WEAK IN SPIRIT

Psalm 123:1-2  "Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens, behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He has mercy on us."

Circumstances can quickly lower the spirit in a child of God.  I believe the Lord designs this to be so, so we will instantly remember the One, the only One, who can restore us and keep us strong.  Different things can come to us, whether it be something at work that goes against us, the enemy using people to persecute us or when illness comes upon us or a loved one.  I know many of you, my friends, have those who you are so close to that when something befalls them, when it hits them hard, their spirits drop and it affects your spirit also.  It is almost impossible not to be affected when a loved one has had a truly difficult experience, or has been hurt, or is very ill.  We are made with human emotions and those emotions will affect our spirits.

We do not have to continue to dwell in that place however.  The ones that are ill, their spirits need to be healed, along with their bodies, as only the Lord can do.  Our spirits, those of us whose hearts are so intuned to our loved ones, our spirits need a different kind of treatment.  Our spirits must give way to the Holy Spirit as He wills to take us back to the cross, back to the beginning of our salvation, of our redemption.  Look at that cross, the one that held the Beloved Son of God, the Lamb that was sacrificed for all our sins, all our diseases, all our infirmites, all our pain and suffering.  The suffering our spirits are going through right now brings us into the suffering of our Savior. His suffering was not for Himself but for others, for all of us.  The spiritual suffering we are experiencing when our loved ones are going through bad times, illnesses, are for the suffering of others.  Our hearts are loving so dearly, so loving through the agape love of our Lord that we will suffer, suffer in their suffering.  We realize some of that same suffering that our Lord had for our hearts, for our souls.

Father, I don't know if this is the right words.  I know the thoughts You are giving me, but I am having a time with the proper wording.  Dear Lord, please make it come to the eyes in the proper way that You want it to be explained.  I believe because my spirit is suffering right now, it is difficult for the words to flow as You pour this into me.

But I know that whereas our spirits are suffering for our loved ones, I know that if we leave the cross now and journey to the tomb, where we will see the stone rolled away, the empty tomb, we know that our suffering is but for a short time.  Our spirits are lifted up with the resurrection of our Lord, lifted above all circumstances that want to drag us down, above the suffering we have for those we love, above the words of the enemy trying to shout our victory down.  But we are victorious, those of us that are in the Lord.  Never once did our Lord seem defeated.  He suffered in silence to glorify the Father, and we must remember that in glorifying the Father, He rose victorious.  Begin to speak the Word of God to ourselves, to our weakened spirits.  Allow the Holy Spirit to move in us and bring life to our spirits, life that will strengthen us and restore us.  Then with our spirits strengthened we can then minister to our loved ones, speaking the Word over them,  spirits strong and praying for the touch of the Lord on them.  This reminds me of on an airplane, when they are giving the instructions for the oxygen masks, you are told to pull yours down first and put it on and then help the other.  You must have that life flowing in you in order to help someone else.  If you don't lay all your burdens down at the feet of our Lord, allow Him to heal you, restore your spirit, you cannot help another to breath that life giving flow.  We must stay strong in our Lord, keep our spirits healthy in Him to help those we love.

Sometimes we must step back for a minute and look at ourselves and see what the Lord sees when we get low in spirit.  He waits for our call, for our acknowledgement that we cannot do anything on our own, that without Him, we cannot be lifted up in spirit.  Father, nothing can be accomplished without You.  In You, we have life.  Without You, our spirits will dry up, become dead.  You are the strength of my life Lord, in You my spirit can be restored, become strong.

Father, I pray You will make this come out in the manner You intended to.  Forgive me for losing some of the thought process.  I understand each time we write, what You have done in me.  There is nothing I go through that You won't bring out of me here, in these writings, to heal me, to restore me, to strengthen me.  To have me look at myself as You do, not weak as I think, not laid low by the enemy, but just Your worshiper needing You more and more each day; needing to feel the arms of my Father around me, restoring my spirit as it gets weak at times at this; refreshing me so I may once again, give Your words of life to those I love. 

I choose to worship You my Lord, all the days of my life.  Nothing this day, nothing ever will, cause me to not worship You.  As times get dark, when clouds come in around me, I tend to worship You all the more, for I know that in You I am strong, and I know that when I am worshiping You, I am in Your presence.

01-28-12