May 27, 2025 • 22 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When I was a kid, summer started on Memorial Day
and lasted until Labor Day.
We had 13 glorious weeks ofsummer break and I feel like
schools have kind of rewrittenthe rules.
They've rewritten the schedule,extending their school year and
shortening the summer.
Well, I'm going old school andI am taking a full summer break.
(00:23):
From the podcast, as you cansee if you're watching on
YouTube, I'm kind of already insummer mode.
But before I sign off, I thoughtwhat is the last thing I would
want to tell you, kind of likethe end of year, signing the
school yearbooks.
You know that was very dramaticwhen I was in junior high, but
(00:43):
I was thinking what's the lastthing I would want to say to you
before things go quiet for alittle while?
And I decided I wanted to speakthis beautiful blessing over
you.
It's kind of familiar becauseit's a popular song these days,
but beyond just speaking thisblessing, I want to stop and
(01:05):
pause and unpack the beauty ofthese words.
Hi, friend, you're listening toFind Hope.
Here I'm your host, teresaWhiting.
Author, speaker, ministry leader, friend and fellow struggler.
This is a podcast about themessy, complicated, painful
(01:26):
parts of life, but also thebeautiful, joy-filled hope that
Jesus promises.
Each week, we dig deep intoGod's Word together and talk
about how His truth impacts oureveryday lives.
I'm not going to ask you to sitwith me and have coffee,
because I seem to have my bestconversations while I'm just
(01:48):
doing life.
So I'd love to hang out withyou as you walk or fold laundry
or drive to work.
You're invited to join me inpursuing the hope God promises,
no matter where you are or whereyou've been.
I pray you always find hopehere.
(02:11):
Let's jump in to today's episode.
I hope that as you hear thisepisode today, you will take it
to heart and receive it as ablessing for yourself.
I'm going to share with youNumbers, chapter 6, verses 24 to
26.
You Numbers, chapter 6, verses24 to 26.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
(02:32):
The Lord make his face shine onyou and be gracious to you.
The Lord turn his face towardyou and give you peace.
Now, before we just think, oh,this is a very familiar passage,
I know this blessing.
I want to take some time tounpack these words and the first
thing we notice is that everyphrase begins with the Lord and
(02:54):
that word Lord.
If you're looking at the Bible,you'll notice it's in all caps
this blessing is from the Lord,it's from Yahweh.
That is the personal name ofGod.
When the Israelites would hearthis blessing, they would know
this is a blessing from Yahweh,not some generic God out there,
(03:15):
not just some deity that'sfloating around.
No, it's the personal name oftheir God, the covenant keeper,
the one who promises hispresence to his people.
He's not far off or distant,he's very close.
Interestingly, the passageverse 27, ends with this so they
(03:37):
will put my name on theIsraelites and I will bless them
.
In other words, this blessingis meaningless without God's
name attached to it, without thename of Yahweh attached to the
blessing.
In Exodus 33 and 34, moses ishaving a conversation with God
(03:58):
and he says Now show me yourglory.
And the Lord answers with Iwill cause all my goodness to
pass in front of you and I willproclaim my name, the Lord, in
your presence.
And then it says the Lord camedown in the cloud and stood with
him there and proclaimed thename of the Lord.
(04:20):
The Lord passed before him andproclaimed the Lord, the Lord,
or Yahweh.
Yahweh, a God merciful andgracious, slow to anger and
abounding in steadfast love andfaithfulness, keeping steadfast
love for thousands, forgivinginiquity and transgression and
sin, but who will by no meansclear the guilty visiting the
(04:44):
iniquity of the fathers on thechildren and the children's
children to the third and fourthgeneration.
When the Israelites heard thisblessing, that's the God they
were thinking of, a God who ismerciful and gracious and full
of steadfast love andfaithfulness, a God who keeps
his covenant and meets outjustice.
(05:05):
The blessing without Yahwehbehind it is meaningless.
