Does your life have “Jordan Stones"

Esther  9:17-23 This was done on the thirteenth day of the month Adar, and on the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. ¹⁸ But the Jews who were in Susa assembled on the thirteenth and the fourteenth of the same month, and they rested on the fifteenth day and made it a day of feasting and rejoicing. ¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the rural areas, who live in the rural towns, make the fourteenth day of the month Adar a holiday for rejoicing and feasting and sending portions of food to one another. ²⁰ Then Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far, ²¹ obliging them to celebrate the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same month, annually, ²² because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and it was a month which was turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing and sending portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor. ²³   

Application: We have short memories Lord! For this purpose You have recorded what You have done in people through out history in Your Word. It is also why all through Your Word You command people to make reminders of what You have done in their lives. I call these “Jordan Stones”. You commanded Joshua and the Israelites to build an alter used by stones drawn from the center of the Jordan river to remember how You caused them cross on dry land when they entered the promised land.  (Joshua 4:1-8) You encouraged them that after they entered the land, when times became tough, they might desire to return to Egypt, forgetting both what it was really like as slaves and forgetting how Your power delivered them completely. By seeing the alter they would remember that You split the Jordan and they walked on dry land! This would be used as a reminder to them of how powerful their God is. You knew that as emotional beings when the difficult times come we have a tendency to only act on what we feel, and our memories are so short. This can cause a variety of problems. When we act based on emotion we can make foolish vows when they are too high or too low. We can respond drunk with emotion, when we sober up we realize that the action we took was neither appropriate nor wise. When we live intentionally by collecting our own “Jordan Stones” from life we equip ourselves with memory markers to be used to temper our emotions by the Holy Spirit. When we feel all is lost, and Your Spirit brings to our memory that You are the God of hope, the God of the impossible, or that You are the God Who is faithful, that knowledge and memory can counter those emotions that cause panic that usually leads to very painful mistakes. Like Joshua, Mordecai is creating memory markers, not allowing the great work that You have done to be forgotten. He knows that more difficult times will come, because such is life in a fallen world, but when the people remember each year Your commitment to them, many will not allow their momentary emotions to effect their entire future. Father we need to remember this truth about Your involvement in our lives more than ever in this sensual age we live in. We must learn to live based on what we know not what we feel. Lead us God to recall the great things You have done in our lives, so that we will have “Jordan Stones” to look at when the day is difficult. Thank You Father for Your faithfulness to us! 

Meditation Questions: Make a list of what God has done in your life. Do you have one? How long is it? What does that say? When was the last time you remembered what God has done in your life before now? What circumstances were you in? What does that say? Do you trust God? How do you know that? How would anyone else know that? Take whatever giant is in your life right now and compare it’s power to the Power you have seen God do in your life. Is your focus on that giant greater than the “Jordan Stones” in your life? In not, what does that say? If so, what are you going to do about that?