Usually in this column, I share my experiences, a little window into my life, and a whole lot of my walk with God through it all. I tend to give advice and calls to action because, well, I’m bossy—I made a career out of it! All kidding aside, this week I want to do something a bit different; I feel like God is urging me to do something different. I’m just going to share some of my week with no real personal insight. I think I’m supposed to take a back seat on this one to truly let God’s glory shine through as it should. So, this may read more like a diary entry than anything else.
Monday 4/14: I heard “On earth as it is in heaven” as I woke up. God led me to Hebrews 12 and specifically in the New Living Translation. (All of the scriptures in this week’s column come from this version of the Bible.) The subtitles in this book were “God’s Discipline Proves His Love” and “A Call to Listen to God.” Passages that stood out were, “Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up” and “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshipping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a devouring fire.” As soon as I finished this book, the song “Jesus Loves Me” started playing in my head, and I sang it.
Tuesday 4/15: The Holy Spirit sent me to John 6 where Jesus feeds the 5,000. In an exchange between Jesus and Phillip, this is what happened, “Turning to Phillip, He asked, ‘Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?’ He was testing Phillip, for He already knew what He was going to do. Phillip replied, ‘Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!’” A few other statements from Jesus that stood out to me were, “But don’t be concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you.” A little further into the book, I highlighted, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.” Finally, “I am the bread of life…But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them.” This is just a small portion of the “bread” in this chapter of the book of John.
Wednesday 4/16: I was told to read Galatians 4. The opening two paragraphs were convicting for certain. I’ll just sample a little bit for you. “Think of it this way. If a father dies and leave an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had… We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world… But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children…Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.”
Thursday 4/17: Today, I read Malachi 1 where the profit Malachi shares the message that the LORD gave him on behalf of Israel. “’I have always loved you,‘ says the LORD. But you retort, ‘Really? How have you loved us?’ And the LORD replies, ‘This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob, but I rejected his brother, Esau, and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals.’” Later in the chapter, the message turns to how the Israelites have “thanked” Him by offering unworthy sacrifices of defective, stolen, or sick animals. “By bringing contemptible food, you are saying it’s all right to defile the Lord’s table. You say, ‘It’s too hard to serve the LORD,’ and you turn up you noses at my commands,’ says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.’”
God works through Jesus and the Holy Spirit to walk with and talk to each one of us right where we are. He can use the same scriptures with various people to meet with them in their individual journeys. What I interpreted from this week’s guidance may be far from what you are supposed to learn and/or understand. I know that, as always, His word will reach those He intends in just the way He intends it. “It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it” (Isaiah 55:11).