So the next phrase is the Lordbless you, and that word bless
means to bestow divine favor orbenefits.
The blessing, again, is rootedin relationship.
In Leviticus 26, god is givingthe covenant to his people and
(05:29):
he promises them blessing, andfor them blessing was things
like rain and produce and fruitand victory over their enemies,
and also things that we'relooking for, like security and
God's presence.
And this is what he says inLeviticus 26, 9 through 13.
(05:50):
God says I will turn toward youand I will make my dwelling
place among you and my soul willnot despise you.
I will walk among you and beyour God and you will be my
people.
I am the Lord, your God, andyou will be my people.
I am the Lord, your God.
I am Yahweh who brought you outof the land of Egypt, so that
(06:11):
you would no longer be slaves tothe Egyptians.
I broke the bars of your yokeand enabled you to walk
uprightly.
Oh, I love that last part.
Right there, I broke the barsof your yoke, your slavery, and
enabled you to walk up.
Rightly, god is reminding thepeople I'm the one who set you
(06:33):
free.
That's part of the blessing.
But all of that blessing, didyou hear the best part?
I'm going to walk among you,I'm going to be with you.
That's what God's heart is.
It's always been to be with us,from the garden until the end
of Revelation.
You see God saying over andover again I'm going to dwell
among you, I'm going to dwellwith you, I'm going to be with
(06:55):
you.
Now, we who are believers havethis Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
God's blessing comes with hispresence.
The next phrase is and keep you.
The Lord bless you and keep you, and I immediately thought of
Psalm 121.
Oh, this is one of my favoritePsalms.
(07:15):
It's eight verses long andyou're going to hear the word
keep six times in these.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,the maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot tobe moved.
(07:37):
He who keeps you will notslumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israelwill neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper.
The Lord is your shade on yourright hand.
The sun shall not smite you byday, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from allevil.
He will keep your life.
(08:00):
The Lord will keep your goingout and your coming in, from
this time forth and forever more.
That word keep that we have justheard over and over is the
Hebrew word shamar.
It means to guard, protect,hedge about.
You know, in Psalm 139, thepsalmist says you hem me in
(08:21):
behind and before.
You have laid your hand upon me.
In other words, god is like I'msurrounding you, I am with you
when you go in, when you comeout.
I'm not going to sleep, I'm notgoing to slumber, I'm not going
to fall asleep on the job.
I think about the fact that sooften at night, you know we're
up, we're replaying things inour minds and God is saying you
(08:44):
know what, teresa, you know whatfriend, go to sleep.
I've got this.
I'm not going to sleep.
I'm here, I'm with you, I'mwatching over you.
I know about all of thesesituations that you're in
turmoil over, and I'm yourkeeper.
And so we can sleep, becauseGod doesn't sleep.
He's always on guard on ourbehalf.
(09:07):
All right back to Numbers 6.
The next phrase is the Lord,make his face shine on you.
That word face is the Hebrewword panim.
It means presence, relationship, favor.
When Adam and Eve sinned in thegarden, they hid from his face,
his presence.
They didn't want to be with himand he came looking for them.
(09:30):
When his face shines on us, itgives us light, it causes us to
be illuminated.
I love the sun.
I love the warmth and the lightand the security.
I love living in Florida wherethe sun comes out every single
day.
I don't know if you've evernoticed this, but in Luke,
(09:52):
chapter 1, zachariah isprophesying about his son, john
the Baptist, and he says thisand you, child, referring to
John, will be called the prophetof the Most High, for you will
go before the Lord to preparehis ways to give knowledge of
salvation to his people.
Now, this is what refers toJesus, in darkness and in the
(10:31):
shadow of death, to guide ourfeet into the way of peace.
I love that Jesus is referredto as the sunrise that will
visit us from on high.
He is the light of the world.
He came to give light to thosewho sit in darkness, in the
shadow of death, and in hispresence, before his face, this
prayer is that his light willshine on you.
