Love Letters

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

My whole life I grew up being told “Read your Bible.” I heard it a lot at church. I heard it at school. I heard it from my grandmother. Actually, she lived that example. She always read her Bible. But to me, it was just something people said. It wasn’t something I always witnessed them doing and some of the people who said it didn’t act like they were actually doing it….if you know what I mean. 

As I grew in my relationship Jesus (that’s a whole other post), I prayed. I read devotionals. I read books, I listened to sermons and radio stations (no podcasts back then). I read my Bible by default because the books and devotionals had Bible verses in them. I didn’t often just read my Bible.

Fast forward a few years and the bottom fell out of my life. I won’t go into all the details here but I was afraid. Really afraid. I was afraid that my entire world was going to come crashing down around me. I could not fix it on my own (and believe me I tried). So I prayed. A lot. 

God first spoke when I woke up in the middle of this with a Bible verse in my head. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 Funny thing is, when it happened I thought “I think that’s a Bible verse.” I got out of bed and went and looked. Sure enough, there it was. I knew this was God talking to me. 

God’s direction during this time was “Wait.” And He let me wait for a long, long time. But during that time, He talked. He talked through friends. He talked through music but mostly, He talked through His Word. He kept bringing promise after promise to me and I wrote them down. I carried them around. Each day, I got up and went to read what He had to say in His Word. It truly became my love letters from God. And for the first time, I understood.

Years have passed and I have been reading my Bible. It’s been really amazing. Last year, in one of my discipleship meetings my friend said she wanted to learn how to study the Bible more. So we bought a book and workbook called “Living by the Book” by William and Howard Hendricks. We went through the book and workbook and learned different techniques. It was very helpful.

Do you know the biggest lesson we learned on that journey? If you want to dig into the Bible more, if you want to get more out of it, it takes …. Time. Like you, I often don’t think I have a lot of extra time. I’m busy….aren’t we all. But, in this journey, I realized I was trying to come to the Bible, get my quick fix and move on. I wasn’t making time to really let the Holy Spirit speak to me through it. I needed to read it, read it again and again and then ask questions. I needed to put myself into the text and figure out what God was trying to say to me. 

The more I did this, the clearer I could hear Him speak. The more I lingered, the deeper my experience. I love hearing Him talk through His Word. It is truly mind blowing.

Why am I sharing this? Because I think there are a lot of us who want to grow deeper in our walk with Jesus. We want to know him more and truly be His disciple. But we are busy. We don’t think we have the time. And we let our business interfere with our Journey. If you want a deeper walk with Jesus, you have to make room for Him. Carve out some time. Linger a little. Make it a priority and watch how Jesus speaks to your heart. It is truly life altering. 

A Minute In It - Spoken To Your Heart

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the text below and then answer the questions at the bottom of the post.

1 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation. Psalm 100 (NLT)

One of the reasons it is important to read God’s Word for yourself is because the Holy Spirit speaks to us each differently. When I read this, I will see one thing God is saying. When you read it, you will see something completely different.

What is God saying to you in this text?
What pops out?
What speaks to your heart?
What convicts you?
How is God speaking to you through His Word this morning?

No Excuses

But the man of God said to the king, “Even if you gave me half of everything you own, I would not go with you. I would not eat or drink anything in this place. For the Lord gave me this command: ‘You must not eat or drink anything while you are there, and do not return to Judah by the same way you came.’” So he left Bethel and went home another way. 1 Kings 13:8-10 (NLT)

I have to be honest. I don’t like the story in 1 Kings 13. Here is a summary but you should go read it for yourself. There was a prophet. He was told to go to Jeroboam and denounce his alters to idols. The prophet did as he was told. Jeroboam raised his hand to say “Seize that man!” and his hand froze and was paralyzed in that position. Jeroboam pleaded with the prophet to pray and heal him. The prophet did. (Not sure I would have been so magnanimous.)

After his hand was healed, Jeroboam asked the prophet to share a meal. The prophet declined and said that God told him he could not eat or drink anything while he was on this mission (see today’s text.)

The prophet left and as he was traveling home, another old prophet heard about the story and went to find him. He asked him to come to a meal. The prophet repeated his command from God. Then, the old prophet lied and told him God said it was OK. So the prophet went and ate with him.

Suddenly, the old prophet receives a word from God and pronounces the prophet’s death because he disobeyed God’s command. As the prophet was on the way home, he was killed by a lion.

Do you see why this story bothered me? The prophet was lied to and he was punished. Didn’t seem fair to me. Really. I kept thinking “But it wasn’t his fault.” As I thought through and prayed about this, I realized a few things.

We expect things in this world to be fair. But they aren’t. The world is full of sinful people who may or may not have the same values that we have. Where I may not think of lying and misleading someone, they may think the end justifies the means. Satan will use every means possible to trip us up.

Have you ever been in a position where you know God has told you something but very well meaning, Christian people are telling you something else? What they are saying is true but it doesn’t align with what God told you. Who do you listen to?

While I felt sorry for the prophet who was deceived, he did recite twice in the chapter that God told him not to eat or drink anything while on this mission. He knew his instructions. It should be the same with us. If God tells us something, no matter what, we should not deviate from that path.

Both And

Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:27 (NLT)

Can you imagine it? Walking along the road, discussing the day’s events and Jesus walks up and starts a conversation with you? Can you imagine how that would feel? As they discussed the latest news and how heavy their hearts were, Jesus engages. Later they said that their hearts were on fire as he talked to them.

What I find really interesting is that he doesn’t just say “Here I am! It’s me, there is nothing to fear.” Instead he takes them through Scripture. He goes back and shows them all the foundational things said by God through humans. He grounds them in truth.

