New Sayings
Proverbs 30:5 ESV
John 14:6 ESV
When something is way true, we say “well duh!”
Proverbs 30:5 tells us, “Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”
My da spent a great deal of time helping me to understand indisputable truth. Now mind you, at the time I was a child (a silly child at that) and I really didn’t always grasp what he was saying.
Still, I loved my da so I listened.
Looking back, I wonder if he knew I had been called to a life of service in ministry and I would desperately need and utilize every lesson he taught me.
He spend a lot of time teaching me about truth.
He did it in the form of a children’s sermon. He did a lot of object lessons! What’s really interesting about that is the fact that I did children’s sermons for decades in church.
When I prepared for each children’s sermon I prayed that it would be based it on the subject of the main sermon that day. Now mind you, I didn’t actually think up and write the children’s sermon.
Every week I prayed about the children’s sermon and I asked God to tell me if I needed to take something with me, like a potato or a rubber fish?
I would pray and wait for an answer.
Oftentimes I would know what object I needed to take up front with me but I didn’t always know what I was going to say.
There were a few times when I picked up my object and went to the front while I was still praying asking God what the sermon was going to be about. No one really knew that except my kids.
They would sometimes ask me what the children’s sermons would be about and I’d tell them, “God hasn’t told me yet.”
The point is, in all my twenty plus years of doing children’s sermons, God never failed me once. Even when the object God told me to take to church with me was a little strange, it always made sense when I opened my mouth and started to talk.
I absolutely love it that God was and is always and forever reliable and true.
God’s indisputable truth is well…indisputable.
Absolutely without fail.
Every word God spoke in scripture and speaks to us today is true.
The most difficult part of listening to God is knowing when it IS God.
Years ago I took a series of classes in listening prayer. One part of learning to listen is getting a sense that God is getting ready to tell me something.
I struggled a little with that, so God started this thing where He touches my right ear. When God wants to tell me something, ever so gently I have a sense that God brushed against my right ear. Even when I am busy doing something when I feel something brush my right ear, I stop and listen.
I’m not sure if God does that (or something like that) for other people or if God just knew being a Mother of four children meant silent moments were far and few between and I could use a little help. Either way, even now when God has something to tell me, I can feel something brush against my right ear.
God is indisputable…reliable.
God is truth. John 14:6 tells us, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”
In terms of a children’s sermon I would tell them to show me how to make their hand walk using their fingers. Then we would practice pretending to walk down the road (my moving two fingers). We would talk about walking on the road WITH Jesus beside us.
I would tell them to think of a time when they were asked a question and they knew they needed to tell the truth. Sometimes that isn’t easy, but we can ask God to help us tell the truth and since God IS truth, He WILL help us.
Then I would tell them to put their hand to their heart so they can feel their heart beating. We would talk about how God gave us life and makes our heart beat. I would tell them God IS life and gives life to us.
We’d also talk about the Spirit of God IN us when we ask God to come IN. I Would tell them God does not leave us…God’s indisputable truth stays IN us.
The point is, God is not out there somewhere. When we turn to God, and we are open to receiving God, the Spirit comes to reside with us.
Always.
God never fails us.
Spiritual Practice: Lean into God
Ever so gently, lean into God and embrace the Spirit IN you.
In God, Deborah
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