(10:54):
And then it continues and begracious to you.
That word gracious means to bend, to stoop in kindness to an
inferior, to bestow favor.
It emphasizes the unmeritednature of God's grace.
I don't understand grace I willadmit that to you because I'm
(11:15):
so steeped in a culture that'sall about earning and striving
and producing and accomplishing.
But grace is unearnable.
I don't know if that's a word,but it should be because we
don't have to perform to getGod's grace.
As a matter of fact, it's therein spite of our inability to
(11:36):
perform.
And the theme of grace God'sgrace being poured out on us is
just a reflection of hiscompassionate and merciful
character.
That's what he does.
The whole narrative ofscripture rides on the wings of
grace.
And then we get to verse 26 ofnumber six, and it says the Lord
(11:58):
turn his face toward you.
Or in other translations, itsays lift up his countenance
upon you.
This is my absolute favoritepart of this blessing, because
this is what God does he turnshis face toward us.
We have seen that over and overagain in scripture and this is
my prayer for you that whenyou're discouraged, when you're
(12:21):
afraid, when you're lonely, youwill see God looking at you.
You'll see his face turnedtoward you, not in condemnation,
but with delight, withinvitation, saying come to me,
here I am, I'm for you, I'mturned toward you, I'm with you,
and I don't know what thatmeans for you.
(12:44):
Maybe you need to come cleanwith God in confession and
repentance and restore thingsthat have been broken between
the two of you.
Maybe you need to acknowledgehis love and accept it for
yourself, not just for thosepeople out there, but for you.
His face is turned towards youin love.
(13:06):
Or maybe you've had people inyour life that have turned their
back on you.
Maybe you've had people walkaway or step out of your life.
I especially want you to seeGod turning towards you saying
I'm here, I'm never, ever goingto walk away from you.
I am still pursuing you withsteadfast love and faithfulness.
(13:31):
And the closing of this prayersays and give you peace.
If there's anything I couldwish for you, it's peace.
That word peace is the Hebrewword shalom.
Back when we still had ourAirbnb, we had a woman stay with
us who was Jewish and everytime she would come in and go
(13:52):
out she would say Shalom, teresa.
And one time she stopped me andshe said I want you to know
Shalom, it's not just peace.
She said, it means so much moreand as I've dug into the word,
I found it to mean completeness,soundness, welfare, safety,
well-being, health.
It is this rich, multifacetedword and it's again interwoven
(14:17):
with his presence.
Jesus himself is called thePrince of Peace.
In that title we see Jesus asthe one who reconciles us to God
, who restores us to God, andnot just to God but to one
another.
Shalom encompasses living inright relationship with God,
with others and even withcreation.
(14:38):
Interestingly, when you get tothe New Testament, the New
Testament word that's equivalentto shalom or peace in the Old
Testament is peace in the NewTestament, and that Greek word
is arene and it literally meanswholeness.
It's like this, it's likeeverything is together as it
(14:59):
should be, which is the exactopposite of the word anxiety,
which means divided, pulledapart, distracted, worried.
It literally means to go topieces, and I laugh because I'm
like.
Oh, I know what that feels like.
And in this prayer it says theLord or Yahweh give you peace.
(15:22):
In Judges 6.24, it says Gideonbuilt an altar to the Lord and
named it Yahweh Shalom, whichmeans the Lord is peace.
We can do all kinds of things totry to get to a place of peace.
We can do deep breathingexercises, we can regulate our
(15:45):
nervous systems, and I highlyrecommend those things, and
actually I think we should dothat together right.
Actually, I think we should dothat together right now.
I think we should do one of thephysical things that God has
given to us breath breathing tobring a sense of peace.
So we're going to practice ourbox breathing and this is a
great reminder for summer.
