Sunday, May 9, 2010
May 10 ... I Chronicles 28, 2 Chronicles 1 "Sovereign Winds are Blowing...Set My Sails Accordingly"
I Chronicles 28:9 "And you, Solomon my son, get to know well your father's God; serve him with a whole heart and eager mind, for God examines every heart and sees through every motive. If you seek him, he'll make sure you find him, but if you abandon him, he'll leave you for good. Look sharp now! God has chosen you to build his holy house. Be brave, determined! And do it!" Oooh! As my son graduates from high school in a couple of weeks, I love praying these thoughts to my God for my son. Get to know your father's God!!!! HE sees through your motives---not just your behavior but what is really going on inside of your heart! HE will make sure you find Him!
I Chronicles 28:20 David continued to address Solomon: "Take charge! Take heart! Don't be anxious or get discouraged. God, my God, is with you in this; he won't walk off and leave you in the lurch. He's at your side until every last detail is completed for conducting the worship of God." Again, I hope my children are aware of God's Presence in their lives! HE won't walk off. I so want to pray these verses for my son through his college days.
So, what lingers with you as you close the book of I Chronicles? For me, I picture myself sitting at my one year check up after going through cancer this past year and hearing the news that they found something suspicious on my scan. And picking up 66 LL to read: "I invite you to delighty in your distress. Nothing else provides the same opportunity to move strongly and joyfully into life on the basis of My Promises alone, the Promises of My Presence!" HE is with you and me, walking with us. We are not alone in this. Am I more afraid of losing God's Presence than the good life? Crabb says: "Wisdom recognizes the Sovereign Wind blowing through a pilgrim's heart, and humbles itself by settting its sails accordingly." Set my sails, o my soul!
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I love the verses as David talks to his son and tells him, knowing first hand, God's favor and His consequences for David's sin. David feared God and wanted that more than anything for his son. He knew the task set before his son better than anything. He knew his weakness. He knew Where to seek strength. He knew God looked at motives, and knows his heart's condition. And he knew God would make sure to find Him if Solomon would seek Him.
ReplyDeleteIt is a powerful prayer to pray for our children. It is Truth for our own journeys. Can you imagine how ill-equipped Solomon must have felt? Solomon understood to revere God. And he asked for wisdom. I can't think of a thing I need more in life than God's wisdom to know and act in God's Will.
I'm loving sharing the pages of The Message with 66LL with you all. Your posts, Bev, and all of your comments touch me deeply, make me think, often for hours. even days after I stop by here. What lingers is Plan A, Sheer Wonder's best for us. Also, that we don't deserve a thing more than what He's already done for us. The rest is His pleasure to add blessing to our lives. Not because we are "living right." I am learning slowly to trust whatever He brings, it is what I need the most to draw out the sin, to draw closer to Him.
Bev and Annette your thoughts and comments encourage and challenge me at the same time. I am so thankful to the time I get to stop by and read HIS Word, receive your comments as well as from the Other String of Pearls and remember...
ReplyDeleteOnly Plan A is available. The challenges I seem to face daily are for my good to grow my Holiness.
Annette I pray your infection is long gone by now. Even so God expresses himself to me through your words today.
Bev, your faithfulness to seek Him in everything you do blesses me. The fact when you mess up you are not afraid to admit it then Seek God for corrective behavior.
Les and I received an unsolicited card from a business associate in another state thanking us for what we do for the business organization. The person included a precious book "God Always Has a Plan B". You all know that struck a chord in me. The person doesn't know just as I didn't until I began to read 66L there is only Plan A. I began to realize much of the time when referring to Plan A it really was Sylvia's Plan a not neccesarily God's so Plan B sounds good.
Because of reading the Message and 66LL with your comments I know daily to truly seek Plan A which is and always will be God's Plan and pray that I will Have His Vision each Day for Plan A and follow accordingly.
I am so thankful that God's Word has the power to change lives. Especially my life.
This song I must sing. Sylvia xoxo
1 Chronicles 29:19 "And give my son Solomon an uncluttered and focused heart so that he can obey what you command, live by your directions and counsel"
ReplyDeleteDavid knew that a lack of focus and "clutter" in our hearts always keeps us from God.
