Day AND Night?

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)

Arthur Helps reminds us to, "Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as high as it will. Refuse to be average or to surrender to the chill of your spiritual environment." How 'chilly' is your spiritual environment right now? Have you surrendered to that chill, my friend? Where there is no delight in the Word of God, a chill is sure to come.

How on earth do we cultivate this 'meditating day and night' thing in our lives? If we want a constantly 'hot' relationship with Jesus, we will do well to understand this instruction. Too many times we think of meditating upon something as sitting legs crossed, eyes closed, and environment totally still around us. In truth, the Hebrew word for meditate is quite different from what we might imagine.

Hagad is the Hebrew term used for 'meditate' and carries the idea of active thinking which actually demands some form of expression. When God instructs us to meditate day and night upon his Word, he is telling us to 'give it expression' in our lives. In other words, we live out his Word. It is more than heart-warming concepts on a page - it is life-transforming truth that sets a soul free to express itself. 

When we 'take in' the Word of God, it is important that we allow it to bring forth an expression from within us. I have been reading along and then just heard myself say, "Hmmmm....", right out loud. Why? Something within those words caught my attention and touched my spirit - in turn, my soul cried out. When God's Word begins to delight you like that, you are learning to meditate upon it. It brings forth expression - right then, and then in the actions that come later on. Just sayin!

The 'considering process'

God’s works are so great, worth a lifetime of study—endless enjoyment! Splendor and beauty mark his craft; His generosity never gives out. His miracles are his memorial—this God of Grace, this God of Love. (Psalm 111:2-4)

Endless: Of or seeming to have no limit; boundless; infinite; incessant. Our challenge today is for us to consider the works of God. I would like us to put a great deal of effort into this "consideration", then to proclaim what it is we have been "considering" rather than keeping silent about it. There is to be a certain attitude in our consideration of the wonders of God. Get to know God on a personal basis and I believe you will not be "shy" about proclaiming what it is you have discovered in him - in his Word and in those times you spend alone with him. God's works are so great - worth a lifetime of study. God's works - everything from his creative to sustaining power - is worthy of our consideration. His works produce something, don't they? They are not idle works - just fooling around in the "workshop" of creation. They are purposeful and productive - they accomplish something. Every word he utters either sets something in motion, or holds something in check. Not even one word he utters lacks significance. Maybe this is why God wants us to value our time of quiet with him each day - to give us time to consider his works. We often get so busy - just glancing over his Word and not really considering his works, but it is in this considering process that we come to really "apprehend" the greatness of our God.

We are guaranteed a positive return on our "consideration" of God's works - endless enjoyment. I have spoken before about times of retreat, when we just have to take time away from the busy life we lead and center again on the important things in life. I think we need to take 'consideration times' to a whole different level - not just "seasons" of retreat and renewal, but a daily consideration of the works of God in which are sure to find encouragement, hope, and the basis of our trust. To find a way to "consider" God each day for just a few moments - developing the "skill" of studying his works so as to find the endless enjoyment he has for us in them - this is our mission. Splendor and beauty mark his craft. Splendor could also be written as "brilliant distinction". In looking upon God's "craftsmanship", we see such brilliant distinction - everything he creates has a beauty unique to that creative process. Even the "ugly" cacti of the desert have a beauty all their own. Have you ever stopped to explore the crags of the path, seeing deep into the crevices? The tiniest of insects crawl make this their home, protected from the elements, and far outside the reach of passing footsteps. God created the "crag" as a brilliant display of his protection for these little creatures. I wonder just how much we'd see of his splendor and beauty if we stopped to consider all the tiny "crags" he has created along the way in our lives?

His generosity never gives out. In a purely physical sense, my generosity is found lacking at some point. I "give out" until I feel I cannot give anymore. God's generosity finds no end point - there is a continual renewal of his grace, peace, love, and care. There is a liberality and readiness which mark his generosity. He is not a "stingy" giver - his grace cost him all he had! "God loves it when the giver delights in the giving." (2 Corinthians 9:7) When we consider the example of the Giver of all things, we will be challenged to "give" in the same manner - with delight! His miracles are his memorial. A miracle is something which surpasses human knowledge - we just cannot explain it. God's miracles are his memorial - they help "plant" memories of his goodness and greatness displayed in the lives of mankind. I don't know about you, but I want more "memorials" of his goodness and greatness in my life - things which humankind cannot explain. Things like the change of my character - transitioning me from a self-centered sinner into a creature of his love and grace. How about you? Want to be a display of his goodness and greatness? What "miracle" are you expecting of God today? Maybe in considering what God has done already in our lives, we might just find a few memorials we can put on display for all to see! Just sayin!

In his hands we find...

Riches and glory come from you, you’re ruler over all; You hold strength and power in the palm of your hand to build up and strengthen all. (I Chronicles 29:11)

This is only part of the verse, but it is that last sentence that captured my attention this morning. I took a short walk by myself as the morning began to heat up around here and spent some time just meditating on what God was going to have me 'do' once I move into my retirement. I asked questions, pondered the family, thought about my best friend, heard him remind me of some things I had desired to do 'when I had time', and then I just plain listened. You might just be overwhelmed with the sense of his presence and the strength that comes as he builds you up in it. God really does hold all strength and power in the palm of his hands - to build up and strengthen us all. 