I would encourage you to startyour days with this practice, to
(16:08):
end your days with this andmaybe even in the middle of the
day, when you feel yourselfgetting dysregulated or stressed
out, take a minute and do thisbox breathing, and what we do is
we take four long, deep breathsin, we hold it for four seconds
and then we do a long, slowexhale.
So let's do that together,shall we Inhale?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Hold it.
Give a long slow exhale Inhale.
Hold Inhale.
Long slow exhale.
(16:57):
Okay, a long inhale Inhale.
Hold.
Long slow exhale Inhale lasttime.
(17:20):
Hold and a long slow exhale.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I don't know about you, but I feel my shoulders
relaxing, I feel my jawunclenching when I do that box
breathing.
But all the box breathing inthe world is nothing without the
presence of the one who is thesource of peace.
And that is my prayer is thatas you inhale, you will inhale
(18:00):
the breath of God, the peace ofGod, and you will exhale your
anxiety.
That when you do that boxbreathing, you will take God's
peace, his presence, and bringit to the forefront of your mind
, that you will remember thatthe Lord is peace.
So that is my prayer for youthis summer.
(18:21):
Now that we've dug a littledeeper into this passage, I
think we have a greaterunderstanding of what the
blessing is.
Now I'm going to give you alittle Bible study tip, and that
is when you come to scripture.
I really encourage you, like ina passage like this, to read
the whole thing.
It like in a passage like this,to read the whole thing.
It's like surveying the forest.
(18:42):
Right, we look at all the trees, we get the big picture and
then we zoom in and we dig deep.
That's when we study the words.
We say what does this word mean?
What did it mean originally?
How do these words fit together.
That's like studying the leavesand the bark and the moss.
We're getting a real close-upview of the trees, right.
(19:03):
But then we want to zoom backout and we want to look at the
forest again and I promise whenyou do that you see it with
different eyes, because now youhave a deeper understanding of
what those trees are doing downthere, what that looks like.
And with scripture, when youzoom in and you get real deep
(19:25):
into it, I always encourage youto zoom back out and see the
passage with fresh eyes.
This practice has changed theway I see scripture.
It's changed my understandingof scripture.
So now that we've zoomed in andwe've looked closely at what
all these words mean, I want topull back out.
I want to zoom out and readthis blessing over you one more
(19:49):
time and I want to encourage youto take it in.
Like, if you're not driving orironing, like, close your eyes.
I mean wait, who even ironsanymore?
Okay, just had to put that outthere.
If you're not doing somethingthat requires your eyes to be
open, I want to encourage you toclose your eyes and take this
in as a blessing for you, foryour own.
(20:12):
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine onyou and be gracious to you.
The Lord turn his face towardyou and give you peace.
(20:32):
Now, before I sign off for thesummer, there are a few last
reminders I want to give.
First of all, if you are notyet following Find Hope here,
you want to press that littleplus sign or the follow button
in the top right corner of yourscreen.
That way you'll know when Icome back in the fall and you
(20:52):
won't miss anything of thisawesome new series that's coming
.
Anything of this awesome newseries that's coming.
And, as I mentioned last week,this summer Sabbath is freeing
me up to write my next Biblestudy and I'm inviting you to be
an insider.
I'm looking for prayer warriorsand beta readers.
I need a team of people to walkthrough this process with me.
(21:13):
This is going to give you theopportunity to get the inside
scoop as the study takes shape.
I'm going to put a link in theshow notes for you to become an
insider.
I would love to have you onthis journey with me.
Shalom friends, thanks forlistening to Find Hope here.
To find anything I mentioned onthe episode, go to
(21:35):
TeresaWhitingcom slash listen,which is where you can find all
the show notes.
Also, if you haven't left afive-star rating and review yet,
would you do that today?
It takes just a minute and ithelps others to find the show.
Thank you so much.
In closing, I want to leave youwith this prayer from Romans
(21:55):
15,13.
May the God of hope fill youwith all joy and peace in
believing, so that, by the powerof the Holy Spirit, you may
abound in hope.
