I have not exactly been a consistent and regular blogger!...
A couple nights ago I was struggling with a certain amount of frustration as I thought on how uncertain everything around me seemed. In school, in friendships, in church, in work ... the future seemed - and still seems - vague, uncertain, slightly forboding, and even, at times, bleak. Sometimes, like that night as I sat alone (in a dark room around midnight), the future before me did not appear to hold much hope or joy.
Thankfully, rather than continue on in these melancholy reflections late into the night, God turned my eye to my Bible which lay opened on the chair in front of me.
At that moment, I realized with overwhelming gratefulness that God and His Word do not change. God does not shift, He does not abandon me, He doesn't hold back when I call out to Him! Because of Christ, God has bound me to Himself with a covenant love that will never fade. And in Christ I will only ever see His good and perfect will more and more clearly.
God's Word is a wonderful gift to us. Among other things, the Holy Spirit uses the Word to ignite faith in our hearts. The Word builds us in the knowledge of our God and His will. The Word guides us as a lamp to our feet. By the Word we can guard our hearts for the righteousness that God calls us to. God's Word is a mountain which stands firm in the face of any storm we may face.
There is joy in communing with God in His Word and in prayer! How can a heart not be affected with joy when we read through the Scriptures with the eyes of the redeemed? Certainly, the Bible has laments and painful stories and convicts of sin ... but the central character to the Bible is Jesus Christ, who has victory over these things! The theme of the Bible is redemption, not sorrow, and that is a happy thing.
All this to say: if you struggle with joylessness, a lack of hope ... then you are not seeing your life as God sees it. One of the ways we can fight for joy is to immerse ourselves in the Word of God! Take less time listening to yourself and listen more to what God has to say!
Psalm 119 is a wonderful song of love for the Word of God. Do you delight in the Lord's testimonies? Behold wonderful things in His law? Are you strengthened from sorrow according to His Word? Do you trust in the promises of the Father? Do you love to walk in obedience to Scripture? Do you think about His precepts day and night? Do you long for God's commandments as water?...
There is joy and delight to be found in the Word of God. Thank God for your Bible as you read it next!