As I pondered my next steps, I spent some time thanking God for what he has done for me in the realm of my finances - making it possible for me to take the next steps. Then I began to share my desire to engage in my community - to give back in some way. He brought an assurance in my heart that what I was exploring was right on with what he wants. There is nothing more exciting than to know you are in the will of God, my friends. I have a tendency to do a whole lot of "I" praying -  I need this, I want to know this, I want 'x' friend to be blessed, etc. We might all do this from time to time, but when we finally get past the "I" prayers and into the "YOU" meditations of those quiet times, God can speak to us in ways that build us up and bring tremendous strength into our lives.

I want to ask you today to do something for yourself - not me. Will you stop what you are doing long enough to really move from just 'praying' and begin to meditate upon the words he gives you? Through his Word; in times of hearing a good message; or just because he is prompting your heart to consider some particular train of thought - meditate upon those words. Spend some time considering his greatness - how has he proven himself over and over to you just this week as the one who bring riches, glory, strength, and power - to build you up and strengthen you in ways that went beyond your natural energies? You might just discover you have been taking for granted some of the ways his presence has made you stronger!

God's strength begins where ours ends - but how many times do we exhaust all of our own before we ever take time to be energized with his? It is more than just asking for his strength at the point of our exhaustion - it is taking time to get quiet before him even before our energy is spent. God's 'edification' (building up of another) is nothing to be taken lightly - for it comes in areas of our lives where we probably didn't even realize we needed a little 'uplifting'. I have a friend that had been experiencing some severe foot pain. Do you know what the podiatrist recommended? A 'lift' in the heel of her shoe that 'tilted' her foot inward. It brought immediate relief to some of the most severe pain!

Amazingly enough, God knows exactly where we need to be 'built up' and how to strengthen us exactly when we will need that strength to take us to new discoveries and accomplishments. We fight battles that have already been won - expending energies to the point of exhaustion. God comes along and reminds us that battle was already won - on the cross - and we just need to let him remind us over and over again until that battle no longer wears us down and we are 'built up' in his strength. There is no magic amount of time or specific way to meditate upon the goodness and greatness of our God, my friends. Just find time to get past all the "I" prayers and begin to allow his Word to roll over and over in your minds until he begins to meet your right there. In the most amazing ways he will begin to build up weak areas, infuse power and strength where we have felt powerless, and help us to be 'ready vessels' in his service. Just sayin!

The wise and the wisest

What action do you plan next? This is a tough question for some of us to answer because we just don't 'plan' our actions - we are more on the spontaneous side of things. Did you ever stop for just a moment to consider that even spontaneous actions are planned at some point? Yes, they are 'in the moment' actions, but we only do them because we have considered them either consciously, or deep within the recesses of our subconscious. All action is really based on some intensity of emotion combined with some belief we are to take that particular action. This is were things get a little complicated, because the intensity of our emotion may not always align with our beliefs! Sometimes they are 'way over the top' and just don't make sense in comparison to the action being enacted.

Form your purpose by asking for counsel, then carry it out using all the help you can get. (Proverbs 20:18)

If you have ever made a 'resolution' to do one thing, and find yourself doing another, it isn't that you didn't 'plan' the action - it is likely that some emotion overrode the original or intended action. There are indeed times when we don't have well thought out plans that are truly "actionable" and "realistic".
If there was one thing that was drilled into me over and over again in nursing school it was that our goals (plans) for our patients needed to be actionable and realistic - something they could actually achieve. In other words, we needed to be able to show how we planned to accomplish the care for our patient, each step outlined in detail, until the goal could be realized - not just through our action, but as a result of how the patient would respond to those interventions. Why was this so important? Simply put - a plan that was outlined with detail gave us guidance in establishing the best course of action that would get us as close to the results we desired to see for our patient's best outcome.

Our "purpose" (PLAN) needs to be formed by asking for counsel. Asking for advice when formulating our plan is important because we NEED the input of others - especially God. Most of the time, we set out on plans ourselves without seeking the input of others (especially God) because we think we have it all figured out. Others (especially God) may see things in a different way, lending a well-rounded approach to the plan. When we have the wisdom of a counselor (especially God) on our side, we may have more "actionable" or "trust-worthy" steps to our plan. The counsel we receive is only as good as the counselor we seek out. In other words, if we want to succeed in weight loss, we go to somehow who has walked the path before us. If we want to learn to invest our finances wisely, we need someone who can live on a budget and who is able to spend wisely. When we come for counsel, we are seeking the opinion of that other person and we are looking for them to give us instruction that will affect our conduct. So, it is important that we seek the best counsel as possible - but never at the expense of excluding God's counsel from his Word and time in prayerful silence.

Every goal has to have actionable steps - those itemized increments that will get us to the goal. No step in the process should be without some purposeful action. If we are just including something into our plan because it looks good or sounds good, but really has no real purpose in aiding in the accomplishment of the plan, it is wasteful - unnecessary fluff that will sap our energy, time, and attention. We spend energy on something that has no results. When we do this, we "burn out" on the plan faster and we don't realize our original goals - intent was good, but execution was poor. What plans do you have for this day or week? Have you sought wise counsel to assist you in formulating your plans (especially God's)? If not, you might want to heed the advice of our scripture. The plans of a righteous man are ordered by God - especially God. The plans of a righteous man are actionable and measurable because they have been submitted to the counsel of the wise - and the wisest. Just sayin!