When I was a kid, summer started on Memorial Day
and lasted until Labor Day.
We had 13 glorious weeks ofsummer break and I feel like
schools have kind of rewrittenthe rules.
They've rewritten the schedule,extending their school year and
shortening the summer.
Well, I'm going old school andI am taking a full summer break.
(00:23):
From the podcast, as you cansee if you're watching on
YouTube, I'm kind of already insummer mode.
But before I sign off, I thoughtwhat is the last thing I would
want to tell you, kind of likethe end of year, signing the
school yearbooks.
You know that was very dramaticwhen I was in junior high, but
(00:43):
I was thinking what's the lastthing I would want to say to you
before things go quiet for alittle while?
And I decided I wanted to speakthis beautiful blessing over
you.
It's kind of familiar becauseit's a popular song these days,
but beyond just speaking thisblessing, I want to stop and
(01:05):
pause and unpack the beauty ofthese words.
Hi, friend, you're listening toFind Hope.
Here I'm your host, teresaWhiting.
Author, speaker, ministry leader, friend and fellow struggler.
This is a podcast about themessy, complicated, painful
(01:26):
parts of life, but also thebeautiful, joy-filled hope that
Jesus promises.
Each week, we dig deep intoGod's Word together and talk
about how His truth impacts oureveryday lives.
I'm not going to ask you to sitwith me and have coffee,
because I seem to have my bestconversations while I'm just
(01:48):
doing life.
So I'd love to hang out withyou as you walk or fold laundry
or drive to work.
You're invited to join me inpursuing the hope God promises,
no matter where you are or whereyou've been.
I pray you always find hopehere.
(02:11):
Let's jump in to today's episode.
I hope that as you hear thisepisode today, you will take it
to heart and receive it as ablessing for yourself.
I'm going to share with youNumbers, chapter 6, verses 24 to
26.
You Numbers, chapter 6, verses24 to 26.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
(02:32):
The Lord make his face shine onyou and be gracious to you.
The Lord turn his face towardyou and give you peace.
Now, before we just think, oh,this is a very familiar passage,
I know this blessing.
I want to take some time tounpack these words and the first
thing we notice is that everyphrase begins with the Lord and
(02:54):
that word Lord.
If you're looking at the Bible,you'll notice it's in all caps
this blessing is from the Lord,it's from Yahweh.
That is the personal name ofGod.
When the Israelites would hearthis blessing, they would know
this is a blessing from Yahweh,not some generic God out there,
(03:15):
not just some deity that'sfloating around.
No, it's the personal name oftheir God, the covenant keeper,
the one who promises hispresence to his people.
He's not far off or distant,he's very close.
Interestingly, the passageverse 27, ends with this so they
(03:37):
will put my name on theIsraelites and I will bless them
.
In other words, this blessingis meaningless without God's
name attached to it, without thename of Yahweh attached to the
blessing.
In Exodus 33 and 34, moses ishaving a conversation with God
(03:58):
and he says Now show me yourglory.
And the Lord answers with Iwill cause all my goodness to
pass in front of you and I willproclaim my name, the Lord, in
your presence.
And then it says the Lord camedown in the cloud and stood with
him there and proclaimed thename of the Lord.
(04:20):
The Lord passed before him andproclaimed the Lord, the Lord,
or Yahweh.
Yahweh, a God merciful andgracious, slow to anger and
abounding in steadfast love andfaithfulness, keeping steadfast
love for thousands, forgivinginiquity and transgression and
sin, but who will by no meansclear the guilty visiting the
(04:44):
iniquity of the fathers on thechildren and the children's
children to the third and fourthgeneration.
When the Israelites heard thisblessing, that's the God they
were thinking of, a God who ismerciful and gracious and full
of steadfast love andfaithfulness, a God who keeps
his covenant and meets outjustice.
(05:05):
The blessing without Yahwehbehind it is meaningless.
