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The Lord Your God

             The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

          One of the problems that some of us face is a tendency to think we can either know what others think about us or the need to think we can choose what others think about us. Since I’m getting two households of new neighbors, I’m struggling with a need to explain myself to them. Sometimes, the goal seems to be to show what a freak I am, so they’ll avoid me. Other times, it’s to prove how helpful I am, or that I’m not useless.

          The extension of this is the assumption for some of us is the assumption that God looks at us and frowns, shakes His head, sighs, scowls, or otherwise expresses His disappointment with us. It isn’t unusual for me to go to God to tell Him again how be a failure I am. That was part of the reason I started praying according to a strict list (Church, family, community, authority, enemies, my heart, my mind, my  body, my relations, my soul, my possessions and my projects.) I rarely make it far enough down the list to whine.

          But for today, even acknowledging how badly you fear you will screw up, begin the day by placing it before God and personalize the verse above: “The Lord my God is with me, the Mighty Warrior who saves. You will take great delight in me; in  Your love you will no longer rebuke me, but will rejoice over me with singing.” Remember that it’s one of those already true and not yet things because He can see your future.

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