This Thanksgiving morning in the Year of our Lord 2012 I am in the Psalms. It’s where I usually begin every morning. I highly recommend it. God is always able to get my attitude adjusted and my eyes cleared and my mind right and my heart cleansed here in these beautiful psalms of praise and thanksgiving and hardcore truth. This morning I began in Psalm 144 and the Lord began to speak to my heart with the first verse….

Blessed be the LORD, my rock,

who trains my hands for war,

and my fingers for battle…

Psalm 144:1

I, as a believer, as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, am at war. I battle against the spiritual forces of darkness and the powers and principalities of wickedness (Eph 6:12). There is only One who can train me for this war… that is my LORD. The Lord trains us up before He sends us out to battle. He gives us each a weapon that is designed just for us… we cannot win in battle using a borrowed weapon. It has to be the one fit and measured perfectly for us. David could not wear Sauls armor. Attempting to do so would have sent him out to the slaughter. God had trained David to battle with a slingshot and a stone…

The weapon of warfare that God has trained me in…

well, since I was a child I wrote and since I was three yrs old I gravitated to caring for little ones.

I remember when I was around nine or ten years old my aunt and uncle had a cat who had kittens. These kittens were wild as all get out. They could not be caught and they had no desire to be held or petted. They were afraid of everyone.

Now I just was not having it.

I remember every time I went to my aunt and uncle’s my desire was to catch that cat. I spent hours just being still. I would take food. I would walk up to “Paper” as I had named him as easy as I could so as not to scare him. Each day he would come closer and closer and closer and closer. Someday’s he would not at all and some days he would run but I never gave up… and finally one day he came close enough to me that I was able to swoop him up in my hands and my fingers ran through his soft white and gray fur… and he purred. I was ecstatic!

God had satisfied my desire to show that cat that I loved him and would never hurt him.

And also I can recall when I was around this same age of nine or ten at my own house there was a wild rabbit that would come up in our yard… my desire was to get that rabbit to come to me. Once again I took carrots out to the yard when I would see him. I would walk slow and easy and stand perfectly still for what seemed like hours to me… and each day the rabbit would come closer and closer… and one day the rabbit took the carrot right out of my hand! I was ecstatic!

God had satisfied my desire to show that rabbit that I loved him and would never hurt him.

I look back on my life and I can see over and over again how God has been training me for this spiritual battle against the forces of darkness. Absolutely nothing in life is without purpose with a sovereign God. When David stood before Saul, ready to take down Goliath with just a slingshot and a stone, he stood there confident in his God because God had been training him up for this moment… God had already showed him how to take down a bear and a lion and who knows what else. Therefore, David could face Goliath with confidence in the weapon that he knew as well as his own hand.

David wrapped his hand around his slingshot and his fingers around the stone and with them and his confidence and boldness in the promises of his God… well Goliath went down. David’s weapon of training defeated the enemy that God allowed to come before him… David’s desire was to bring the loud mouthed Philistine down with the weapon that David knew, so that all Israel would see that God loved him, and them, and they could and should trust their God.

Now as for me… if I tried to stand before Goliath with a slingshot and stone or even wearing Saul’s armor… well I would be setting myself up for the slaughter. God has not trained me in those weapons and He is not training me to fight that enemy with those weapons.

My hands have been trained with patience for the hurting and fearful of the human touch… my hands have been trained to wait for hours and days and maybe even years and offer small bits of nurture and commitment and stability to the little ones, both in faith and age (1 John 2:12), so that they might see that I love them and would never hurt them so that they might see that God loves them… My hands have been trained to stay and to come back for more even when I am hurt, ignored, or mistaken.

My hands have been trained to want that one…

       yes, that one whose eyes are filled with doubt…

that one whose hands reach out timidly and with uncertainty…

   that one whose frustration is evident and whose hurt runs deep…

yes, my desire is for them to see that I love them and would never hurt them.

So whether it is “Paper” who would scratch and claw and hiss and bite at the coming hand that just wants to hold them and comfort them and love them… or whether its the “rabbit” that just is unsure and shy and timid…

My desire is that they would know that I love them and would never hurt them… and most importantly, that they would know that God loves them and they can indeed trust Him.

  You open Your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Psalm 145:16

My hands have been trained for war in the trenches of fear and doubt and uncertainty and my fingers have been trained for this keyboard… God knew that my desire was for missions… I fight with my hands on the front-lines and with my fingers around the world.

So today, this Thanksgiving in the Year of our Lord 2012, I am thankful for satisfied desires.

I will extol You, my God, O King,
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised,
And His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of Your majesty
And on Your wonderful works, I will meditate.
Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts,
And I will tell of Your greatness.
They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness
And will shout joyfully of Your righteousness.

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