How is it that a word can mean something so beautiful and something so awful all at the same time? I was listening to the song "You have ravished my heart" by Bethel Church and looked up the meaning of the word "ravish" only to discover that while it can mean to 'enrapture', 'enthrall' and 'delight', it can also mean to 'take (a woman) by force' and 'rape (a woman)' - dictionary.com.
There are some words in the dictionary that I wish just didn't exist because I want so much for the action to not exist such that we have to give it a name. Words like 'violence', and 'rape', and 'torture', and 'abuse', and 'exploitation', and 'manipulation' and 'murder'.
Yet when you think about the ones that have a double meaning, it's like God comes and takes what man means for harm and makes it good. Like in the life of Joseph. His brothers wanted to take his life but instead decided to sell him as a slave. He was thrown in jail, accused of taking advantage of his master's wife, when in reality he was a man of integrity who chose not to compromise but walk away from the woman who openly invited him into her bedroom day after day. He went through trial after trial yet never turned his back on God but trusted that God's great purposes for his life would eventually come to pass, and that all the suffering he had to endure was to prepare him for the responsibilities he would one day carry (governing the whole land). God can bring restoration to any situation. I know this in my head Lord, please let it be a conviction within my heart and spirit. May Your perfect love drive out all of my fear.
John 17: 17 says, "Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth". Father, may Your truth shine through the darkness in this world, into those nations where human trafficking is rife, where armies ravage and pillage entire communities and destroy the life givers and nurturers, where teenagers offer their lives ignorantly to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, gangs and pre marital sex, where men hide in alleys to devour the innocent who pass by. May they see the truth Lord. Of who You are and who they are in You. For at some point those who hurt were once hurt. Those who break were once broken. Those who oppress were once oppressed. Those who control and mock and have no regard for life were once treated with utter contempt. They need Your healing too Lord. They need to be set free so they don't continue the vicious cycle. Sin begets sin, and pain brings more pain. The hurting hurt others. They know no other way than to release what crushes them on the inside. What scares them the most. What threatens their security or reinforces a cruel message that was drummed into their minds from an early age. They attack what tells them that the message is true. The pain of having been struck down causes them to want to fight back and reclaim themselves. Either that or they go down a spiral of self depreciation, self mutilation and self destruction. They may not take it out on others directly but they feed the ugly little voice by wrecking themselves, by believing they are worth nothing good. Father, lift their eyes to You. Drown out the lies. Chase away the darkness that surrounds them and clouds their minds and hearts and spirits.
There are some words in the dictionary that I wish just didn't exist because I want so much for the action to not exist such that we have to give it a name. Words like 'violence', and 'rape', and 'torture', and 'abuse', and 'exploitation', and 'manipulation' and 'murder'.
Yet when you think about the ones that have a double meaning, it's like God comes and takes what man means for harm and makes it good. Like in the life of Joseph. His brothers wanted to take his life but instead decided to sell him as a slave. He was thrown in jail, accused of taking advantage of his master's wife, when in reality he was a man of integrity who chose not to compromise but walk away from the woman who openly invited him into her bedroom day after day. He went through trial after trial yet never turned his back on God but trusted that God's great purposes for his life would eventually come to pass, and that all the suffering he had to endure was to prepare him for the responsibilities he would one day carry (governing the whole land). God can bring restoration to any situation. I know this in my head Lord, please let it be a conviction within my heart and spirit. May Your perfect love drive out all of my fear.
John 17: 17 says, "Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth". Father, may Your truth shine through the darkness in this world, into those nations where human trafficking is rife, where armies ravage and pillage entire communities and destroy the life givers and nurturers, where teenagers offer their lives ignorantly to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, gangs and pre marital sex, where men hide in alleys to devour the innocent who pass by. May they see the truth Lord. Of who You are and who they are in You. For at some point those who hurt were once hurt. Those who break were once broken. Those who oppress were once oppressed. Those who control and mock and have no regard for life were once treated with utter contempt. They need Your healing too Lord. They need to be set free so they don't continue the vicious cycle. Sin begets sin, and pain brings more pain. The hurting hurt others. They know no other way than to release what crushes them on the inside. What scares them the most. What threatens their security or reinforces a cruel message that was drummed into their minds from an early age. They attack what tells them that the message is true. The pain of having been struck down causes them to want to fight back and reclaim themselves. Either that or they go down a spiral of self depreciation, self mutilation and self destruction. They may not take it out on others directly but they feed the ugly little voice by wrecking themselves, by believing they are worth nothing good. Father, lift their eyes to You. Drown out the lies. Chase away the darkness that surrounds them and clouds their minds and hearts and spirits.
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