Some people read the Bible as an act of duty to God. I don't believe that is the entire freedom that God has in His heart for us as to the "why" we should read the Bible. He has shown us that we can never deserve the love He has for us. It is given unconditionally. I must admit that I was one of those people for a long time, until I started to read how many times God reminds us that it was His grace that saved us when we were still locked up in our sins, bad habits, guilt and shame. Yes ... in the book of Ephesians we read that we were saved by grace, through faith - that simple heart believing that Jesus is who He has always said that He is ... that we love Him only because He first loved us. I start my post this way, because these days I look at the Bible as my conversations with Jesus. In John 1:1 Jesus tells us that He IS the Word of God. It has changed the whole dynamic of my Bible reading time. When I pick it up I know He is sitting right here with me talking to me. I am teaching my children that if they want to see what Jesus looks like or hear Him talking to them, they can read the Bible to hear His very words to them. Just this week I was reminded again how closely He is interested and involved in our lives and He has just the right thing to say to us to guide us through whatever it is that we are facing.
On Wednesday morning a group of us girls met for some tea and Bible reading time. We were talking through Colossians Chapter 1. As we started I heard His gentle whisper that for each of us ladies, somewhere hidden in this chapter was a promise for each of us personally. Two verses spoke so clearly to my heart. In verse 2 Paul greets the reader with this prayer: "Grace (spiritual favor and blessing) to you and (heart) peace from God our Father." I had never seen that before ... "heart peace"! God knows everything that we will face and in the midst of whatever that may look like, He gives us the favor and blessing to have heart peace no matter what we may face!
The next verse is verse 4 which says "For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus (the leaning of your entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness) and of the love which you (have and show) for all the saints (God's consecrated ones)." What an amazing picture of what Faith looks like! Faith is the leaning / trusting of our entire human personality on Him in absolute trust ... having complete confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness that He has intended towards us! What a clear and beautiful picture of what faith looks like. It is us depending on Him. I see the picture in my mind of leaning up against all that He is ... all His goodness, strength, stability, peace, protection and goodness.
Straight after my time with the girls I had to run off to my next scan. I will be 30 weeks on Monday so the scans are every 2 weeks from now. It was so awesome to see our baby boy again and his peaceful little face. The Doc did all the scans and picked up that he is a little smaller than where he should be and also that there are signs of calcification starting in my placenta which is a little early and so he wants me to go for a doppler scan next week. Immediately my heart started pounding full of worry and questions and that's when I heard His gentle whisper ... "Heart peace my Jan ... I offer you heart peace". Wow. He gave me these 2 promises within the same hour that I would hear unsettling news at our scan and now every time I tend towards worrying thoughts I get the picture of leaning in complete confidence and trust on HIS power, wisdom and goodness to protect Zac and overshadow Him with His protection. While the doctors look at my track history of premature births, I can focus my heart on His peace knowing that He is able to bring our sweet boy to us when he will be strong and healthy to be born.
I pray that this testimony of what I discovered in God this week will encourage you. As you pick up the Bible, hear His promises of hope, wisdom and encouragement to help you in whatever it is that you are facing in your life today. He sees you and He cares so much!!!
All my love xxx
Janine
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sending you love.
pam