I love David's address to his son in chapter 28 and his prayer to God in chapter 29. In the previous books, I don't remember anything being mentioned that David had set his son up for success by providing blue prints and materials for the building of the Temple. David loved his God and finished well on this earth.
What lingers with me from this book is a quote from 66 LL: "When you find yourself in the desert, draw near to Me, not with an entitled spirit but in confident hope. You will discover that hope only in My Presence."
Not only am I reading about this, it is what I have experienced this year. Out of heartbreak and disappointment, I have found hope in the presence of my God.
Loving this time spent in God's Word, seeking Him daily for my manna, sharing this time with each of you, and seeing Him more IN my suffering.
ReplyDeleteOur God is the Master Gardener. Eden has nothing on the garden God is working for eternity! He tills the soil, he decides what He plants, He sows, He sends rain, He sends sunshine, He fertilizes, and He carefully attends this garden...looking for what needs His attention. He reaps. Prunes, even.
I see each one of you as beautiful and fruitful trees in His garden. I think pruning us is the hardest thing! But it reaps a greater harvest. That's one thing from this book that I'm learning...to embrace my suffering, my distress (like pruning). To rebuild the temple in my life (I am the temple).
Sometimes a pillar...just supporting.
Sometimes an instrument...announcing.
Sometimes a vessel...pouring out or needing filling.
Sometimes a chest...the ark...His footstool...carrying His Holy Presence to a dark world.
Sometimes an altar...ready for another time of substitutionary and costly sacrifice.
Sometimes a lampstand...holding His Light.
Holy.
These words are probably the most important words from the passage for today. How Solomon must have felt when He heard this for himself. All the pomp and circumstance wouldn't amount to anything if God were not his God, too. Here is what speaks to me:
2 Chronicles 1:7
"That night God appeared to Solomon. God said, "What do you want from me? Ask."
Our faith does not come through our parents. It is our own personal relationship with our God that matters. No grandmother can pray for us enough. No church attendance can write our name in the book of life. No good we do can earn us a ticket there. We are invited to a party and our ticket there is Jesus. I know Solomon knew the deep relationship his father had with God. And now, Solomon will hear God speak to him! Personal relationship. So much more than religion can ever offer us!
Thank you, Bev, for listening to God and hovering over each one of us in spite of the suffering you are going through. Focusing on "rebuilding the temple" even when everything else appears so much more important.
I just love Plan A. I think about that when I'm hearing so much about Plan B. Plan B may be our justification for our screw-ups. But after reading 66LL, suffering is the way to holiness. Plan A all along.
Love to each one of you on the way to the party!
Thank you for your prayers. I had a stitch that was trying to work its way out. I think it's all getting better today after the dr. cut out the suture. I get impatient and want to be 100% but dr thinks I'm right on schedule. Sorry to use this forum for an update, but I am grateful for your prayers. Love to you all, Annette
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful way to end a book of the Bible, with such power prayers & praise (Ch. 16 & Ch. 29).
ReplyDelete1 Chronicles captured me by emphasizing the importance of maintaining a CLOSE relationship with God. As with earthly relationships, we have to communicate and open ourselves up to others, to build a close relationship with the other person. Just as David had daily contact with God, that truly increased his capacity to worship and strengthened his desire to build God's temple.
David's life encourages me to stay close to the Lord, through studying His Word (with you ladies) and communicating with the Lord in prayer and being still.
I am reminded as we finish with 1 Chronicles that our study of Scripture is truly the keys to security, happiness, and justice in our lives. And, as God is answering prayers, bringing victory, and most of all showering us with peace, it just encourages me to press in.
And, as we begin a new book, I am so thankful for each of you, to share this journey with.
Love You All,
Kim D.
Your comments so bless me! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI am laughing at my typo---
delighty in my distress...
sometimes I do have to just laugh at the mess I've made and
delighty in the distress of it all.
Oh for an uncluttered and focused heart! Thank you God for what you are doing in all of us!