WATCHWORD:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Phil 4:4-7
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13 Speaks to learning to be content and at peace.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And, lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
Meditation:
Favorite Passages
The Proverbs passage was a favorite of Glenn Hawkins, a long-time member of the men’s Bible Study group at our church. He spoke of how meaningful it was to him at an especially difficult moment in his life. That testimony had an impact on my life and the lives of others.
Philippians 4:4-7 is my personal favorite, and verse 13 is a passage that touched the lives of many of my friends and loved ones over the years when facing difficulty. That passage had power to calm and to bring courage in the face of overwhelming odds.
What Bible passages do you favor? When do you call to mind the Words of God? Is it for comfort? For strength? For direction? Is it in times of severe pain, heart attack, a diagnosis where hope is thin and you wonder where to turn?
The cry, “I need help with me, Lord”, is not found in the Bible, yet its meaning and our motivation is on almost every page. In fact, we turn to the Bible, to God, as our hole card, our insurance, our backup, our fallback, our just-in-case, our all-in-all, when we are at loss.
Do you see a pattern here? The Word of God in times of need, of threat, of insecurity, aloneness, loss, depression, worry, grief, etc. Yes, our comfort, our peace, does come from the Word of God, the promises of God, the assurances that He provides.
All that is true, but that is not the whole story. My hope every moment of each day, my hope through the ups and downs, my hope through the easy routine of my day is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. Yes, that is called faith. The firm realization that we can call on God anytime, all the time, in all circumstances, for anything.
Have you ever felt a sadness when people, carrying extra heavy burdens, enter your life and do not have Jesus in theirs? I believe we all have been touched by them, and we nudge them along, we witness to them, we plant seeds and we pray for them. Do we pray “Into Your Hands Lord, I commit my friend” and know it will be so?
The message of scripture is important to us, for they hold value and they may get us through troubled waters, but that is not where it ends. Your favorite passage is not just a passage, like a clever saying you might find in a fortune cookie. That passage is the Word of God and it reminds us who has the power over this world, including our situation.
What a skeptic may have missed should he question our faith in God’s Word, is a little phrase we tend to skip over in some of our readings. We find it in Matthew and Mark, and many others, Jesus speaking: Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ Matthew 17:20. There it is, ‘if you have faith’.
“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Mark 11:23
What Glen Hawkins explained to our group, back then, was that the most important parts of that passage for him were the trust in and the acknowledgement of God. For him, it was the drawing closer to the Almighty.
So, what is your favorite passage? What is there about those words that has drawn you? Does it bring you closer to God? Yes? When you consider those words, think of it as a prayer, a calling on your Father, the King of the Universe, your Lord and Savior, and that mountain that bothers you will move. So may it be with you. Amen.
Closing Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, our hope is built on nothing less than the blood of your dear Son, Jesus and the righteousness that I lean on each hour of every day. He is my solid rock on which I stand when all around me there is chaos and trouble. Your Grace is unchanging, Lord, even in the face of storms and when the sand I stand on seems to be sinking out from under me. You are my anchor, you are my hope. When You, Lord, shall come with trumpet sound may I always be found in You, dressed in Your righteousness alone, faultless to stand before Your throne. Amen.
