Nougat 21

Yesterday, Antonette Scarlet shared one of her poems with me that was just right for the Nougat. It’s from her Kindle anthology ‘Spirit Leads’. As we reflect on Today’s Holy Nougat, might her poem also help

Deuteronomy 31:8 NLT

[8] Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

God Will Not Fail Us

Please read Antonette’s poem below. The application and assignment follow.

WORRY WART

Look at you!

All confident and serene in the worry corner of your head;

No one like you

Oh Controller of all Events.

You carry out your job so well,

Efficiently leaving

No stone unturned or over turned-

When you worry for hours on end-

Seeking the possibility that something may go wrong

Or the doubt that it may go right;

In case, perchance you are right,

You worry straight through the night.

You place more faith in worrying than you do in sitting on a chair,

For you check every chair before you sit and question every instruction given to you by God, The Chair;

Perchance He has an ‘off’ day and your mighty power-habit sees beyond His divine wisdom.

Foolish child, how do you stop this addiction? This sin! …

How do you get out of your head?

How do you have faith again?

Antonette Scarlett

(get your copy on amazon)

Application

Scarlett’s poem Worry Wart speaks to our sin of failing to trust God’s capacity to keep God’s promises. The closing stanza deems such actions foolish, inviting the reader to stop leaning on our own understanding and trust God in totality. As she names worry as an addiction, we’re left wondering … have we become hooked? Is worry our drug of choice?

If worry is the denial of God’s promise as shared with Joshua, does spring day that we have underlying abandonment issues? Ouch. Neither abandonment nor addiction sit very well with me, yet … isn’t that an accurate depiction of the situation?

Might I propose that if we find ourselves doubting God’s willingness or capacity to lead us, remain with us, or see us through, then it’s time to assess our confession of God’s God-ness. For, for God to be God, God’s God-ness ought to be revealed. A key aspect of God’s Godness is God’s presence. We might not always feel God’s presence, but neither do we feel our liver or spleen. Yet we believe in their existence.

Is it time to yield to the Chair?

Assignment

Reread the Nougat, asking God to help us take the promise to heart …

Begin practising the shift in mindset

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May all we seek be found in Christ