The Year of His Preservation

Tonight as I was praying, God reminded me again of something He spoke to me at the beginning of the year. He had told me that this was the year of His preservation. And the scriptures that He had given me were these Psalm 121:8
"The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore."
coupled with Hosea 2:6
"Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths."

Preservation & thorns....hmmmm. Hardly sounds like they should be used in the same sentence but they are. You know, sometimes true love requires the hedge of thorns. You see, in Hosea, the husband loved his wife, so much so that he was willing to hedge her in, so that she would once again find her first love, the one she had lost sight of.

As I was meditating on preservation tonight, the Lord took me to this passage in Proverbs 2:11."Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:" When I began to study out those words, here is what I found. Discretion is equal to a purpose, plan or plot. And not just any purpose...it's the very purpose God created me for. The plans that He knows for me...that sometimes I miss. That's why this passage says that discretion preserves me. When I stay within the boundaries of His purpose for me, His plans, that's when I am preserved, protected, defended and guarded. But what is it that keeps us within those boundaries? Proverbs 2:11 says that it's understanding that will keep us. We must understand what His purposes are and I think I am beginning to know what that means. In order to understand things...we must feel the hedge...the prick... of anything outside of those carefully laid plans for us.

And I love what Hosea 2:15 says, "And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt."

If your looking at this saying "Uh...OK, Stace...so what about it?" Well, Achor means trouble or disturbance! God said that is our door of hope! These things that are troubling us and disturbing us are none other than an entrance to the things hoped for...the outcome! Glory to God! Thank the Lord for His direction and for making these troubles and disturbances a door! And didn't He say, "I will preserve thee in thy going out and thy coming in"? Isn't a door just the place for that?