Tag: A Word for Wednesday

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Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

I once told a friend about a book I had recently enjoyed, titled, The Introvert Advantage. After relating to him a few tidbits I had gleaned throughout its pages, he asked, “Well, what is the introvert advantage?” I chuckled at having talked all around the book without landing on its main point, then directly answered his question: when an introvert speaks, people listen. For introverts usually process a matter internally before sharing their thoughts out loud. Yet I hasten to add that most people—introverts and extraverts alike—give voice to what is important, and repeatedly so to that which is most important. Then may we assume that, if God repeats a matter, it must be most important to Him, as well? If so, we cannot overlook or minimize His deepest yearnings, voiced to us time and again. Listen to His heart expressed through His Word.

It began with a promise to Abraham. “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.”1

It was in God’s heart when He called Moses to lead Israel out of Egyptian captivity: “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God”2

Establishing the letter of the Law, God revealed His heart behind the Law: “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands . . .I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”3

Calling the Israelites into a covenant relationship with Himself, God voiced His desire through Moses: “to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you . . .”4

Even toward His people in exile, God’s heart remained steadfast, as spoken through the prophet, Jeremiah: “My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. . . I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”5

Foretelling a new covenant—of a Messiah’s leadership and a good shepherd’s protection—God’s eternal purpose remained unbending: “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant . . .I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.”6

Jeremiah’s contemporary, Ezekiel, also prophesied a new covenant, proclaiming God’s promise: “My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”7

Returned from exile to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, Zechariah foretold a time when God’s desire echoes back to Him through His people: “They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”8

And to John, God revealed a time yet to come when His desire is completely and eternally fulfilled “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”9

As we read “all around His book,” may we not miss this most important, repeated point: God wills to be our God, and He purposes for us to be His own. This is the heart from which God speaks; may we hear Him in great comfort and joy.

Father, at great cost, You have made us Your people. With grateful hearts we proclaim You as our God. Lead us in Kingdom work today. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Genesis 17:7
2 Exodus 6:7
3 Leviticus 26:3, 12
4 Deuteronomy 19:13
5 Jeremiah 24:6-7
6 Jeremiah 31:31, 33
7 Ezekiel 37:27
8 Zechariah 13:9
9 Revelation 21:3
See also Exodus 29:45-46; Leviticus 11:45; 22:32-33; 25:38; 26:45; Numbers 15:41; Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 34:30; 36:28; Hosea 1:9-10; 2:23; Zechariah 8:8; 2 Corinthians 6:16; and Hebrews 8:10.

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Incoming!

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy . . .”1—Paul, writing to believers in Philippi

Sometimes world events remind us of how little we are in control. Russia invades Ukraine, and we can but watch. Terrorists do unspeakable things even to the most defenseless, and we feel helpless. Infighting in Sudan displaces over five million people from their homes; we can only ache for them. We are powerless. Or so it seems . . .

Isn’t it fascinating that some of Paul’s most impactful ministry arose from his time in prison, a plight in which virtually all control is stripped away? It was as “an ambassador in chains”2 that Paul wrote his epistles to the churches in Ephesus, Colossae, and Philippi—inspired writings that have taught, corrected and guided Christians as canon for two millennia hence. It was in the isolation of incarceration that Paul prayed fervently and continually for the churches he loved so much. Though devoid of control, the prisoner was anything but powerless.

The same is true of us. I have heard of prayer being likened, in a sense, to an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM): we can confidently launch petitions from anywhere in the world, for their range is unlimited, and no weapons exceed the power of their warheads. We don’t have to be in control, just faithful in prayer and confident in the One who hears us and is sovereign above all things.

When overwhelmed to the point of hopelessness, sometimes even unto prayerlessness, I personally find inspiration in a word of encouragement from Peter Kreeft, author and professor of philosophy at Boston College, and I share it here with you . . .

I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers make, and all the people those little prayers were destined to affect, and all the consequences of those prayers down through the centuries, we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives.

May we be the faithful who unite in the power of prayer and trust in Him who hears us.

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.”—Ephesians 3:14-15 NLT

Father, I trust in your wisdom, power, and love. Hear me now as I pray . . .

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

1 Philippians 1:3-4
2 Ephesians 6:20

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What Creation Says to Us

Of all the places Peggy and I have traveled, I would have to include Northern Michigan among the most beautiful. Sunsets over Lake Michigan are spectacular. Auras of red cradle a yellow sun as, dimming, it dutifully descends into the horizon’s waters. Each cloud is a palate of pastels, its hues ever blending in constant change. There is no silence, though it seems so. A breeze in the ear, the call of the gull, a child’s voice in the distance, muffled by wind and wave—this is the soft soundtrack in nature’s gallery where, though the Painter’s canvas never changes, His evening masterpieces are never the same. We can only marvel, “Where there is art, there must be an Artist.”

In last week’s post, we beheld in awe the authority in God’s words, “The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created.”1 Then who but God could possibly have conceived also of this: the creation He spoke into being now speaks His being to us? David pens to lyrics, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”2 Creation proclaims God, yet in a language only our soul can understand. David continues, “[The heavens] have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”3 Mountains declare God’s power, and forests profess His beauty. Skies and seas laud His vastness; their storms roar His righteous fury. Surely, God’s “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”4

Speaking into being that which, in turn, speaks God’s being to us—this is intentional, this is purposeful, for it proclaims our value to Him. David reflects, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.”5

Do you feel lost in the universe, a small, insignificant speck? Nothing could be further from the truth, for just as God spoke us into creation when we were nothing, so now He speaks through creation to show us we are something. Only we were made in His image, and He goes too great lengths to tell us.

“He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord God Almighty is his name.” Amos 4:13 NIV

For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.”6 Amen.

1 Psalm 33:6 NLT
2 Psalm 19:1-2 NIV
3 Psalm 19:3-4 NIV
4 Romans 1:20
5 Psalm 8:3-6, emphasis added
6 Psalm 92:4