In spending time with the Lord one morning, He reminded me that He is ALWAYS communicating with us. However not only through the written word, but also through His sunsets splashed across the evening skies, through the wind and the breezes that wind their way through the trees. He speaks beautifully through His creation: the crashing waves, flowing streams and starry nights, a tender flower, a magnificent mountain. He communicates through friends and loved ones, through a gentle nudge in our hearts, and through His words illuminating our spirit.
We often get so used to hearing from Him the same way, but let’s broaden our thinking to even allow His word speak to us in ways we haven’t considered. We look at the same scriptures the same way over and over, but is it possible that the Lord may want to speak something differently than what we have considered in the past?
For example, there is a passage in Psalm 116:15 that up until recent years, we used to look at negatively. It says “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” When we were young believers some said the word Precious really means Costly in the original text, meaning that it is a costly thing here on earth for one of God’s saints to leave this life, unable to fulfill their calling, and their impact on earth getting cut short. That being true, this scripture has also taken on new meaning in light of what we’ve walked through: We now see that because of God’s great love for each one of us, IT IS very precious to Him for us to leave Earth and come “home” to Heaven with Him.
Many often quote Psalm 23:6, Goodness & mercy shall follow me all of the days of my life… We used to as well, until all hell broke out and stole our son’s life. It was really hard to consider scriptures like this one, because: 1) When a close loved one dies, especially your child, obviously goodness did not follow you. 2) Walking through the pain in the aftermath feels like anything but “goodness”. Before our tragedy, we interpreted “goodness” as applying to physical health, prosperity, wellbeing of our loved ones, all the things that make us want to wear the “Life Is Good” t-shirt. We even found it hard to sing our song God Is My Refuge because it includes that scripture. It just didn’t make sense anymore! Until…
One day when reading this scripture in a different translation, it opened a whole new world of understanding. The NLT says Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life. O My Gosh! That’s it! YOUR GOODNESS will follow or pursue me no matter what I go through. It’s not “things” that will follow me, it’s GOD’s GOODNESS – HIS love, HIS help, HIS strength, HIS provision! Again because of God’s great love, He brought understanding and consolation to our broken hearts like only He can.
Often through the years, we personally have been guilty of pinching this one verse from here and that one from there, and put together a nice little collection of scriptures that fall in line with the way we believe. But let’s consider when we read God’s word, to keep an open heart to what new thing He may be saying through something that we’ve read the same way, over and over again. Let’s be careful to never pull scriptures out of context, but to always look at them in the light of the context they are written in, then let the Lord speak through that. He communicates to our hearts continually and creatively, through all kinds of sources! Let’s open up and be receptors to live on a higher level of fellowship with our wonderful Master.
We love and appreciate you. Thank you SO MUCH for partnering with us as we continue seeking the Lord and endeavor to cover the Earth with His Word in song.
Many blessings,
