Bible League: Living His Word The LORD says, "My thoughts are not like yours.Your ways are not like mine. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. We have been designed, but God is the designer. We are creatures, but God is the creator. We are limited, but God is not limited by anything. We control some things, but God is in sovereign control of everything. We have some power, but God is all-powerful. We know some things, but God is all-knowing. God, in other words, is beyond us in every respect. There is a lot of mystery when it comes to God. It's true that God reveals things to us, including things about Himself, but He doesn't reveal everything to us and, as a result, there are a lot of things we don't know. Further, when God does reveal things about Himself, He does so in creaturely terms. He has to, since we are creatures. But when He does this there is still an element of mystery. God, for example, is revealed in the Bible as a "rock" (Deuteronomy 32:4, 18), but we know He's not a physical thing. We implicitly know that the words and concepts used in the Bible to refer to God---father, rock, shelter, strong tower, etc.---are figures of speech that never fully reveal the reality of God. God always seems to escape any attempts to categorize Him, limit Him, or put Him in a box. The same is true with respect to God's thoughts. Just when we think we have God figured out, He does something totally unexpected. We have to confess at those times that His thoughts are not like ours, that His thoughts are higher than ours. Our thoughts are not like His not only because we are sinful people and He is a Holy God, but also because we are limited creatures and He is the unlimited creator of all things. At those times when what God is doing in our lives is hard to understand or figure out, we must trust Him. After all, His thoughts are not wrong thoughts; they are just higher thoughts. We must trust that "in everything God works for the good of those who love him" (Romans 8:28). When it comes to God, trusting Him trumps understanding Him every time. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingLeviticus 14 Leviticus 14 -- Cleansing from Skin Diseases and Mildew NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Matthew 26:55-75 Matthew 26 -- Plot to Kill Jesus; Jesus Anointed at Bethany; Last Supper; Judas' Betrayal; Jesus before Caiaphas; Peter Disowns Jesus NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Guard me as you would guard your own eyes.Hide me in the shadow of your wings. Insight Just as we protect the pupils (literally, “apples”) of our eyes, so God will protect us. Challenge We must not conclude, however, that we have somehow missed God's protection if we experience troubles. God's protection has far greater purposes than helping us avoid pain; it is to make us better servants for him. God also protects us by guiding us through painful circumstances, not only by helping us escape them. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon 2 Corinthians 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.There is a blessed proportion. The Ruler of Providence bears a pair of scales--in this side he puts his people's trials, and in that he puts their consolations. When the scale of trial is nearly empty, you will always find the scale of consolation in nearly the same condition; and when the scale of trials is full, you will find the scale of consolation just as heavy. When the black clouds gather most, the light is the more brightly revealed to us. When the night lowers and the tempest is coming on, the Heavenly Captain is always closest to his crew. It is a blessed thing, that when we are most cast down, then it is that we are most lifted up by the consolations of the Spirit. One reason is, because trials make more room for consolation. Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. The spade of trouble digs the reservoir of comfort deeper, and makes more room for consolation. God comes into our heart--he finds it full--he begins to break our comforts and to make it empty; then there is more room for grace. The humbler a man lies, the more comfort he will always have, because he will be more fitted to receive it. Another reason why we are often most happy in our troubles, is this--then we have the closest dealings with God. When the barn is full, man can live without God: when the purse is bursting with gold, we try to do without so much prayer. But once take our gourds away, and we want our God; once cleanse the idols out of the house, then we are compelled to honor Jehovah. "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord." There is no cry so good as that which comes from the bottom of the mountains; no prayer half so hearty as that which comes up from the depths of the soul, through deep trials and afflictions. Hence they bring us to God, and we are happier; for nearness to God is happiness. Come, troubled believer, fret not over your heavy troubles, for they are the heralds of weighty mercies. Daily Light on the Daily Path Malachi 3:17 "They will be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him."John 17:6,9,10,24 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. • "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; • and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them. • "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. John 14:3 "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 2 Thessalonians 1:10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed-- for our testimony to you was believed. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Isaiah 62:3 You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, And a royal diadem in the hand of your God. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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