Seeking God's Secrets

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good! How blessed is the one who takes shelter in him!

Are we picky eaters, or do we know anyone who is? Do we find ourselves trying to limit what we will accept? Do we have a small comfort zone that controls what we receive? When our children want to limit their diet to only a few specific food groups (chocolate, cookies, chips, cereal), we may, for a time, allow it, and give them a chance to grow out of it on their own.

But if we see they are not getting the necessary nutrition, in love and concern for them, we will then start helping them try new tastes and textures, new flavors and consistencies. It usually requires several times of trying the same new food before it becomes accepted, so we don't give up. We may dress broccoli up several different ways until we find one that works, but we keep presenting it in small doses until it is a part of our children's diet

Open your heart to what the Spirit has to say when you read the Word. God will confirm what He wants to show you. Take your time and savor what God is giving you; test it against scripture and share it with others. God's word will not return void.

John 16:24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

What joy it is to come directly to the Father with requests, needs, intercessions that others have given us or the Spirit has spoken to us. As we stand before His throne and see how awesome and full of splendor He is, with hosts of ministering spirits coming and going and doing the Father's will, we can feel dwarfed, insignificant, unworthy, out of place, undeserving.

But the Spirit reminds us that the Son, there at the Father's right hand, offered up His own blood as atonement for our sins which were excluding us from the throne room, and the Father accepted the price as payment in full, complete and eternal, nothing lacking, totally sufficient to meet the need for all time. This gives us the boldness to step forward when He beckons and be recognized from the throne of heaven as we stand with petitions in Jesus name. Jesus acknowledges us from the Father's right hand, and God answers us -- a privilege unparalleled, and an honor unimaginable.

Colossians 1
v.15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
v.19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,

We learn so much better when we have an example to follow. God did not send His Son in a way that attributed majesty to Jesus in front of the world powers, but in a way to allows us to see how to walk out God's will in our own life.

Jesus grew into the ministry God assigned, that which only Jesus could do, and took nothing upon Himself except what God gave Him. Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered, and trusted completely that what the Father provided would be sufficient, even though for Him, it meant no job, no house, no transportation, no wardrobe, no predictability of meals, no certainty of material provision, and a painful, shameful death.

Other examples, other people, are included in Scripture to show us what *not* to do, how to deal with the consequences if we fail to follow the example of God's Son, and what we can expect if we endure to the end and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and share your Master's happiness!"

John 16:12 "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear."

There will always be unanswered questions in life. questions that trouble the mind and can cause turmoil in the soul. The Bible does not provide all answers in life -- only the ones we need for salvation, which is our greatest need, and a living, growing relationship with God through His Son. The Scriptures are not a history textbook or a science manual. They are a description of God's love for us, a wilderness survival manual, and a pilgrimage guidebook showing us the way to where we are going.

Since we have such a demonstration of how thoroughly God addresses issues we have a pressing need to know, can we have faith that what He does *not* tell us are the things that we do not yet have need of and that we are not yet ready for, lest we be distracted from the battle we are in to survive our journey through a wilderness containing those hostile to us?

Father God, glorious and loving, what great love You have lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Jesus. But we know Your Son, and He knows us, and He is not ashamed to call us brethren, if we obey His commands. We turn from our efforts to find fellowship and satisfaction in the world's systems and turn to You, Lord, to meet our needs and bring us the desires of our hearts. You are faithful, Lord, and we rejoice in Your presence with our brethren. Thank You, Jesus!

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