"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night." Verses 1-2
So. Here is a very basic promise to begin the Psalms. The man who delights in "the law of the LORD" will be blessed. I think it's safe to say that if you "meditate day and night" on God's Word, you will be blessed. Not necessarily rich and famous. But blessed. I also believe that it is safe to kind of flip verses one and two and state that if one is delighting in God's Word and meditating day and night, one won't walk in the counsel of the of the wicked, stand in the way of sinners, or seat in the seat of scoffers.
Therefore, there is great benefit in meditating on the Word. It paves the way for God's blessings and helps prevent us from hanging out in undesirable atmospheres.
It's review day again. Seems weird, because I know I missed a lot of days in there, so it's taken about 10 days to do 7 days.
Did that even make sense??
Day 141--Anticipating the Workings of God--Isaiah 65:17-22
God gives us a beautiful picture of the future that we can expect as we serve and worship him. He tells us to "look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I'm creating." John Piper has written an entire book based on this premise, entitled Future Grace. In this book, Piper says that our power to live for today comes from the promise of future grace in Christ. We can stand today because of what we know is coming tomorrow.
Day 142--God's Knowledge of Us--Jeremiah 1:5
God knows us. He has known us. He knew us before we were conceived. He had plans for us before we were even a thought in the minds of two smitten young people who eventually became our parents. This is at once comforting and terrifying. Comforting because it tells me that my Father knows all about me and loves me anyway. Comforting because he does have a plan for me and I'm not just here at random, doing random stuff for no reason at all. Terrifying because he knows everything about me, and there are things about me that I don't want anyone to know! But the terror only last a minute because, well, what I said before. He loves me anyway. Back to Chris Tomlin..."you see the depths of my heart and you love me the same. You are amazing God."
Day 143--A Time To Grieve--Jeremiah 8:18-21; 9:1-3
Jeremiah grieves because the people to which he has been sent to preach are basically ignoring the message of God. So much so that Jeremiah basically just wants to get away from them completely. People today have a distorted view of God. This definitely should not be true of the church, because our view of God should come from the Bible and should be true and accurate. It's no surprise that people outside the church don't understand God. They don't have the ability to understand God. We need to let the Holy Spirit be our guide as we struggle to understand the infinite.
Day 144--Rotten As Old Shorts--Jeremiah 13:1-11
A rather strange passage, this. God instructs Jeremiah to buy some linen shorts, wear them constantly for a long time, then go bury them in a crack in a rock. After a long time further, he is instructed to go get them out. Of course, they were rotten and unusable. God's point? This would be how he would treat the pride of Israel. It would become as rotten as these old shorts. There you see how God feels about pride. We should, as Paul, boast only in the cross of Christ, and nothing else.
Day 145--Telling God What We Really Think--Jeremiah 20:7-10
In this passage, Jeremiah vents at God. I discussed this at length in the entry. I believe it is perfectly fine, perhaps even healthy to vent at God sometimes. Most of the "big" prophets did it and God didn't, you know, "zap" them. And sometimes, he even gave them an explanation, even though he certainly doesn't owe anyone an explanation for anything he does. But if we have something on our minds, it is far better to vent/rant at God than other people. They tend to get angry and rant back. God won't do that. What he will do is keep loving us, rants and all.
Day 146--Consequences That Burn--Jeremiah 28:10-17
I learned two things from this passage. One is that if God is punishing me for something, I'm better off not trying to worm my way out of it, because this might just make it longer and harder. Who doesn't remember being grounded and sneaking out the bedroom window, only to be caught and grounded even worse? Well, actually I don't, but I've seen it on tv a lot... The other thing I learned from this passage is that a prophet of God had better be telling the truth. Hananiah didn't and he died. Within the year. So there are two very important truths there. Not exactly an encouraging passage, but one that needs to be heard.
Grace and peace, friends!