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Today: Psalms 46; Luke 17:11-37; Deuteronomy 26 & 27; Deuteronomy 28:1-14
Psalms 46
Psalm 46:10 is probably my favorite single verse in the entire Bible. “Be still and know that I am God.” My entire “Be Still” ministry is named from this verse. My spiritual healing came about when I learned how to enter into God’s presence every day by practicing stillness. My entire spiritual wellness centers around being still.
But the New American Standard version interprets this verse as “stop striving and know that I am God.” WOW, what perfect timing for God to inject this new interpretation of this verse into my life.
I’ve spent years learning how to be still. I practice stilling my mind and resting in God’s presence via meditative prayer at least an hour every single day (please try this if you haven’t… it can profoundly improve your life!). But now God is doing a new thing…
If you’ve been reading here, you know that back in January, God quite clearly instructed Craig and me to sell our house and off grid property and move across the state to live closer to some family members. We are well into this process now. Our St. Charles house has sold (in three days!) and we close on it May 27. We have sold half of our property and we’ve started packing and moving our belongings into storage. I am committed to following God’s instructions, but this has been very difficult for me and I’ve shared some of my struggles here.
Craig and I are extreme planners. Selling everything before we have a new home is way outside of our comfort zone. We are solution finders. Our way is to view this current situation as a problem that needs to be fixed. We need a new home!
Since January, the two of us have been obsessively searching for new properties. But so far our searching has been fruitless. The few places that have matched what we’re looking for have not been in the right area, or were snatched up by buyers right away. Even if we did find the right place, the timing is all wrong. We have to wait until we close on our house before we’ll have the full deposit amount we are wanting to offer on a new property. And that’s not until the end of May. So really we shouldn’t be looking yet at all. We should be waiting on God’s provision and timing. He’s put us in this perfect situation where we really have no choice but to wait on Him for the next step.
But there’s a problem that needs to be solved… and so we obsessively search every day… for the past three months. It has been stressful. I have had a panic attack. I have cried.
But really all I need to do is WAIT… “stop striving.”
God has provided and He has a plan. We already see it unfolding before us. Back in October, we bought a condo in Branson as an investment property to rent out on AirBnB. We had no idea at that time that we would be moving to that area. We had no idea we would need a place there to live while we looked for our new property. But God knew. And He prepared this place for us. Now we have a very nice, comfortable place to live, for as long as we need to, while we look for a new property.
Instead of worrying, I really should be amazed and thankful at how God has already been working this out. There really isn’t a “problem” that needs to be “fixed” at all. God knows what we need. “God will help [us] when morning dawns” (v.5), in His perfect timing. We only need to “stop striving” and wait on His plan.
Luke 17
The three years of Jesus’ ministry on earth were a time period unique to all of mankind’s history. During those three short years, Jesus physically did things that usually only happen spiritually now. During those three precious years, humans experienced God as Jesus among us in PHYSICAL form.
After Jesus left, He cam back in SPIRITUAL form as the Holy Spirit. THIS is the time period we currently live in, where the presence of God is with us in spiritual form.
All of the physical acts of Jesus can be interpreted through this lens. We can learn how the Holy Spirit works TODAY in the spiritual realm by looking at how Jesus worked in the physical realm while He was here.
So when He cleansed the 10 lepers, we can see leprosy as our own sinfulness that Jesus cleanses us from. We are ALL spiritual lepers and Jesus offers healing to ALL of us.
Are we the one, the Samaritan, who returned to thank Jesus? Or are we the other nine? I often wonder what happened to them. Jesus told the one, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well,” (v.19) which implies that the others’ cleansing may only have been temporary.
Deuteronomy 26
The Old Testament, pre-Jesus time period, was very different than our current situation. During that time, God selected first one man, Abraham, and worked with him. Then God worked with Abraham’s descendants, the Jewish people. He instructed them to construct a temple where His presence would dwell.
Today, through the salvation sacrifice of Jesus, we believers in Christ, are now the holy temple where God dwells as the Holy Spirit. We are now “His people, His personal possession… a consecrated people.” (v.18-19)
