (among many other things) is that He takes the things that happen in our lives and turns them into opportunities.

Yesterday I was working away in one of my houses that I clean when the man who lives there came inside from an errand he had been running.  I was mildly startled because I had been having a conversation with myself in my head again and he surprised me.  I said "oh, oops, I think I was talking to myself" and he replied "well, I wouldn't recognize you if your mouth wasn't moving." Now, before you gasp, he was only teasing me and since I have known him forever, I knew that, he was NOT being mean.  BUT...

The arrow found its mark.  I went on working but in my heart I was hurt. My whole childhood years I had a family member whom I lived with, make fun of me for talking so much, giving me names like "motor mouth" and "chatterbox" so it is an area of woundedness for me.  I was cleaning away and thinking about what he had said and thinking about how that is a sore spot for me.  At the same time I was listening to a song I have just grown to ADORE in the last week, and heard a line in it where it says, "I wait for You, draw near again, Let your Spirit make me new.....Your Presence in me, Jesus light the way, by the power of Your word, I am restored I am redeemed, by Your spirit I am free....and I heard the Lord in that verse reminding me that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, that I am new, I am a new creation and I am not at all what that comment made me think I am! I thought, well Lord, that arrow hit its mark perfectly didn't it?

Yep! It sure did.  Thats what the enemy does.  I remember my sister Connie talking about when she takes certain medicines that it often takes the path of least resistance in her body, her mouth, because a few years ago she had cancer in her mouth. Isn't that true about the devil too?  He uses the path of least resistance, the one that we may not be guarding or thinking about, the path that leads right to that spot in our heart that can tear us down and hurt us the most.  I felt this arrow hit the mark, my doubts about the validity of my existence, and immediately begin to emit its poison into my mind, making me doubt my personality.  So I am working away, listening to my Ipod and thinking about all of this, and I realize that yes, I can let this stuff go, it doesn't have to hurt me. 

You see, I had a choice right at that moment to walk in the truth of the Word of God and embrace what it says about me or, well, or Not! I don't have to agree with what satan says about me or what the world says about me. I don't have to believe in a lie and live in that lie. I can live in the truth that has been given to me, loaded with grace and mercy and love and...the list is literally endless.  I choose life.  So, yes, the arrow hit its mark, but guess what?  The arrow of truth, the one of love, that one hit in exactly the same spot and cancelled the other one meant for harm, right out! 

There is this moment that happens, right at the very first second that the arrow finds its mark of hurt, that I get to choose, we get to choose how we will respond in our hearts, how will I allow this to affect my life? Will I accept it without a whimper or will I get that shield of faith back up, (put my shoes of peace back on) and WALK??? Or will I choose to react in anger, hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness at the person who unwittingly or even wittingly delivered that poison dart? Everything human makes me want to stay in anger but everything godly in me wants to walk in the truth.  What I do with what I know makes all the difference.  I choose life! I choose truth! I choose deliverance! I choose freedom!

Here are the words to the song that I was listening to:

Your grace is enough
More than I need
At Your Word I will believe
I wait for You draw near again
Let Your Spirit make me new

And I will fall at Your feet,
I will fall at Your feet
And I will worship You here

Your presence in me Jesus light the way
By the power of Your word
I am restored I am redeemed
By Your Spirit I am free

And I will fall at Your feet
I will fall at Your feet
And I will worship You here

Freely You gave it all for us
Surrendered Your life upon that cross
Great is the love poured out for all
This is our God
Lifted on high from death to life
Forever our God is glorified
Servant and King, rescued the world
This is our God

Written by Rueban Morgan
Hillsongs