Today, we're going to take a posture of peace with the heart of a restorer.
Hi, I'm Lindsay Van Zale.
Posture is a podcast that serves as a short, audible fist bump to remind you that God is
in everything.
Together, we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
I'm going to read some words of life over you right now.
This is from the book of Isaiah, chapter 58, verses 6-12, so just take a moment, sit
back, and receive these words.
The Lord says,
This is the kind of fast that I desire.
Remove the heavy chains of oppression.
Stop exploiting your workers.
Set free the crushed and mistreated.
Break off every yoke of bondage.
Share your food with the hungry.
Provide for the homeless and bring them into your home.
Clothe the naked.
Don't turn your back on your own flesh and blood.
Then, my favor will bathe you in sunlight until you are like the dawn bursting through
a dark night, and then suddenly your healing will manifest.
You will see your righteousness march out before you, and the glory of Yahweh will protect
you from all harm.
Then Yahweh will answer you when you pray.
When you cry out for help, He will say, I am here.
If you banish every form of oppression, the scornful accusations and vicious slander,
and if you offer yourselves in compassion for the hungry and relieve those in misery,
then your dawning light will rise in the darkness and your gloom will turn into noonday splendor.
Yahweh will always guide you where to go and what to do.
He will fill you with refreshment even when you are in a dry, difficult place.
He will continually restore strength to you so you will flourish like a well-watered garden
and like an ever-flowing, trustworthy spring of blessing.
Your people will rebuild long-deserted ruins, building anew on foundations laid long before you.
You will be known as repairers of the cities and restorers of the communities.
Throughout the book of Isaiah, there is a theme of God's consistency and man's inconsistency.
Yet, in the midst of rebellion, exile, and heartbreak, emerges this beautiful promise of Emmanuel, God with us.
When we read these words through the lens of the finished work of our Emmanuel, Jesus Christ,
we see these promises and callings for what they truly are, our inheritance.
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.
There is a reason loss and injustice affect us so much, not just in our own experiences,
but we are so affected when others face them as well, because we have experienced a better word,
a better way, the word, the way, named Jesus Christ.
Colossians 3 says your life is now concealed in Him, and while your enemy Satan can't take you out of Christ,
he can convince you that your position in Christ makes no difference to the world around you.
But it does.
No matter how you came into this world, you have not been haphazardly placed here on earth,
and your destiny is not to be a punching bag of loss and pain.
You have been planted here by God Himself to be a display of His splendor.
As your social media newsfeed continues to fill with people's pain and suffering,
as you walk with your friends through grief, as you face your own difficult battles,
do not give in to the fear, and don't believe anything less than what God believes about you.
Don't believe that your fragile moments or your fragile feelings ever equate to you being fragile.
There is a strength inside of you, a divine empowering, and maybe it seems right now that
it's untapped or it's undiscovered, but it is there, and hear me, it's not all up to you.
It's who he is in you. Our God is a restorer, so we must lean into his wisdom, his truth,
his guidance today. Start with his words, make them your words. You can bring life and hope
with an encouraging word today, so start thinking and speaking like the restorer that you are.
The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26 3, and in Hebrew it is shalom, shalom,
meaning complete wholeness, nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus.
Let's declare this together. Today, I am kept in perfect peace. With my whole heart,
I trust the Lord. I am strong. I am victorious. I am whole. Remember, friend, you are a living
testimony of Jesus's ultimate win, not because of anything you did, but because of what he did
for you. With every step you take today, you're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's
defeat on replay.