Later in this chapter, he does the same thing with the disciples. He shows up and blows them away with his presence. They are dumb-founded and amazed. But instead of saying “Well, now you’ve seen me you are good to go”, he points them to Scripture. Again taking them through the things that pointed to him. He cemented their experience with the Scripture.

Just like then, we often get to encounter Jesus in our lives and our walks. We have experiences where we understand that he is revealing himself to us. It’s exciting and motivating and profound. As awesome as that is, we can’t stop there. We have to be grounded in Scripture.

Our walk has to be a balance of heart and head. If we have only an experiential knowledge of Christ or only an intellectual knowledge of Christ, we will be off balance. We need to have both. We need to experience him and understand him through Scriptures.

Jesus set this example for us long ago with the early disciples. Now, we as his disciples need to continue the practice. How are you experiencing Jesus today? How are you grounding yourself in his Word?

Speak Lord!

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)

There is a song I used to sing a lot called Order My Steps. It was recorded by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. Here are the words of the chorus:

Order my steps in Your Word, Dear Lord
Lead me, guide me every day
Send Your anointing, Father, I pray
Order my steps in Your Word, YES
Order my steps in Your Word

These words took on more meaning as I began to seek God through His Word. It continually amazes me how he uses the Bible to guide my life. He uses it to speak into my chaos. So many times I’ve been pleading with him, asking for an answer or some indication that He is hearing me and I get the answer from the Bible.

And honestly, I don’t spend every moment pouring over the Bible. Wish I had time for that! But God delivers where we are. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with a lot on my mind. I prayed and prayed. I was asking him for specific guidance. I told him I wanted to hear from Him. I didn’t want to make decisions based on my thoughts but on his thoughts.

When I got up this morning, I went to spend time with him. I started reading and felt impressed to turn to a book I am working through. I don’t always read the same thing every day. I jump all around during my quiet time. I turned to the book and my Kindle popped up and said “You are supposed to be on this page.” I clicked OK and it turned to the section only to discover I had already read it. But there was the Bible text I needed for today. I had already read that verse and honestly, skimmed over it. But today, it was exactly what I needed. It was such a strong answer to the prayer I had prayed the night before, I was in awe.

God has done this so many times. Answered by directing me, through impressions to turn to something I was not planning on reading, by a line that stands out when I read my Bible, through a thought that sticks in my head that makes me search. He will do the same for you. He speaks to us loud and clear. The Bible is alive.

Written Just For You

For the word of God is alive and powerful. Hebrews 4:12 (NLT)

A few years back we went through a very difficult time. It was a time of life falling apart. Nothing was sure except that I was unsure. I was unsure about everything. In a blink of an eye we could lose it all. During this time, I felt God tell me to wait on him and trust that he was going to provide.

Man, is that hard. Each day I would wake up totally insecure feeling that the bottom was going to fall out. I was so overwhelmed that I would get up and go talk to God and look for what he had to say…mostly because I didn’t know what else to do. It was what made me feel better. During those times, God would speak. Each day in my worship I would read my Bible, read devotionals or other books and each day there was a Word from the Lord.

Some days it was in the form of encouragement. Some days it was about my relationship with Jesus. Some days it told me to trust and hold steady. The messages were always there and they always calmed my soul.

I started pondering the powerful Word of God. It was so alive and on point. And personal. That’s when I realized I had had a bias about reading my Bible. When I was growing up, I always heard "You should read your Bible.” I felt I had to do it to check the box. Of course, my thoughts were wrong.

After this experience with the Word, I realized that God uses the Bible to speak to us. It is a personal conversation with each of us individually every single time we open it up. That specific phase in my life is over but I still turn toward my Bible every day to hear what God is trying to tell me. I want to know him more and hear how he loves me. I want to hear what he wants.

Friend, if you see the Bible as part of a Christian checklist or if you are sure it will be boring and offer nothing, I encourage you to pick it up. Pick it up with the idea that you are going to find God in it. Pick it up so you can be part of a love story that jumps off the pages into your life and heart.

I promise you, there is power and healing in those Words.

Today's Promise

Some days there is a promise that just catches your eye. One to write down and reflect on. That’s what today’s post is. Just a simple promise from God to carry in our hearts. A promise to reflect on and remember….remember who is in control….remember what it’s really all about.

God will be what holds things together,
    fast and firm during these times.
He will be boundless salvation,
    the roots and fruits of wisdom and knowledge.
Zion’s most precious possession
    is the people’s awe-filled respect of the Eternal.
Isaiah 33:6 (VOICE)

In that day he will be your sure foundation,
    providing a rich store of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge.
    The fear of the Lord will be your treasure. (NLT)

God keeps your days stable and secure—
    salvation, wisdom, and knowledge in surplus,
    and best of all, Zion’s treasure, Fear-of-God. (MSG)

And there shall be stability in your times, an abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the reverent fear and worship of the Lord is your treasure and His. (AMPC)

God's Word - Never Failing

For the word of God will never fail. Luke 1:37 (NLT)

This text is so powerful. The Word of God and everything it encompasses will not fail. It will not fail to come true. It will not fail to deliver. It will not fail you.

Below are some reminders of what God’s Word says.

God Loves You

You saw me before I was born.
    Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
    before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
    They cannot be numbered! Psalm 139:16-17

God Will Rescue You

Do not be afraid—I will save you.
    I have called you by name—you are mine.
When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you;
    your troubles will not overwhelm you.
When you pass through fire, you will not be burned;
    the hard trials that come will not hurt you.
For I am the Lord your God,
    the holy God of Israel, who saves you. Isaiah 43:1-3

God Has A Plan For You

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

You Can Trust Him

Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5-6

God Will Not Abandon You

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
    Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
    I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Today, when it looks like everything is going to fall apart. Remember, you are not alone.

For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9