Yes, LORD! Yes, Yes, LORD! Amen! 4-14-26

I woke up this morning, rolling over to a more comfortable position, starting to drift off to sleep again, when my “inner cheerleader” bolted awake to part of a song: “Yes, LORD! Yes, LORD! Yes! Yes! LORD! Yes, LORD! Yes, LORD! Yes! Yes! LORD! Yes, LORD! Yes, LORD! Yes, Yes LORD! AMEN!” I flipped off the covers and sang it softly (not knowing what time it was, and not wanting to disturb my husband) answering God’s greeting with a smile on my face and joy bubbling up for the start of an exciting day today, speaking at another Stonecroft group luncheon later on after Prayer Dock.

Getting out of bed, asking a quick question, “What do we have this morning, Lord?” and the verses from Matthew 22 came up when the Pharisees were testing Jesus: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Do they really? My mind started coming up with scenarios where every situation, each temptation to sin, was held up against this litmus test. Do not steal? If you love God with ALL your heart, you know He will provide everything you need and if I don’t like the feeling of someone stealing from me, I can’t inflict that feeling on someone else if I’m loving them as I love myself. Check. The same goes for adultery. If I love God with ALL my soul, I can’t break His heart (like Joseph said) by sinning against Him like that and “doing this great evil” - and loving my spouse as myself, this is a definite no. What about something less specific like resentment or unforgiveness?  If my mind’s totally sold out to loving God and others, then taking accusatory or resentful thoughts captive at the onset becomes not just a good idea, but imperative to prioritizing that Love over everything else. Not to mention God’s warning in the parable of the unforgiving servant…

The other thing I noticed is wouldn’t it be so much easier to say “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” without all the extra repetition of the “and with all your’s” inserted before each one? I believe this is done by God intentionally - for emphasis. “...with ALL your heart, and with ALL your soul, and with ALL your mind…” instead of allowing your attention to glob the words together and lose the impact of each focus. Each location is boosted again, at individual points so the potency isn’t diminished. Since I am the wife and sister of electricians, the thought pops in: “Like a transformer boosting the electrical signal”! Which of course makes me smile, not just for the electrical reference, but God’s play on words that this kind of thinking IS a transformer! “... be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2) Good one God! Followed quickly by part of the theme song from a program my kids used to watch: “Transformers! More than meets the eye!” God’s transformation IS more than meets the eye for sure! The Holy Spirit works from the inside out!

This all happened in less than three minutes as I got up to go to the bathroom, grab my laptop, and start journaling this conversation! Glancing at my phone to see the time, I realize I’m this awake and excited and it’s only 2:05 in the morning! Do I go back to sleep, maybe just an hour… LOL I’m already past the ability to do that successfully! I’m having a conversation here with my Dad! This is exciting stuff! But 2 am…?

I pull up my phone to maybe wind down a little with a Biblical meditation - the verse for this morning’s Encounter meditation is based on John 13:35: “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.” I am going to listen to this, but first I want to type in the thoughts so far so I don’t lose them - this is GOLD, God! Hehehe of course it is - everything woven together and making the point again - ALL the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commands!

I also can’t help but notice a recurring theme from the other day here. When reading a few days ago in 1 Samuel 17, Goliath comes out of the camp of the Philistines and taunts Israel: “Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.” Instead of reading over this familiar passage of Scripture to the rest of the story, God stopped me and showed me something important: “Don’t let the enemy determine the conditions of the battle”. Goliath’s taunts were designed to get the Israelite army to choose a single warrior who was smaller than his giant self (in the natural) to intimidate and enslave the entire nation. But young David turned the tables because he DID “love the LORD his God with ALL his heart and with ALL his mind”! He wasn’t fearful of the giant’s jeering because he wasn’t hearing them through a lens of fear of personal safety. He heard him through the lens of this “uncircumcised Philistine defying the armies of the living God!” He knew His God was bigger than any human being - even a giant! He didn’t allow the enemy to set the conditions for the battle. He took thoughts of fear captive, loving God with ALL his mind. He knew God had “rescued him from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear” while he was tending his father’s sheep and he loved God with ALL his heart. He ran quickly to the battle line, loving God with ALL his soul. And in the next few seconds, he slung a stone, killed a giant, used the giant’s own sword to cut off his head and emboldened the whole Israelite army to rout the enemy who, according to their own “champion”, promised that if you kill me, we will be your servants”! They weren’t so keen on the terms when they lost!

So today, when the enemy tries to taunt me, to set the battle plans, to discourage and distract, to insert thoughts of fear, weakness or diminished ability, (or remind me what time it is!), I will “run quickly to the battle lines”. I will encourage myself in the Lord, relying on His strength and previous battles He has won for me for accurate perspective on the size of puny giants (and laugh remembering the Hulk flipping Loki back and forth after he bragged he was undefeatable by these mere mortals because he was “a god”) and I will “love the LORD my God with ALL my heart, and with ALL my soul, and with ALL my mind, and with ALL my strength - and love my neighbor as myself.” and when God, my Abba, Father calls me to share with me some secret treasures of the kingdom, I will “Arise and Shine” and say, “Yes, LORD! Yes, LORD! Yes! Yes! LORD! Amen!”