I need a shift. Stuff is consuming me and I woke way too early. Having a hard time turning off the thoughts of work and world and worry. Woes. It doesn’t take long to be bombarded with demands that try to pull your focus away from where it needs to be. And they can be good demands. But the way you treat them causes you to lose perspective. That is me.
Shoulders tight. Neck stiff. Forehead tense. Stomach in knots. Sure signs of my need to refocus.
A verse just like this helps. It is a simple verse but tells a big story. Ezra was not in the most ideal living situation. Far from home and removed from the land generations before him had been promised, still promised. This was his home.
He found favor with the authority of the day and was allowed to return to his homeland. But had he not set his heart on the things that mattered, would the opportunity still have existed? I don’t know.
I do know he determined to know and practice the precepts that had been given to his ancestors. He was skilled in it. An expert. Not just in his mind but in his heart. A heart expert in the law of the Lord. Determined to teach it in his homeland.
He journaled. He was a scribe. He had to write it out. I understand that. Something about writing it out brings focus.
He practiced it. I understand that too. Not practicing it is what has me stressed. I can know it but without practicing it, I am in a mess.
Ezra was a willing vessel to know and practice. He set his heart on it. He connected brain and heart. Working in tandem the vessel is able to operate more efficiently.
Aligning my vessel this morning. Shifting my perspective. Situations haven’t changed. But my knowledge needs to be transferred down a little. It needs to hit my heart today.
How about you? Do you need a realignment? Stop and ask for one.
