"Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law" (Psalm 119:17-24). This should be our prayer each time we open God's Word. Does our soul "break with longing for (God's) judgments at all times"? Are God's testimonies "my delight and my counselors"? Ask God to help us place the proper value on His Word and to realize its importance in our lives. His word is our life. It is not to be perused merely on occasion or be glanced at now and then in a casual manner. It is life! The writer began this passage asking God to "deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word". We cannot "keep" God's word if we don't know what it says.
As women, Proverbs 27:15-16, may hold correction for us. Are we "contentious"? If so, God says we are as irritating as "a continual dripping on a very rainy day". Something needs to be done about it--the sound of "dripping" (contention) needs to stop! Contention can be defined as being angry and disagreeable, also as rivalry and competition. The verse goes on to say that trying to restrain her is like restraining the wind and grasping oil. This is not a pretty picture of a woman and if we see ourselves in this verse, we need to admit it, confess our sins, and ask God to help us become aware of being contentious, and ask Him to create in us a clean heart and cleanse us from this unrighteousness. When we follow God's way, we have a positive, uplifting effect on those around us unlike a "continual dripping".
In Jeremiah 23:1-24:10, God speaks to pastors--the shepherds of His flocks. He says He will address delinquent pastors and promises to provide shepherds that will properly care for their flock (One of God's names is "Provider"). This leads into the passage about "the Branch of Righteousness" that will bring salvation to all--"The Lord Our Righteousness"! Jesus is the Good Shepherd and promises to never leave us or forsake us. God says the day will come when His deliverance of His people from captivity will not be from Egypt, but "from all the countries where I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land". God says, "Both prophet and priest are profane" and because of this He will bring disaster upon them. He says "they also strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns back from wickedness". He says "they make you worthless" and says not to listen to them--what they speak is not from God, but from their own hearts. They tell the people that no evil shall come upon those who walk "according to the dictates of his own heart". This verse is for all you Bible markers--"Who has marked His word and heard it?" If we have a pastor who preaches the Word of God, yesterday's passage in I Thess. says we are to "esteem them very highly in love" (5:13).
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, reminds us that when Christ returns He will "(take) vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe". Paul says, "Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ". Remember to pray for others in this manner and get into the Word of God!
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