Uncategorized

being engaged/ engrossed in the truths of Scripture to the degree that you can’t help thinking or talking about them

Have you ever walked about thinking aloud? Perhaps you were concentrating on a task. Maybe you were looking for your cellphone: “Where is it?” Maybe you were anxious, or angry.

Those of us who live in urban environments sometimes encounter shattered souls who constantly mutter to themselves about their grievances.

It’s true that the Hebrew words for meditation may mean muttering or pondering, or reciting. Upon that basis, I think meditation has to do with more than silent concentration. Biblical meditation involves speaking. It is something that can be done through the exercise of our willpower. However, meditation can be more than a technique we decide to do.

It may begin with diligently replacing our thoughts with that which is worthy of our meditation. Paul exhorted:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

When we are progressing in the meditation process we may move from concentrating upon something we think is worthy to being caught up in the wonder of what we’ve considered. (Permit me to rhyme…) Our determination is replaced by admiration. Our concentration becomes less laborious and more glorious. Our thought is less guided by ought and reflects what has caught us.

O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. (Psalm 119:97)

Let that which is pleasant about the Lord take root in your life.

Let my meditation be pleasing to Him; as for me, I shall be glad in the LORD. (Psalm 104:34)

Consider His care.

Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! …. Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. (Luke 12:24,27)

Consider His thoughts towards you.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! (Psalm 139:17)

Consider His strategic plans for you.

 

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

(Jer. 29:11)

Consider His love.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, [the] Messiah died for us. (Rom. 5:8)

Abide there.

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. (John 15:9)

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

Here is a promise made to a captive, desperate people:

 

Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

(Jeremiah 29:12-13)

Their only recourse was God and God called them to call upon Him. Isn’t this amazing? Whole-hearted prayer gets God’s attention and “opens the door” to the knowledge of God.

For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (Matthew 7:8)

God isn’t deaf. He hears when someone knocks on His door.

We are taught that prayer is effectual.

The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. (James 5:16b NET) 

There are certain things that we know God always wants to do. If we pray according to His will we shall be answered.

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. (1 John 5:14-15)

One of the things He wants to do is this: He wants to reveal His love to His children.

At that time Jesus said,

 

“I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.

(Matthew 11:25)

that (Father) would grant you, according to the riches of His glory …  ¹⁸ (to) be able to comprehend …  ¹⁹ and to know the Messiah’s love which surpasses knowledge … (Ephesians 3:16a,18a,19a)

To stir our faith He has provided evidence of His love.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. (1 John 3:1a)

Jesus commanded His unstable disciples to remain in a conscious awareness of His love.

 

Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

(John 15:9)

God wants to make His love real to you, too. You can pray for the convincing experience of knowing God’s love just like Paul prayed that the Ephesians would know Jesus’ love.

If you prioritize praying for an increasing revelation and experience of God’s love He will answer you.

 

‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

(Jeremiah 33:3)

Knowing His love is worth expending the effort in prayer. There are riches Father wants to release through you.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, (Ephesians 1:18)

Pray.

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. James 4:8a

Often, God’s initiation is hidden. We don’t see it, consciously experience it, or recognize it when He is, in fact, active. 

 

Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them.

(Hosea 11:3)   

We are commanded to consciously remain in the Messiah’s love as a branch abides in a vine (John 15:9). To abide we must, through trust, consciously inhabit His heart. This is part of the foundation of drawing near to God. 

Those who abide in Jesus’ love know this to be true: Branches do not strive to be connected. They stay connected through receiving the life of the vine. The branch “drinks” the life of the vine.

Similarly, God’s love is like a fountain from which we might drink. At times we have to adjust our souls to drink from that fountain. We must arise, go to Jesus and drink.

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” ( John 7:37-38)

We approach Him because we’re thirsty. Thirsting for the experience of God and His love is not uncommon. 

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:2)

Our spiritual thirst is part of God’s hidden pursuing initiation. It is part of His drawing us. We respond to the secret stimulus of spiritual lack by drawing near to Him. In spiritual seasons where it does not seem like God is pursuing us, we need to pursue God. How? Call to Him.

Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (Jeremiah 33:3)

Call to Him and ASK.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)

Another way we might pursue God is through resting and waiting for Him as we expectantly lift our voices to our Father and Friend in worship songs.

