"Basic Training"

"Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my figures to fight:" (Psalms 144:1)

  Keeping a level head, is only possible if you are keeping a pure heart; and a pure heart is only possible if you are keeping in fellowship with God. If any one has every been through Basic Training in the military, them you have got to remember what the number one goal was of your training: to get you to follow orders! It is really not that easy; and some people are so hard to break, they don't even make it through basic training. It's really not about how smart a person is, but more about their willingness to simply lesson and do what they are told, without trying to do everything their own way. How else can I put this, other than to demonstrate how difficult it is to simply follow orders. The first thing we need to observe in this verse is the difference between hands and fingers; they are just as different as the words, war and fight. The general idea is about knowing how to deal with certain issues; as the word, "strength," is a word that means Rock, yet it also means pebble. Thank God, for He is not the kind of God that gives us what we deserve; but He is a God that knows how to apply discipline when it's needed. This is what we might call, being level headed; because you might have the power to overcome someone, does not mean you need to use it, because you only apply what needs to be applied; which is like the difference between war and fight. I guess to try and put it another way, is to say that war will always require force, while to fight, may just require standing up for what you believe. There is the main objective of basic training, because in either case, whether by force or by reason, the military wants to get you to see and do what you are told, without trying to change it. I know that might be putting it lightly, but without keeping it simple, we can get into some really long and boring talk about hardheadedness; because in reality, the real problem starts in the heart, not the head. Solomon had a point to what this might look like: he called it vanity; which is not so much about how you think, but how you feel compared to someone else. In other words, if you feel like you know best, no matter what you might actually know, you will try to figure out another way to do what ever you are told. In that regard, Peter being called a pebble, makes perfect sense in light of how stubborn he was; yet, Jesus being, The Rock, overshadows his stubbornness. Which is exactly why the Lord needs to be our strength, because we are so not level headed...

""Let all the world look to me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other. I have spoken by my own name; I have spoken the truth, and I never go back on my word: Every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will confess allegiance to me." The people will declare, "The LORD is the source of all my righteousness and strength." And all who are angry with him will come to him and be ashamed. In the LORD all the generations of Israel will be justified, and in him they will boast." (Isaiah 45:22-25) NLT