So the next phrase is the Lordbless you, and that word bless
means to bestow divine favor orbenefits.
The blessing, again, is rootedin relationship.
In Leviticus 26, god is givingthe covenant to his people and
(05:29):
he promises them blessing, andfor them blessing was things
like rain and produce and fruitand victory over their enemies,
and also things that we'relooking for, like security and
God's presence.
And this is what he says inLeviticus 26, 9 through 13.
(05:50):
God says I will turn toward youand I will make my dwelling
place among you and my soul willnot despise you.
I will walk among you and beyour God and you will be my
people.
I am the Lord, your God, andyou will be my people.
I am the Lord, your God.
I am Yahweh who brought you outof the land of Egypt, so that
(06:11):
you would no longer be slaves tothe Egyptians.
I broke the bars of your yokeand enabled you to walk
uprightly.
Oh, I love that last part.
Right there, I broke the barsof your yoke, your slavery, and
enabled you to walk up.
Rightly, god is reminding thepeople I'm the one who set you
(06:33):
free.
That's part of the blessing.
But all of that blessing, didyou hear the best part?
I'm going to walk among you,I'm going to be with you.
That's what God's heart is.
It's always been to be with us,from the garden until the end
of Revelation.
You see God saying over andover again I'm going to dwell
among you, I'm going to dwellwith you, I'm going to be with
(06:55):
you.
Now, we who are believers havethis Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
God's blessing comes with hispresence.
The next phrase is and keep you.
The Lord bless you and keep you, and I immediately thought of
Psalm 121.
Oh, this is one of my favoritePsalms.
(07:15):
It's eight verses long andyou're going to hear the word
keep six times in these.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,the maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow your foot tobe moved.
(07:37):
He who keeps you will notslumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israelwill neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is your keeper.
The Lord is your shade on yourright hand.
The sun shall not smite you byday, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from allevil.
He will keep your life.
(08:00):
The Lord will keep your goingout and your coming in, from
this time forth and forever more.
That word keep that we have justheard over and over is the
Hebrew word shamar.
It means to guard, protect,hedge about.
You know, in Psalm 139, thepsalmist says you hem me in
(08:21):
behind and before.
You have laid your hand upon me.
In other words, god is like I'msurrounding you, I am with you
when you go in, when you comeout.
I'm not going to sleep, I'm notgoing to slumber, I'm not going
to fall asleep on the job.
I think about the fact that sooften at night, you know we're
up, we're replaying things inour minds and God is saying you
(08:44):
know what, teresa, you know whatfriend, go to sleep.
I've got this.
I'm not going to sleep.
I'm here, I'm with you, I'mwatching over you.
I know about all of thesesituations that you're in
turmoil over, and I'm yourkeeper.
And so we can sleep, becauseGod doesn't sleep.
He's always on guard on ourbehalf.
(09:07):
All right back to Numbers 6.
The next phrase is the Lord,make his face shine on you.
That word face is the Hebrewword panim.
It means presence, relationship, favor.
When Adam and Eve sinned in thegarden, they hid from his face,
his presence.
They didn't want to be with himand he came looking for them.
(09:30):
When his face shines on us, itgives us light, it causes us to
be illuminated.
I love the sun.
I love the warmth and the lightand the security.
I love living in Florida wherethe sun comes out every single
day.
I don't know if you've evernoticed this, but in Luke,
(09:52):
chapter 1, zachariah isprophesying about his son, john
the Baptist, and he says thisand you, child, referring to
John, will be called the prophetof the Most High, for you will
go before the Lord to preparehis ways to give knowledge of
salvation to his people.
Now, this is what refers toJesus, in darkness and in the
(10:31):
shadow of death, to guide ourfeet into the way of peace.
I love that Jesus is referredto as the sunrise that will
visit us from on high.
He is the light of the world.
He came to give light to thosewho sit in darkness, in the
shadow of death, and in hispresence, before his face, this
prayer is that his light willshine on you.
