His blessed words

God’s blessings seemed particularly needed yesterday. I started the day sad because of a family situation, one of those awful things that I cannot do anything about. I grieved. I also prayed. Talking to God seemed a catharsis, but no answers were forthcoming. The sermon at church was about the blind man in John 9 and how Jesus restored his sight. The pastor talked about seeing Jesus both physically and spiritually. I wanted to see Him, in action and in the problems of life, but He seemed far away. 

Later in the day, the sadness increased as I felt the weight of many lengthy struggles to be a godly person. I fall so far short. I prayed about my sense of uselessness, partly because I’ve been taken up with studies and not had many opportunities to serve God, and partly because I feel completely inadequate and have not ventured forth.

I’d thought much about His Word to me for that day, a strong word about loving with His love, not that ‘do not love the world’ kind of love that is passing away. I pondered about how much of my life has been wasted on things like that, things that will not last.

Also pressing on my heart was an awareness of so much need in the world, even in the family of God. I’ve prayed much and for many of those things, but also wondered how much prayer has been a waste of words because my heart was not right.

This sounds like the beginning of a pity-party but it was more like a wake-up, a time to say to the Lord, “Whatever You wish, God. You are in charge and if You have nothing for me, I must accept that, and if You do have more for me, I’m so concerned that I will just mess it up.”

My words are not as poetic as that of the psalm writers who often spoke to God much like that. I really wasn’t thinking about them at the time though, only about me and the weight of sadness. I asked God to speak to me, to give me something about His mind that would bolster my mind.

God listens. The following are not His direct words, but they are from His Word. Even though this is a king talking to his son who would soon be king, I felt like God was saying something to me . . .

“Then David said to Solomon his son, ‘Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished. And behold the divisions of the priests and the Levites for all the service of the house of God; and with you in all the work will be every willing man who has skill for any kind of service; also the officers and all the people will be wholly at your command.’” (1 Chronicles 28:20–21)

Maybe a sad heart hears things. Maybe a person with a huge capacity for creativity imagines things. Maybe this hit me like those silly horoscopes (which are not at all from God) that could fit just about anyone who reads them. Nevertheless, it seemed that God was saying this to me: “Be strong. Take courage. Don’t let fear run your life or get broken up over all these trials I’ve put you through. I am with you. I will never leave you or forsake you until you have finished all the work I have for you. My people are standing with you and for you. An army of angels watches over you. All you need to do is speak, and I will hear you and send the help and support you need.”

I know that 1 Chronicles 28:20-21 does not read exactly like that, but that is what I heard, and I also know that His sheep hear His voice, and He knows us, and we follow Him. Where else can we go? He has the words of eternal life.

Just say the Word, Lord

For sixteen years before Christ came into my life, I read the Bible almost every day. My mother sat down each morning with her Bible, and at thirteen, I started this habit also. I couldn’t understand what it said, but I thought that this is what I was supposed to do.

Many times I am thankful to my mother for her example. After I became a Christian, daily devotions were easy for me. At times I’ve reduced this to a ritual in the same way they were for so many years, but not often. As I hear God speak to my heart and experience His work in my life, I’m eager to spend time with Him every morning.

In fact, I cannot go forward until I hear from God each day. His Word is powerful and as my father used to say, “heals whatever ails you.” Psalm 107:17-21 describes this process:

Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!

Typically a person waits until they are at the end of their rope to call out to God, and that is what the psalmist describes. How much better to call on Him every day. When He sends His Word, it not only heals whatever ails my spirit, but strengthens my heart and gives me courage to face whatever the day may bring. It also gives me energy, because as I talk back to Him, I feel all my weights and concerns lifted. I know He is in charge and He will take care of everything.

Today’s devotional reading in Ears from Harvested Sheaves is so good that I’m just going to read it again and rejoice that first thing each morning all I need to do, and all I want to do, is call on the Lord. The reading (slightly edited) says:

What an effect a word from God can produce! Be it in reading; in hearing; on the knees; or in secret meditation; when a word drops from the Lord’s mouth with any divine power into the soul, what a change it produces! And nothing but this divine power can ever bring a poor sinner out of his miserable condition. When this comes, it does the work in a moment; it heals all the wounds which sin has made, and repairs all the breaches in the conscience that folly has produced. One word from God heals them all. The Lord does not come as it were with bandages to heal first one sore and then another. He heals now as in the days of His flesh. When he healed then, he healed fully, at once, completely.
The earthly doctor heals by degrees; he puts a bandage on one sore, and liniment on another; and heals one by one. But when the Lord heals, it is done in a moment. The balm of Gilead flows over all the wounds, heals them up, and makes them perfectly whole. It is then with the soul as with the woman with the issue of blood; “she felt in her body she was healed of that plague.”
And this is healing! Any testimony from God, really from God, does it in a moment. If you can get but one word from God into your soul to make you believe you are a child of God, and interested in His pardoning love and mercy, every wound, though there be a million, yet, every wound will be healed instantaneously. This is the only healing worth having. To be healed by evidences is like being healed by bandages. You want an evidence here, and an evidence there, as a man that has his body full of sores wants a bandage upon every wound.
But one word from God is the real panacea, the true, the only “heal-all” and Jesus (who is the Living Word) the only true infallible Physician. To be healed completely, you must look to the Lord.

Amen!