"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise"---this is one of my favorite hymns and is based on I Timothy 1:17, which is part of today's Bible reading. It is difficult sometimes to summarize the Scriptures in order to write this blog. Yet, sometimes a theme will emerge when reading gets underway. Also, principles and truth that are foundational to every aspect of our spiritual lives may emerge. "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." This is I Tim. 1:17. As we began reading the Bible through in one year, it was brought out that one of the reasons for doing this is to come to know God.
Dr. Stanley includes an article on dealing with discouragement in the section "Answers To Life's Questions", on Jeremiah 29:10-14. (If you are reading/following this blog, I encourage you to get a copy of this Life Principles Study Bible for yourself. The time I have spent in this Bible during 2013, has been time well spent and God has opened my eyes to so much that I did not know. My relationship with God has been enriched by it! The Bible is available from Amazon or in Christian bookstores for around $12 or less. You cannot assign a monetary value to what you will gain by studying this Bible daily.) Probably the most important truth we can learn about God is: "God is for us"! Dr. Stanley writes this in regard to discouragement, and says, "If we are ever going to reach our full potential, we must understand (this) very important truth". So many times we hear people blame God for things that, in truth, were the result of bad choices, disregard for God's laws, or a matter of time and chance. God is waiting to help us, but too often we don't bother to ask Him to be involved in our lives and we don't even consider having anything to do with God until something bad happens. Then, we are quick to blame Him. Such thinking says we don't know anything about God. If there's only one thing we know about Him, it should be that GOD IS FOR US!
In Jeremiah 30:23, we read that, "In the latter days you will consider it". The preceding verse talks about "the whirlwind of the Lord" going forth with fury and falling on the head of the wicked and God's fierce anger continuing until He accomplishes His intentions. In this chapter, we find "that day" identified as "the time of Jacob's trouble" (v. 7). God warns that this time can be compared to the pains that precede birth and asks whether men are ever in labor with child (v. 6). God describes men with pale faces and their hands on their loins because of "that day" which is "great, so that none is like it" (v. 7). (The last stage of labor is the most painful and this will evidently hold true for the final phase of the birth of God's Kingdom.) We have seen the phrase "in that day" used often in Isaiah & Jeremiah's writings and we'll continue to see it in Ezekiel and the minor prophets, as well as in the New Testament. The "good news" in all this pain and fury is once again, God's mercy! God says at the end of verse 7, "But he (Jacob) shall be saved out of it". God goes on to say that correction is necessary---"Yet I will not make a complete end of you, but I will correct you in justice, and will not let you go altogether unpunished" (v. 11). God's justice and mercy are also themes we have seen as we are reading the Bible through in one year. However, although God totally forgives us, there may be consequences that we still have to pay. For example, God forgives fornication and adultery, however, babies are born without fathers in their lives and family break ups bring sorrow for all involved. Although God will help us in dealing with the consequences of our actions when we ask Him, consequences do remain.
Psalm 119:41-48, reminds us of the results we can have when we trust in God's word and live in the liberty that comes from seeking His precepts (principles, rules, commandments, laws). The writer says it can result in giving our testimony before kings without feeling ashamed. "And I will delight myself in Your commandments, WHICH I LOVE. My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, WHICH I LOVE, and I will meditate on Your statutes"! If we could only understand and remember that GOD IS FOR US, and that His principles for living, His rules, His commands, precepts, and statutes have their origins in His love for us!
Proverbs 27:19, says, "As in water face reflects face, so a man's heart reveals the man". If I know God is indeed for me, it will change my life. We must have that "heart of flesh" that we will read about in Ezekiel 11. Even as who we are reveals our heart, our hearts are revealed by how we live and what we believe.
"Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart" (Jeremiah 24:7). Praise the Lord!
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