WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Today, we're going to take a posture of peace with the heart of a restorer. 2 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:10.600 Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale. 3 00:00:10.600 --> 00:00:15.080 Posture is a podcast that serves as a short, audible fist bump to remind you that God is 4 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:16.079 in everything. 5 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:24.160 Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace. 6 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:26.320 I'm going to read some words of life over you right now. 7 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:32.159 This is from the book of Isaiah, chapter 58, verses 6-12, so just take a moment, sit 8 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:34.480 back, and receive these words. 9 00:00:34.480 --> 00:00:35.960 The Lord says, 10 00:00:35.960 --> 00:00:39.640 This is the kind of fast that I desire. 11 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:42.760 Remove the heavy chains of oppression. 12 00:00:42.760 --> 00:00:45.840 Stop exploiting your workers. 13 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:49.360 Set free the crushed and mistreated. 14 00:00:49.360 --> 00:00:52.520 Break off every yoke of bondage. 15 00:00:52.520 --> 00:00:55.320 Share your food with the hungry. 16 00:00:55.320 --> 00:01:00.040 Provide for the homeless and bring them into your home. 17 00:01:00.040 --> 00:01:02.440 Clothe the naked. 18 00:01:02.440 --> 00:01:05.960 Don't turn your back on your own flesh and blood. 19 00:01:05.960 --> 00:01:13.560 Then, my favor will bathe you in sunlight until you are like the dawn bursting through 20 00:01:13.560 --> 00:01:19.960 a dark night, and then suddenly your healing will manifest. 21 00:01:19.960 --> 00:01:28.040 You will see your righteousness march out before you, and the glory of Yahweh will protect 22 00:01:28.040 --> 00:01:31.320 you from all harm. 23 00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:34.680 Then Yahweh will answer you when you pray. 24 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:39.400 When you cry out for help, He will say, I am here. 25 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:47.360 If you banish every form of oppression, the scornful accusations and vicious slander, 26 00:01:47.360 --> 00:01:54.800 and if you offer yourselves in compassion for the hungry and relieve those in misery, 27 00:01:54.800 --> 00:02:04.800 then your dawning light will rise in the darkness and your gloom will turn into noonday splendor. 28 00:02:04.800 --> 00:02:10.080 Yahweh will always guide you where to go and what to do. 29 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:18.080 He will fill you with refreshment even when you are in a dry, difficult place. 30 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:26.560 He will continually restore strength to you so you will flourish like a well-watered garden 31 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:33.760 and like an ever-flowing, trustworthy spring of blessing. 32 00:02:33.760 --> 00:02:43.600 Your people will rebuild long-deserted ruins, building anew on foundations laid long before you. 33 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:51.200 You will be known as repairers of the cities and restorers of the communities. 34 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:59.040 Throughout the book of Isaiah, there is a theme of God's consistency and man's inconsistency. 35 00:02:59.040 --> 00:03:13.440 Yet, in the midst of rebellion, exile, and heartbreak, emerges this beautiful promise of Emmanuel, God with us. 36 00:03:13.440 --> 00:03:21.360 When we read these words through the lens of the finished work of our Emmanuel, Jesus Christ, 37 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:27.920 we see these promises and callings for what they truly are, our inheritance. 38 00:03:27.920 --> 00:03:38.800 You have been given the heart of a restorer, and I just feel so strongly to remind you of this truth every day this week. 39 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:45.440 There is a reason loss and injustice affect us so much, not just in our own experiences, 40 00:03:45.440 --> 00:03:52.800 but we are so affected when others face them as well, because we have experienced a better word, 41 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:58.400 a better way, the word, the way, named Jesus Christ. 42 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:07.440 Colossians 3 says your life is now concealed in Him, and while your enemy Satan can't take you out of Christ, 43 00:04:07.440 --> 00:04:14.480 he can convince you that your position in Christ makes no difference to the world around you. 44 00:04:14.480 --> 00:04:16.880 But it does. 45 00:04:16.880 --> 00:04:22.800 No matter how you came into this world, you have not been haphazardly placed here on earth, 46 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:28.320 and your destiny is not to be a punching bag of loss and pain. 47 00:04:28.320 --> 00:04:35.280 You have been planted here by God Himself to be a display of His splendor. 48 00:04:35.280 --> 00:04:40.640 As your social media newsfeed continues to fill with people's pain and suffering, 49 00:04:40.640 --> 00:04:45.920 as you walk with your friends through grief, as you face your own difficult battles, 50 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:53.600 do not give in to the fear, and don't believe anything less than what God believes about you. 51 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:59.840 Don't believe that your fragile moments or your fragile feelings ever equate to you being fragile. 52 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:06.800 There is a strength inside of you, a divine empowering, and maybe it seems right now that 53 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:13.600 it's untapped or it's undiscovered, but it is there, and hear me, it's not all up to you. 54 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:22.560 It's who he is in you. Our God is a restorer, so we must lean into his wisdom, his truth, 55 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:30.960 his guidance today. Start with his words, make them your words. You can bring life and hope 56 00:05:30.960 --> 00:05:39.280 with an encouraging word today, so start thinking and speaking like the restorer that you are. 57 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:48.960 The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3, and in Hebrew it is shalom, shalom, 58 00:05:48.960 --> 00:05:56.560 meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus. 59 00:05:57.280 --> 00:06:04.400 Let's declare this together. Today, I am kept in perfect peace. With my whole heart, 60 00:06:04.400 --> 00:06:12.480 I trust the Lord. I am strong. I am victorious. I am whole. Remember, friend, you are a living 61 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:18.480 testimony of Jesus's ultimate win, not because of anything you did, but because of what he did 62 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:24.720 for you. With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's 63 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:26.480 defeat on replay.