Letters From God
Reading Luke 10: 38-42
“While Jesus and his followers were traveling, Jesus went into a town. A woman named Martha let Jesus stay at her house. 39 Martha had a sister named Mary, who was sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him teach. 40 But
Martha was busy with all the work to be done. She went in and said,
“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me alone to do all the
work? Tell her to help me.”
41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things. 42 Only one thing is important. Mary has chosen the better thing, and it will never be taken away from her.” NIV
As a Christian, wouldn’t it be nice to get
a personal communication from God every day. Imagine going out the
mailbox and finding a letter of encouragement or instruction from God
everyday. Wouldn’t that be awesome. Can you imagine getting letters like
these in the mail:
Dear Ben,
Here’s something for you to
think about today, I have blessed you in the heavenly realms with every
spiritual blessing in Christ.
I chose you before the
creation of the world to be holy and blameless in my sight. In
love I predestined you to be adopted as My son through Jesus Christ,
because it was what I wanted and it pleased me to do so.
I have redeemed you through with My Son Jesus’ blood, and have forgiven your sins, It is my gift to you
I have also made known to you the mysteries of My will which I revealed through Christ because that also pleased me as well.
Ben, think about and enjoy these blessing today,
Your loving heavenly Father, God (From Ephesians 1:1-9)
Dear Ben,
I thought you could use these instructions today. Ben, you Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to others and love them. Honor others above yourself. Don’t lack in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, in serving Me.Ben, be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with My people who are in need. Practice hospitality.Even bless those who
persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice;
mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be
proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not
be conceited.
Ben, do not repay anyone evil
for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it
is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, but leave that up to Me for as it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”
Ben do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Love you Lots, Your Father God
(From Romans 12:9-21)
I wonder how you would treat those letters
if they were actually from God addressed to you? Would you tear them
open to see what God had to say to you each day? Would you cherish those
letters and save them like a treasure? Or would you just read them real
quick and maybe stack them up like a old pile of magazines?
Hopefully that would not be the case.
Hopefully you would go through them periodically, maybe even refer back
to them if something came up in your life that you know He wrote to you
about. Maybe refer to that last one if someone started treating you bad.
I think it would make God feel good knowing that His letters were not
being treated like ‘junk mail.’ Or, that you even re-read and refer to
them often.
Would not such correspondence every day be a precious treasure?
Well that’s what you have when you take the
time each day to pick your Bible and read from it. It contains personal
messages from Him to you.
The Bible is the main way that God speaks
to us on a personal level. And what He has to say within is important. I
am sure you’ve heard it over and over before about the importance of
reading your Bible every day.
But how can we take better advantage of
what He writes and what we read? I have to admit, I have a problem when
I read. Quite frankly no matter what book I read from I don’t remember
as much as I would like to remember after reading it. Even if I read an
amazing statement, it won’t be too long before that fact fades away. So
if some of you are like me I am concerned about How we can take better
advantage of what God is trying to tell us without forgetting it so
quickly.
The answer is a relatively simple one and
it’s this; When you read God’s word I suggest you read it with a pen or
pencil. I find when I read the Bible, God’s letter to me, the Spirit
almost always causes a particular verse or passage to stand out. You
could have read the same thing over 5 times before but for some reason
on that particular day you notice something you never saw before. That’s
when you need to take that pencil and underline it.
Better yet I would like to share with you a
practice that has changed lives across this globe, and that is start a
journal. What am I talking about?A journal is simply a
notebook where you can write down what God says to you that day. A
journal is not a diary; it is notebook of precious gems or profound
treasures that God reveals to you so that you do not forget them or why
they are important.
How many of your really want to draw God’s
thoughts out of scripture and them imprint them on your soul – this is
one way to do it.
If the Bible just sits on a shelf or your
coffee table it’s just another book. But when we open its pages to
your eyes and drink it in, and then take notes on those special things
He wants you to see, then the Spirit breathes those truths into your
life.
I am constantly taking notes on things I
read, or when I go to hear people speak, even when I watch or listen to
TV or radio programs. If not I forget.
Whether you realize it or not, You honor God by note taking.
Taking notes is one of the best ways to honor any instructor. It’s a
statement saying that what they have to say is very important to you,
‘note worthy’, something worth saving, preserving so that you can go
back to it again.
In the book entitled, THE DIVINE MENTOR,
the author teaches a very helpful technique to journal your thoughts as
you read scripture, and I would like to share what he has taught
thousands do, and it has changed lives.
If you can remember the word SOAP you can
remember this simple yet life changing technique, The word SOAP is a
simple acrostic:
S = Scripture;
O = Observation;
A = Application;
and
P = Prayer.
So after you read a portion of scripture,
in your notebook write down the date, then write the Scripture reference
and what it was all about. Then list some personal observation you
noticed. Then the Applications you can personally make to yourself from
that scripture, and then write out a small prayer.
More than likely a year from now you will
not remember that verse and why it made such an impression to you on
that day, but when you write it these things down, and refer back to
them, you will remember.
(Here is an example of one of my journal entries)
January 5
Scripture: Luke 8:22-25
As
Jesus and His disciples were sailing across a lake, Jesus fell asleep
in the boat, and a fierce wind storm came up and the disciples were so
afraid that they woke Jesus up . They told Him that ‘We are going to
drown.” Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and the waves and all went calm.
Then Jesus asked them, “Where is your faith?”
The text goes on to say that they
were amazed and asked one another, ”Who can this be. He commands even
the winds and the water, and they obey him.”
My Observations:
Jesus got so tired he fell to
sleep and did not wake up. He was really tired. This shows me His
humanity and how He is in some like us when we get over tired.
Also, the weather must have been quite fierce for those seasoned fisherman to be so afraid.
Also, I wonder if Jesus asked
them, “where is your faith” more because of their fear and reactions in
the situation. Maybe they would not have received such a rebuke from Him
of they simply came to Him, and calmly woke Him up letting Him simply
know about their concern and then asking Him to please take care of the
matter. But instead their reaction was more like, “WAKE UP LORD, WE ARE
GONNA DIE!!”
Application: No
matter what storms of life may come our way we should not forget that
Jesus is more powerful that we are and able to handle the situation. We
can either get all worked up and flustered like those men, or we can
simply turn to Him in faith and ask Him to handle it and help us through
it. We need to trust Him all the way!. Our fear, our anxiety, our
frustrations, and poor reactions do not do any good and will not help.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, Help me to recognize
that you are ever present and that you love me. When difficult, scary,
or nerve racking situations arise help me to simply trust in you, and
turn to you immediately so that I do not get consumed with anxiety, fear
or other bad or negative emotions. I Praise you Father for your care
and strength, and majesty.
I know life is full of too many things that
can rob our time and distract us from sitting at the feet of our Lord,
hearing what He has to say.
In Luke 10:38-42 God sent us a message for
the day. As busy as both Mary and Martha could have been, Mary made the
better choice. She realized that time spent with Jesus was more
important than anything else. There will always be other things to do.
I hope that you make that same choice each
day. And I hope that if you do, you will do in a way that really makes
it count so that you will remember and benefit from what you read.
I pray God’s blessing upon you.
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