Series: Blessed Be
James 1:17 ESV
Hebrews 13:8 ESV
Numbers 23:19 ESV
Isaiah 40:8 ESV
James 1:17 MSG
Isaiah 40:31 ESV
Even though a lot of the scripture passages included in daily posts are often scriptures I’ve read or memorized through the years, I am often surprised about elements I’ve not noticed.
Todays passage is no different.
In James 1:17 we are told, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Since many of the scriptures I’ve memorized were memorized fifty years ago, it’s probably no surprise I don’t remember specific elements today.
Part of that could be because when I was in my late teens and early twenties I “took on” a long term project of memorizing as many scriptures as I could do every week.
I don’t remember the particulars but I do remember it was a challenge given to me by an older pastor or a Sunday School teacher some where along the line. What I do know is that I am ever so grateful the challenge was issued and accepted. Since I’ve moved many many times in my adult life from one church or house to another, I do not have the original list of scriptures I memorized. I do know there was a list. I do remember the list grew through the years.
I suppose none of that really matters because today whenever I read or hear a scripture I memorized I remember (at least) part of the text.
For today’s scripture I remember memorizing “evert good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights…”
I didn’t remember the last part of the verse…”with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
Because almost a few decades ago God moved my heart and mind and told me to shift what I was doing and go Seminary, my view of scripture interpretation was significantly enhanced.
I have to admit when God first called me I thought it was a really crazy idea. However, God persisted AND persisted so eventually I sent in my transcripts from college and an application to a seminary in the midwest.
Today, (post graduation from Seminary many years later I am ever so grateful that God called me and put me on the road to study and write about scripture daily. I can emphatically say studying scripture, writing, and illustrating is one of the great joys of my life!
Daily as I sit with God and the text I wait for God to speak to me and show me things I do not see on my own.
Absolutely every time I seek God’s council about scripture, the Spirit of the living God gives me a gift.
The gift is not a gift of my own choosing or my ability. Understanding scripture is a gift God alone can give me. I know that because when I pray I an clueless about where to begin.
I know that because (even though I have a M.Div from a great Seminary) the things God shows me are things I did not see before I waited and prayed.
I know that because I do not know what I need daily. God knows what I need and it is God who provides.
Today is a perfect example.
The gift God gave me is the knowing or the deep seated reminder that in God there is no variation.
In Hebrews 13:8 we read, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Numbers 23:19 tells us, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?”
In Isaiah 40:8 the prophet wrote, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
God is also not a shifting shadow. The Message tells in James 1:17, “Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.”
The bottom line is that God does not change.
Every minute of every day we can count on God.
I can tell you that twenty years ago when God started planting the idea in my head and heart to go to graduate school full time I really did think it was impossible.
But Isaiah 40:31 tells us, “they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
And so, God made a way…
I can tell you for certain that when I was in Seminary, was working full time and I was serving in a church part-time and I thought I’d used every bit of strength I could muster and I was going to crumble, God showed up and carried me.
I did not do it.
It was God who made a way.
Spiritual Practice: God Will…
Name your impossible feat God has planted in your heart. Tell God even though it seems impossible, you believe God will make a way.
In God, Deborah