A Fine Mix Up

Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the LORD: And He will give you the desires of your heart."

This past New Year's I received an e-mail from Troy Bourne of JirehScope Ministries ( the worship ministry that I work with) and he wrote about this verse and the Hebrew meaning for the word we translate as "Delight" in Psalm 37:4. The Hebrew word is anag and it means to be pliable, feminine, delicate.Since that e-mail I have been pondering the verse (which is one of my favorites) and seeking some new revelation. So this morning I pulled out my concordance and decided to look up the original meaning of some of the other key words of course this took me to searching for the word "desires". I found the number for the corresponding word an flipped through the back of my Strong's Concordance excited to see what it had new for me to learn. I was elated when I saw that the word meant. Now I must divulge that I had not even had my first cup of tea yet.Much to my surprise it said that the word mean "union with or together". In my early morning fuzzy headed state I had a light bulb moment, a new revelation. I concluded that if we are to make ourselves pliable to the Lord, we will be in a closer union with Him, our hearts would be "together, after all, THAT is the desire of my heart, to know HIM in an ever closer union!! I was so excited I didn't even need tea now. I went about my morning of delivering bags of clothing from JirehScope Ministries clothing ministry.

I returned home and was quite satisfied but still ready to go deeper in Psalm 37:4 so I reopened my bible and concordance to discover my blunder. HA, I had looked up the definition of a word with the same assigned number on the Greek portion of the dictionary not in the Hebrew section!!! The word "desires' in Hebrew means just what my bible translates it as; a request, desire or petition NOT a closer union.

Discovering my fine mix up brought a smile to my lips as I contemplated once again my original thoughts of the morning. I really was not all that far off, although I did not have an accurate direct translation of the verse. When we are pliable in the hands of God, letting HIM mold us and shape us for HIS purposes, our thoughts and the longings of our hearts change to reflect HIS longings and desires. it is then that HE answers these petitions of a heart that beats in "union with" HIS. When all of that has transpired we are truly "together" with the LORD.

The desire of my heart is to know HIM MORE and to encourage other women to be daily filled with the beauty of the LORD, that is the reason for this new blog. Although I have been the sole writer of this blog since it began a few weeks ago, I do not consider this "my blog". This blog site is the result of a vision laid on my heart and the hearts of some of my precious sisters in Christ, Brooke Walker and Jillian Castellano. The three of us will be posting blogs through the week to share our stories and lessons from our daily walk in this beauty-full life with Jesus. We hope you will come along for the journey with us.

Today, in the midst of the clothing delivery, I received a phone call from Jillian with a request, petition (hehe), a desire of her heart in response to President Obama's declaration of January as human trafficking awareness month. I will now let her share this desire with you dear friends. SO read on...

In His beauty,

Ruthann

Hello all!

I'm honored to be a part of this movement with my dear sisters. I pray you all feel the passion stirring in my heart as I write this first post...

It sounds cliche to say that freedom is something that we take for granted every day. But we do.

Do you worry that if you walk down the street alone you may be abducted and forced into sexual slavery? Do you worry about hiding the gender of your daughter to lessen the risk that she'll be kidnapped and forced into the sex slave trade? Do you worry that if you lose your job you will be manipulated and forced into the only job your society will allow you to have-sexual slavery?

I am confident that none of us can answer "yes" to any of those things.

As you may or may not have heard, President Obama has declared January to be National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. This is an issue that has been close to my heart since my husband and I got connected with a ministry during college a few years ago.

This morning, God laid action on my heart. My goal is to raise awareness through action and provide freedom for at least one girl or woman every day for the month of January.

It could be us in bondage, but it's not. It could be our sons or daughters, but it's not. I'm grateful every day for that, which is why I feel so strongly that we should help provide freedom for those who are in a literal slavery.

A life of freedom begins with one day. Visit www.freedom424.org today to give your gift of $24 that will buy a woman or girl in Thailand out of slavery for one whole day. During that day of freedom, woman and girls are offered food, medical care, education, transportation, housing, and counseling.

Help reach the goal of providing freedom for at least one girl or woman each day this month!

If you would like to participate,leave a comment below with the number of days that you would like to cover in January and make your donation by clicking "donate" in the upper right hand corner of the homepage at Freedom 4/24

The Bible instructs us to give to and care for those who are in need. Christ died to give freedom to all who call on Him. When people like you and I give our $24 donation, the people who partner with this ministry make sure that each woman saved from sexual slavery that day has an opportunity to hear the message of Christ and experience the freedom that He has to offer. There's no doubt that we have an amazing opportunity here to help women find freedom and realize their beauty and worth. And I so strongly believe that with opportunity, comes responsibility. I pray the Lord stirs the hearts of many throughout this month. I pray that many who are in bondage, experience freedom. And I pray that those of us who have the means, will move and do our part.

May God bless you in your giving!

Jill