It is hard to believe that I have been posting Empowering Mondays for two months now. Wow. We have covered many topics: (Click on any that you have missed!)
- Power of God at Work in our lives
- Power of Rest and Sabbath
- Power of Life in my Deadness
- Power of God over Strangling Stress
- Power of Walking in God's Calling
- Power of Friendship
- Power of Choice
- Power of Perspective
I have enjoyed reading your comments, hearing your stories, and praying for you as seek to be empowered in your life. Our God is All-Powerful and can conquer anything we wrestle with. He also empowers us with tools to deal with life situations. I hope that you have found this series to be helpful. We have one more post next week and I can't wait to present it to you...with another giveaway!
For today, I wanted to talk about the power of Remembering.
One of my favorite stories in all of the Old Testament is found in Joshua 3 - 4. The Israelites led by their faithful leader, Joshua, witness a miracle as the Lord God shows up and shows out. The priests carry the ark of the covenant to the tip of the flood staged Jordan River and as "their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away... while the water flowing down to the Dead Sea was completely cut off." The Scripture continues by telling us that the entire nation of Israel completely crossed the Jordan River on dry ground as the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stood in the middle of the Jordan. What a scene! What a miracle! What a story!
But I love what happens next. Joshua tells the Israelites to appoint twelve men and to go and take twelve stones out of the middle of the river where the priests carrying the ark of the covenant are standing. As soon as the stones were gathered, the Lord commanded the priests carrying the ark to come up out of the Jordan. As soon as the priests' feet touched dry land, the Jordan waters returned to their original flood ridden state. Joshua then takes the twelve stones and sets them up at Gilgal and tells the Israelites that this "rock collection" is to remind them to tell the story of how God enabled the Israelites to cross the Jordan on dry ground... just as God had dried up the Red Sea when they were escaping the Egyptians. "God did this so that all of the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful..."
We need a "rock collection." Our gathering of "stones" remind us of the awesome and infinite power of our God. They invite questions from our children. "What are those 'rocks' for?" Of course, we may not gather stones. But we do need to have a tangible reminder of God's faithfulness and His goodness. We need to recall what He has done in our past so that we live in our present and move forward into our future. "Remember the wonders He has done." 1 Chronicles 16:12
So, what does your "rock collection" look like? Have you taken the time to journal God's faithfulness in your life? We need to find ways to remember what God has done in our lives so that we can tell our children and our children's children of His great faithfulness. So, if you don't have a "rock collection," start one! Unwrapping the gift of remembering,
Kelli
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