Day 124: Laugh at our Enemies

Acts 26:19-32; 1 Samuel 1:1-2:11; Psalm 49

"Then prove what you have done by the way you live." As I mentioned in a recent post, it is by faith and grace we are saved. A lot of people have gotten this mixed up with works, doing stuff, earning our way to heaven, being a good persion.  All those things are good, but as Paul says here and sort of sorts things out for us:  one of the reasons we live a life of compassion, generosity, humility, is because it is an outpouring of the change in our hearts.  And as Jesus says earlier in scripture, it is by those things that everyone will know we are his disciples.

The other thing about this little snippet from Paul's speech, is the order of what he says.  First, stop sinning, then turn to God, THEN live differently. First, we have to throw out the crap that is in our hearts because God cannot live where there is junk.  So, once we have stopped worshipping ourselves and our own lives, we can then worship God; and out of that acceptance of Jesus our lives can be transformed for good.  It isn't that we have to get our act together, start being awesome and Jesus-y, and then God will accept us.  The change, the transformation, the metamorphosis, must come from within and work its way out.

I find it very interesting that "Peninnah liked to make Hannah feel miserable...especially when the family went to the house of The Lord." What?!  So when the family went to church, that is when they ridiculed and judged and hurt each other.  That makes no sense, so why are our church today often filled with judgment or a lack of kindness and compassion?  It's amazing how something so OLD can be relevent to THIS MOMENT.

Then, poor Hannah, she's praying and in anquish, basically worshiping The Lord in her own way and the priest starts judging her for the way she is connecting with God.  She was doing it in her own way, pouring out her heart, speaking with The Lord almighty, and this outsider thought she was crazy.  I know I'm guilty of this, judging people for how they connect with The Lord.  We have got to understand that prayer and worship are unique to each individual, and God is going to judge whether it is authentic or not, so we don't need to.

(Random side note:  Hannah feels better after she ate something...the first recording of emotional eating.  See?  Chocolate when you are sad IS biblical. Ha!)

There is so much to learn from Hannah!  She offers to The Lord what he had given her, realizing that her son, the one she agonized over, would not even live with her.  But, she gave him up to the service of The Lord anyway!  Then, in her song, she prays about "laughing at her enemies," which makes me wonder, who or what are her enemies?  She isn't in a battle, so her enemies must be internal.  But because of all she has been through, she can now laugh at those emotions pulling her down, those internal words of self-loathing, the frustrations that she felt.  We all have internal enemies that are fighting against us, but it is The Lord that helps us to defeat them and be glad.  She continues by saying that God gives strength to those who stumble--does this mean that we are GOING to stumble? that God will ALLOW us to stumble? that one of the ways he blesses us is THROUGH our stumblings?  Yes, yes, and yes.  Life is going to trip us up from time to time, whether as a result of our own emotions or thoughts, or as a result of someone else's choices.  Either way, God cares about our growth, and one of the ways he has deemed beneficial, is to teach us during times of trials.  But what will be the outcome of those nasty times in life?  Growth, laughing at our enemies, blessings from God.  It will be worth it if we stick close to The Lord.  And then one of her final thoughts that is so true and so tough:  "We cannot win a victory by our own strength." We NEED God.  We NEED his love.  We NEED his grace, mercy, peace, hope, forgiveness, friendship, guidance...to win the victory over sin in this life.  Are you feeling like this is a dark time?  Feeling lonely?  Maybe what you need is not more money, more friends, more romance, more time, but what you really, truly, absolutely need is God.  More of him.

This psalm talks about not caring so much about wealth.  We "can never pay God enough to stay alive forever and safe from death," meaning that we can't do or give or bargain with him enough to get a free ticket to heaven.  Later in the psalm it completes this thought:  "But God will resuce me from the power of death." God does, gives, rescues.  A continuation from earlier thoughts: God is the one who saves us, we can't save ourselves through money, good living, sneaking in the back way...that is just not how it works.  We need to recognize that it is all about God's grace and has nothing to do with our own strength or personality or qualifications.  This is so great because I'm not sure that without God's grace I would qualify.