Declarations

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What do you declare on a daily basis?  Ok lets maybe back up.  "Declare" sounds formal and weird to use in ordinary language today, but it literally means to say something.  So let me ask you again, what do you declare?

It's hot.  I'm so sweaty.  I am sick of my clothes and want new ones.  I wish I had a car.  I am so bored.  My students are so frustrating.  The kids are so badly behaved.

These are just a few of the declarations I make on a VERY regular basis.

I have recently started the habit of copying scripture as a form of meditation.  I usually look for a list on Pinterest for ease, and this month it happens to be focusing on strength.  Let me show you why I have been thinking about declarations lately:


And you will say in that day:  “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds 
among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.  “Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth.  Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”  -Isaiah 12:4-6 (emphasis added)


I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.  -Psalm 118:17 (emphasis added)

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

-Isaiah 40:28-31


I could go on and on, but what I want to point out is this theme of making a point of recounting, or making known or declaring God's goodness.  I love the Isaiah 40 passage where it begins "Have you not known?  Have you not heard?"  It's like "HELLOO!  DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW GOOD GOD IS?!?"  But do the words I speak show others how good God is?  Or do my words bring others around me down?  I feel really convicted by this.  I desire to radiate Christ's light wherever I go.  I want wherever I step foot to be better by the time I leave simply by my being there.  That may sound selfish, but it's not for me, it so that Christ's name be glorified in my words and deeds.  

So I will ask again, what do you declare?  What do your words say about your faith?  When was the last time you recounted the deeds of God?

Standing in awe of the paradoxical simplicity and complexity of living for Christ,

Sigourney

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