Happy New Year and Welcome back to this week's weekly Faithful Friday encouragement.
It's a new year and can be a new start. This year how much time will we spend time getting to know the Truth?
Think about a pot of boiling water . When it boils you can keep the water in the pot or individual cups for the seeping process. Once the tea bag is placed in the hot water, the flavor of the tea begins to seep through. This process takes a few minutes. Sometimes the longer you let it seeps, the better and stronger the flavor.
Getting to know the Truth of God's Word also takes time. How much time will we spend getting to know the Lord this year?
This is something I wrote down back in December 2022:
My Life Bible verse is Jeremiah 29:13-14a
13 You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” says Yahweh,
That has been the verse the Lord gave me when I started writing and sharing what the Lord taught me. This is not a verse I can cling onto alone; anyone who knows Jesus as Lord and Savior can do this. Let the Lord teach you, get in His Word. I will be honest I am not usually a 5-10 min person when it comes to studying and learning the Bible unless I have an extremely scheduled busy day, because you can’t always get to the meat of the Word in that short time frame.
The analogy I always use is: You don’t prepare a meal for a good friend , and expect them to be gone 5-10 mins after they grab their food. Your home isn’t a drive thru service. Your best friend expects you to come in, chat while the meal is being prepared or when you sit down at that table. The conversation continues as you eat and then after the plates are cleared you may go into the living or family room and talk or play games etc.
You wouldn’t know your friend very well if all you ever did was say, " Hi " and drive off. We call those people acquaintances. God’s Son Jesus Christ died for you , so you could know the God of the Universe not as a far away being or the man upstairs, (I cannot believe I wrote that, that phrase makes me cringe.) . He’s not the Universe, as The Creator cannot be what He created.
The Lord implores or asks us to seek Him in both the Old and New Testaments:
Jeremiah 3:33 says
3 ‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great and difficult things, which you don’t know.’
In James , the half brother of Jesus , says it this way:
James 1:5-8
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. 7 For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Jesus died to forgive you of your sins yes, but ultimately it was to restore the relationship between you and God the Father that sin broke. Spending time with God means you get to know God the Father, Jesus’ Father as your own. You become an adopted child of His Family and you shall live with Him forever , ultimately on the New Heavens and Earth.
Is God our Heavenly Father an acquaintance or do we truly spend time with Him like we would a close family member asking questions, getting to know His Likes and Dislikes?
Wisdom and Knowledge is the Lord’s to give, but you don’t have to be excluded if you know Jesus as Lord and Savior. We are joint heirs with Christ. We have the privilege to learn from God Himself through the Holy Spirit.
Every time I share something , I am simply trying to be obedient to what He has taught and reminded me. What is He trying to teach you? Are you willing to listen? Check whatever you think you hear or read with the Word of God. If it doesn’t line up with the revealed character and actions of our God in the Bible, if it goes against what He already said in the Bible, ignore it.
We must stay in the Word and know it well , if we are going to know the difference between false teaching , false dreams, and lying signs and wonders. We are in the world where many are falling away because they are turning to demons, fables or anything else that agrees with what they want to hear. They do not regard or care about Truth. They just want what sounds good to them.
How will we know the Truth about God , our Heavenly Father, if we never pull up and linger at the table in His Presence?
Will we spend the time getting to know the Lord and His Truth daily this year? It can start today!