Anticipating God's Words - Encouragement Café - January 11, 2016

Anticipating God’s Words

Café Menu for Monday, January 11, 2016

Today’s Special is:  A Word for Every Day

Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Joan Walker Hahn

Main Ingredient:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Colossians 3:16 NKJV

Entrée:

Anticipating a new year can give us a feeling of excitement or anxiousness.   Excitement comes when the anticipation is for positive, good things to come.  Anxiety is felt for the possibility of negative things happening that are out of our control.

As Christians, we should be looking forward with anticipation that whatever may come, God has it taken care of already.  The way we can have that kind of hopeful anticipation is to stay immersed in the Word of God.

Some people choose specific Scripture and claim it as a life verse.  There are some verses that I have held onto for long periods of time and I was encouraged greatly by those verses. 

But I often find that as I’m reading God’s Word, I will come across a verse I feel like God is giving me for that specific day, for a specific problem or for some occasion I am going through at that precise moment.  Even if I have read that particular verse a thousand times, on that one day it seems to mean more.  God’s Word says,

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 NKJV

God’s Word teaches and convicts, comforts and corrects.  It will be to us whatever we need it to be as we faithfully spend time studying within it’s pages.

God knows our needs.  When Jesus started to teach His disciples how to pray, He said:

For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

Matthew 6:8 NKJV

Those needs can be physical or spiritual.  Our spiritual needs are met as we allow Him to speak to us through His Word and in our communion with Him in prayer.

Holding onto a life verse can remind us of God’s faithfulness through every situation.  Relying on God to give us a specific verse for specific occasions, increases our knowledge and wisdom in applying His Word.

Reading God’s Word nourishes our souls and prepares us for our day.  So the most important thing is to stay in His Word daily. 

Trust Him to give you the words you need to hear exactly when you need them.  Now that’s something to really anticipate!

Take Out:

Determine to stay in God’s Word every day.  I find that the Psalms are filled with verses that speak to my heart daily.  Here is one method my pastor taught us so that we could read Psalms and Proverbs through every month. 

On the first day of a month, read Psalms 1.  Add 30 to 1 and read Psalms 31.  Add 30 again and read chapter 61.  Then, chapters 91 and 121.  On the second day of the month, read chapters 2, 32, 62, 92, 122.  Do that each day and in 30 days you will read the entire book of Psalms. 

Then read one chapter in Proverbs each day.  After one month, start over. 

Doing this, in addition to whatever other method you use for your daily quiet time, will be a huge encouragement.

Dessert:

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the gift of Your Holy Word.  Help me to make it a priority to read and study Your Word every day.  As I take that time, speak to my heart, teach me what I need to learn, and help me share Your faithfulness to me with others.  I love You, Lord.  Amen.

© 2016 by Joan Walker Hahn.  All rights reserved.

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