God Has The Final Say
Today is trash day at our house.
Dedicated waste disposal men come past the Adams home every Thursday in two sets. The first to grab our recycling and the second for our general waste.
I dread to think of the consequences if the waste disposal men didn’t attend for several weeks. Imagine how cluttered, gross and stinky our home would get. Eww! Can you imagine that rotten bin smell?
So, every Wednesday night (or, if we forfget, early Thursday morning) my husband or I walk around the house, emptying the smaller bins in each room. We then place our trash outside the house for it to be collected.
But it’s up to us. It’s up to us to identify our rubbish. It’s up to us to pack it way. It’s up to us to put it outside.
“Where are you going with this, Shovorne?” I hear you ask!
In this season, when fear, anxiety, hopelessness and a scarcity mindset want to take up residency within us, rubbish day reminds me of the responsibility we have, to clear out our hearts and mind.
While we have to stay informed, and a lot of this is done through the media, friends, world professionals, it’s up to us to filter through the trash and discard it. Just like on rubbish day, if we forget to put out the trash bags out, no one kicks down our door, desperate to give our home a clean. Who is responsible for giving your heart and mind a declutter, for ensuring your mental and spiritual health? When is the last time you sieved through your mindset and the position of your heart, to ensure you not hoarding crap, and instead, only holding on to what belongs there?
Just like we do with our home, girl, we have to make a conscious effort to tidy up our hearts and minds. And more importantly, to remember that GOD HAS THE FINAL SAY.
Despite what we see and hear in the world right now we have been appointed…
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…authority and power through our Lord Jesus Christ to pull down strongholds:
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 New King James Version (NKJV)
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
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…to operate in peace:
Isaiah 26:3 New International Version (NIV)
3 You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
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…with healthy hopeful minds and praising hearts
Philippians 4:8 The Passion Translation (TPT) says:
8 So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always.
Lessons From Job
I remember reading the book of Job a few weeks ago as part of my Chronological Bible reading plan. If I’m honest, there were chapters and chapters and chapters where I felt Job’s friends were just rattling on. Offering advice, information, conspiracy theories and opinions as to why Job’s was experiencing a tough season. Even his wife was like Job, you better give up and quit! Essentially trash talk!
Then in Job chapter 38, God dives in with the most powerful truths that just BLOW MY MIND every time I read them:
(Side note: You can read it below where I’ve highlighted some verses that are just draw dropping to me. What stands out to you?)
The Lord Speaks
38 Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind. He said:
2 Who is this who obscures my counsel
with ignorant words?
3 Get ready to answer me like a man;
when I question you, you will inform me.
4 Where were you when I established the Earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 What supports its foundations?
Or who laid its cornerstone
7 while the morning stars sang together,
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Who enclosed the sea behind doors
when it burst from the womb,
9 when I made the clouds its garment
and total darkness its blanket,
10 when I determined its boundaries[c]
and put its bars and doors in place,
11 when I declared, “You may come this far, but no farther;
your proud waves stop here”?
12 Have you ever in your life commanded the morning
or assigned the dawn its place,
13 so it may seize the edges of the EarthEarth
and shake the wicked out of it?
14 The Earth is changed as clay is by a seal;
its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.
15 Light[d] is withheld from the wicked,
and the arm raised in violence is broken.
16 Have you traveled to the sources of the sea
or walked in the depths of the oceans?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the extent of the Earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
19 Where is the road to the home of light?
Do you know where darkness lives,
20 so you can lead it back to its border?
Are you familiar with the paths to its home?
21 Don’t you know? You were already born;
you have lived so long![e]
22 Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?
Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,
23 which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,
for the day of warfare and battle?
24 What road leads to the place where light is dispersed?[f]
Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the Earth?
25 Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain
or clears the way for lightning,
26 to bring rain on an uninhabited land,
on a desert with no human life,[g]
27 to satisfy the parched wasteland
and cause the grass to sprout?
28 Does the rain have a father?
Who fathered the drops of dew?
29 Whose womb did the ice come from?
Who gave birth to the frost of heaven
30 when water becomes as hard as stone,[h]
and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?
31 Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades
or loosen the belt of Orion?
32 Can you bring out the constellations[i] in their season
and lead the Bear[j] and her cubs?
33 Do you know the laws of heaven?
Can you impose its[k] authority on Earth?
34 Can you command[l] the clouds
so that a flood of water covers you?
35 Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?
Do they report to you, “Here we are”?
36 Who put wisdom in the heart[m]
or gave the mind understanding?
37 Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven
38 when the dust hardens like cast metal
and the clods of dirt stick together?
WOW! WOW! WOW!
Firstly, showing up through a whirlwind on its own displays the awesome power of God. And to continue, God’s rhetorical questions to Job reveal God’s Creator-wisdom, his dominion, governance and sovereignty over the Earth. The light and darkness, thunder, snow, the sea, death and all of creation! It reminds me that I can trust God to run the universe, and I have certitude in His hand upon my daily life.
The truth is that just like with Job, we’ll never know fully what the Lord is doing concerning what’s happening on the Earth. What I do know is that have a choice. The choice to hold onto the doubts, fears and junk that the enemy would love for us to live with. Or, we can pack it up with the rest of the trash, throw it out of our hearts and minds before the altar of God. And instead, allow the Holy one to lead us into a decluttered place; the rhythm of grace and hope, through His words that we live by.
Girl, I don’t know about you, but it’s time to put out the rubbish and exchange the world’s worries, for God’s hope.
I love this! It’s so true how you compare the fact that it’s up to us to set the trash out, just like it’s up to us to hand all the trash in our mind over to God. Beautifully written!
Love reading this post today. Being reminded of clearing out what no longer suits us through obedience in the season of Thanksgiving, rings bells of humility and gratefulness. The Lord brought Job through so much, He declared when enough was enough. Job just had to let go and experience very rough seasons, losing seasons, yet he held on to God. Amen!
Thank you girl, love this truth and the amazing splendor of God. It’s not until you really step back and study the word of God for yourself to see the magnitude of who God is.
Such truth, awe and words of wisdom I really needed to read this word xx
Thank you for this! And I LOVE that Isaiah 26:3 graphic- beautiful!
I am encouraged by this post as it is hard to deal with a lot of negative thoughts during this quarantine season….but I am reminded that God has the final say. His Word is Truth no matter what lies the enemy may whisper. I can trust God.
If one lesson has been sealed in my mind during this pandemic it is that God is sovereign. He will do as he pleases and that is actually something that we can rest in. I am encouraged by your words and of course the beautiful scripture that you have included. Thanks for sharing!
This is so beautifully written! Thank you for sharing your faith here. I love the verses that you shared.
I love seeing posts like this. So inspirational and motivating.
God has the Final Say! <3
So sweet. Thanks for sharing. He DOES have the final say <3