(10:54):
And then it continues and begracious to you.
That word gracious means to bend, to stoop in kindness to an
inferior, to bestow favor.
It emphasizes the unmeritednature of God's grace.
I don't understand grace I willadmit that to you because I'm
(11:15):
so steeped in a culture that'sall about earning and striving
and producing and accomplishing.
But grace is unearnable.
I don't know if that's a word,but it should be because we
don't have to perform to getGod's grace.
As a matter of fact, it's therein spite of our inability to
(11:36):
perform.
And the theme of grace God'sgrace being poured out on us is
just a reflection of hiscompassionate and merciful
character.
That's what he does.
The whole narrative ofscripture rides on the wings of
grace.
And then we get to verse 26 ofnumber six, and it says the Lord
(11:58):
turn his face toward you.
Or in other translations, itsays lift up his countenance
upon you.
This is my absolute favoritepart of this blessing, because
this is what God does he turnshis face toward us.
We have seen that over and overagain in scripture and this is
my prayer for you that whenyou're discouraged, when you're
(12:21):
afraid, when you're lonely, youwill see God looking at you.
You'll see his face turnedtoward you, not in condemnation,
but with delight, withinvitation, saying come to me,
here I am, I'm for you, I'mturned toward you, I'm with you,
and I don't know what thatmeans for you.
(12:44):
Maybe you need to come cleanwith God in confession and
repentance and restore thingsthat have been broken between
the two of you.
Maybe you need to acknowledgehis love and accept it for
yourself, not just for thosepeople out there, but for you.
His face is turned towards youin love.
(13:06):
Or maybe you've had people inyour life that have turned their
back on you.
Maybe you've had people walkaway or step out of your life.
I especially want you to seeGod turning towards you saying
I'm here, I'm never, ever goingto walk away from you.
I am still pursuing you withsteadfast love and faithfulness.
(13:31):
And the closing of this prayersays and give you peace.
If there's anything I couldwish for you, it's peace.
That word peace is the Hebrewword shalom.
Back when we still had ourAirbnb, we had a woman stay with
us who was Jewish and everytime she would come in and go
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out she would say Shalom, teresa.
And one time she stopped me andshe said I want you to know
Shalom, it's not just peace.
She said, it means so much moreand as I've dug into the word,
I found it to mean completeness,soundness, welfare, safety,
well-being, health.
It is this rich, multifacetedword and it's again interwoven
(14:17):
with his presence.
Jesus himself is called thePrince of Peace.
In that title we see Jesus asthe one who reconciles us to God
, who restores us to God, andnot just to God but to one
another.
Shalom encompasses living inright relationship with God,
with others and even withcreation.
(14:38):
Interestingly, when you get tothe New Testament, the New
Testament word that's equivalentto shalom or peace in the Old
Testament is peace in the NewTestament, and that Greek word
is arene and it literally meanswholeness.
It's like this, it's likeeverything is together as it
(14:59):
should be, which is the exactopposite of the word anxiety,
which means divided, pulledapart, distracted, worried.
It literally means to go topieces, and I laugh because I'm
like.
Oh, I know what that feels like.
And in this prayer it says theLord or Yahweh give you peace.
(15:22):
In Judges 6.24, it says Gideonbuilt an altar to the Lord and
named it Yahweh Shalom, whichmeans the Lord is peace.
We can do all kinds of things totry to get to a place of peace.
We can do deep breathingexercises, we can regulate our
(15:45):
nervous systems, and I highlyrecommend those things, and
actually I think we should dothat together right.
Actually, I think we should dothat together right now.
I think we should do one of thephysical things that God has
given to us breath breathing tobring a sense of peace.
So we're going to practice ourbox breathing and this is a
great reminder for summer.
