Laurie Hopkins

“And Zacharius said to the angel,”How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” (LUke 1:18)

“Then mary said, ‘Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word'” And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:38)

Zacharius asked for a sign and was mute until the promised child was named. Mary questioned how it was possible (sought understanding) but responded with surrender.  

A Sign or a Surrender.  What message is God giving to you today?  What kind of faith will you respond with?  Will you ask God for a sign?  or will you (despite not knowing or understanding “how it will happen”) lift up your voice and say like Mary “Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to Your word.” Or will you, like Zacharius, ask for a sign which the Lord will graciously give you but will leave you mute for the duration of the promise coming to fulfillment?

When Mary surrenders, God gives her the sign she hasn’t asked for (Elizabeth who was barren is with child) and the reassurance she will need “with God nothing is impossible”.  

Advent is not only a season of faith but one of surrender.  Will you surrender in faith today to what God has for you in the Advent season of 2020?  There is one month left in this year.  Let’s lean in, commit to the shift and finish strong

Stand Still

Jehoshaphat found himself in a situation.  Moab and the people of Ammon and others came up together to battle against him. 

Do you find yourself in a situation today?  A battle you did not initiate, one that you may or may not have even seen coming.  Nevertheless, you find yourself in the midst.

How did Jehoshaphat respond?  “Jehoshaphat feared……..and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah…….So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord.”

It is not your first reaction that makes all the difference; it is the moment that you turn to the Lord that matters.  You may have started out fearful, but now, you know to turn your face to the one that holds the outcome of the situation in His mighty hands.

God was faithful to the seeking!  He spoke through Jahaziel to Jehoshaphat and the people that were gathered.

God is faithful to speak into your situation today if you will seek Him and listen!

“You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you.” 2 Chronicles 20:17

Fight= lacham= to eat of

Position- yatsab= set myself, put in place, as angles presenting themselves before God

Stand still = amad – stand, remain, endure, take one’s stand, cease, tarry, abide

See- ra’al= consider, perceive, inspect

Fear= yare-= awe or reverence

Dismayed= chathath = to be shattered, dismayed or broken

Tomorrow= machor=in future time, in time to come

You will not need to eat of this battle. Set yourself in place before God, stand, remain, endure, take a stand, cease, tarry, abide, and consider/perceive the salvation of the Lord, who is with your O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not stand in awe or reverence of your enemy or be shattered or broken, tomorrow and in the future time, go out against them, for the Lord is with you.  2 Chronicles 20:17

You do not need to “eat of” this situation.  The Lord is ready to fight for you, if only you would position yourself in Him, abide and perceive (not see in the natural sense, but perceive in the spiritual realm even before it can be seen in the natural) the victory that is before you, not just tomorrow as in the day after today, but as in your future. 

What situation do you find yourself in today?  Seek the Lord and listen to His instruction.  Then stand still and watch as He battles for you in this season.

I’m reading in the book of John at the moment and this morning, John 6:13 caught my attention. Jesus was feeding the 5 thousand. He took the bread, blessed it, broke it and then distributed it.

How many times have I read this passage? And when I read it again, I have a tendency to “skim” since I know the story. But God…….this morning slowed me down, and I read this verse: 

“So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain so that nothing is lost.'” (John 6:13).

This is more than a story about not “wasting” the leftovers. The original word for fragment in Greek is klasma, which is defined as broken pieces or broken fragments. The word for lost is apollymi which means to be put out of the way entirely or to be rendered useless or to cause emptiness to be perceived.

The people were filled, why bother with the few broken fragments of bread that were left? The people had already been attended to.

Even as Jesus is making us whole – feeding us and fixing the “problem” – there are still broken pieces left behind. Jesus wants us to gather those broken pieces. They are not to be rendered useless or to cause a perception of emptiness.

There is use for the broken pieces – those broken pieces are a large part of who we are and who we are becoming. Sometimes, I believe, we get stuck focusing on the broken pieces – and we experience such a feeling of lost – the what if’s and the regret.

Jesus wants us to understand that there need not be a feeling of loss. We have been fed and filled and now we can gather up those broken fragments -they are valuable and important – there is to be no loss! He will use all things for our good and for His glory. He will restore the years that the locust has eaten! In Psalm 56:8 the Psalmist declares that God has gathered all his tears in a bottle.

We all have broken pieces. In the past I have been tempted to wipe them all aside, disregard them or even worse look at them with disdain. But, if God is even gathering my tears, then how can I look down on the broken pieces that are evidence of the feeding and the filling?

Those broken pieces are an important piece of who we are and where we are going.

What broken pieces do you need to gather up today? The word for gather here is synago, which means to join together in one those previously separated. There is no need to separate yourself from where you’ve been. Where you’ve been is an important part of the story of where you met Jesus and how far He has bought you! The Bible says not to despise small beginnings.

Are you ready to gather the broken pieces today?