But as for me, I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more. … For I hope in You, O LORD; You will answer, O Lord my God. (Psalm 71:14; 38:15)

Sometimes our presuppositions about how the Lord must answer stop us from knowing Him even when He’s standing right in front of us. 

Supposing (Jesus) to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” (John 20:15b)

Ultimately, God reveals Himself to those who trust Him. Let’s draw near to God and ask Him to open our eyes to the reality of His love and trust that He will answer.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened … and thus to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 1:18a; 3:19)

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the good news. (Mark 1:15b)

Rightly directed faith is necessary for spiritual sanity. If we believe wrong things about God our valid experiences with God will be misinterpreted. If we have faith in God’s goodness that rightly directed faith will activate our prayers and continually refresh our anticipation. Here is how God speaks of Himself:

Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.“ (Exodus 34:6-7)

God does not see Himself as a bad guy. I think we should trust His perspective of Himself.

But what about our sin? Surely God will rigorously prosecute and judge us. Oh? Is that how the psalmist viewed our Redeemer? Look at this sober assessment:

If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (Psalm 130:3-4)

Our King can be trusted. However, the adversary is a slanderer who accuses and lies.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1)

Satan seeks to destroy godly faith by stealing the word of God from unwary believers’ hearts.

These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. (Mark 4:15)

Once this strategy is recognized and uncovered it can be overcome.

Our Messiah had perfect spiritual discernment and the fullness of power and authority. Notice, He used the Scriptures to overcome the devil.

“It is written…” (Matthew 4:4,6,10)

We have the same spiritual resource.

And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ( Ephesians 6:17)

One more thing, it is good to be loyally zealous for our Father’s honor. The nerve of the devil to slander God’s goodness to His redeemed children! Our redemption was accomplished through a revelation of His effective love for us at Calvary. 

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:17)

Sometimes having a refreshed experience with the love of God is as simple as acting upon the determination to change one’s mind and believe the best about God.

The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the good news. (Mark 1:15b)

Don’t put up with the enemy’s slander. Put on the armor of God and go to war. After all, what are you being asked to believe concerning God’s love that is unworthy of your trust?

Nothing.

So, pray in faith. Repent, believe the good news and exercise that faith via prayer.

Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received  them, and they will be granted you. (Mark 11:24-25)

God will answer you.

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City

Pursue God’s Love

Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received  them, and they will be granted you. (Mark 11:24-25)

One of my mentors could be relied on to say, “The greater includes the lesser.” What he meant by that was similar to what the Lord guaranteed. Jesus said that if we seek first the Kingdom and its righteousness that everything we needed would be added to us (Matthew 6:33).

It’s like that with God’s love.

In the context of this short article the “greater” is the settled faith in God who loves us and the experience of God’s love. We are promised that through the knowledge of God’s love we would be “filled up to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19b).” This really does mean that everything we desire concerning the manifestation of Jesus in the earth will be expressed in and through us. Jesus, the fullness of God!

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him … For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, (Colossians 1:19, 2:9)

Do you believe this? If so, why not run after it? After all, God’s love is pursuing you!

Surely your goodness and faithfulness (grace, kindness) will PURSUE me all my days, (Psalm 23:6a NET, YLV, CJB)

Why not shake off passivity and pursue the knowledge of God’s love?

We can do this the same way we might pursue the righteousness of God. In Romans, Israel’s spiritual dilemma is attributed to not pursuing God’s righteousness by faith. God’s righteousness is attained through vibrant, reverent, reliant trust: trust in the Messiah (Romans 9:30-32).

In the same way we cannot earn righteousness through our efforts we cannot obtain the knowledge of God’s love through our works. We are called to abide, trust, and expect that God will answer our prayers for the knowledge of His love.

Paul prayed for the Ephesians:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that [the] Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the Messiah’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14–19)

Pray in faith. Pursue the knowledge of God’s love by Scripturally illuminated faith expressed in believing prayer.

Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. (Mark 11:24-25)

You will get what you pray for.

Or on Kindle

Also, David wrote a book about God’s love for the Jewish People called, For the Sake of the Fathers

Check out David’s new worship album, Looking for a City