I would encourage you to startyour days with this practice, to
(16:08):
end your days with this andmaybe even in the middle of the
day, when you feel yourselfgetting dysregulated or stressed
out, take a minute and do thisbox breathing, and what we do is
we take four long, deep breathsin, we hold it for four seconds
and then we do a long, slowexhale.
So let's do that together,shall we Inhale?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Hold it.
Give a long slow exhale Inhale.
Hold Inhale.
Long slow exhale.
(16:57):
Okay, a long inhale Inhale.
Hold.
Long slow exhale Inhale lasttime.
(17:20):
Hold and a long slow exhale.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
I don't know about you, but I feel my shoulders
relaxing, I feel my jawunclenching when I do that box
breathing.
But all the box breathing inthe world is nothing without the
presence of the one who is thesource of peace.
And that is my prayer is thatas you inhale, you will inhale
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the breath of God, the peace ofGod, and you will exhale your
anxiety.
That when you do that boxbreathing, you will take God's
peace, his presence, and bringit to the forefront of your mind
, that you will remember thatthe Lord is peace.
So that is my prayer for youthis summer.
(18:21):
Now that we've dug a littledeeper into this passage, I
think we have a greaterunderstanding of what the
blessing is.
Now I'm going to give you alittle Bible study tip, and that
is when you come to scripture.
I really encourage you, like ina passage like this, to read
the whole thing.
It like in a passage like this,to read the whole thing.
It's like surveying the forest.
(18:42):
Right, we look at all the trees, we get the big picture and
then we zoom in and we dig deep.
That's when we study the words.
We say what does this word mean?
What did it mean originally?
How do these words fit together.
That's like studying the leavesand the bark and the moss.
We're getting a real close-upview of the trees, right.
(19:03):
But then we want to zoom backout and we want to look at the
forest again and I promise whenyou do that you see it with
different eyes, because now youhave a deeper understanding of
what those trees are doing downthere, what that looks like.
And with scripture, when youzoom in and you get real deep
(19:25):
into it, I always encourage youto zoom back out and see the
passage with fresh eyes.
This practice has changed theway I see scripture.
It's changed my understandingof scripture.
So now that we've zoomed in andwe've looked closely at what
all these words mean, I want topull back out.
I want to zoom out and readthis blessing over you one more
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time and I want to encourage youto take it in.
Like, if you're not driving orironing, like, close your eyes.
I mean wait, who even ironsanymore?
Okay, just had to put that outthere.
If you're not doing somethingthat requires your eyes to be
open, I want to encourage you toclose your eyes and take this
in as a blessing for you, foryour own.
(20:12):
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine onyou and be gracious to you.
The Lord turn his face towardyou and give you peace.
(20:32):
Now, before I sign off for thesummer, there are a few last
reminders I want to give.
First of all, if you are notyet following Find Hope here,
you want to press that littleplus sign or the follow button
in the top right corner of yourscreen.
That way you'll know when Icome back in the fall and you
(20:52):
won't miss anything of thisawesome new series that's coming
.
Anything of this awesome newseries that's coming.
And, as I mentioned last week,this summer Sabbath is freeing
me up to write my next Biblestudy and I'm inviting you to be
an insider.
I'm looking for prayer warriorsand beta readers.
I need a team of people to walkthrough this process with me.
(21:13):
This is going to give you theopportunity to get the inside
scoop as the study takes shape.
I'm going to put a link in theshow notes for you to become an
insider.
I would love to have you onthis journey with me.
Shalom friends, thanks forlistening to Find Hope here.
To find anything I mentioned onthe episode, go to
(21:35):
TeresaWhitingcom slash listen,which is where you can find all
the show notes.
Also, if you haven't left afive-star rating and review yet,
would you do that today?
It takes just a minute and ithelps others to find the show.
Thank you so much.
In closing, I want to leave youwith this prayer from Romans
(21:55):
15,13.
May the God of hope fill youwith all joy and peace in
believing, so that, by the powerof the Holy Spirit, you may
abound in hope.
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