Keeping On!

I was talking with my youngest daughter on Friday night about some of the “what if’s” in my life throughout the years.  I had gone over to her home for a post-Birthday dinner of which she served Tortellini topped with a delicious red marinara sauce… and to say the least… my 100% Italian blood was singing an operetta that Pavarotti himself couldn’t surpass!  Besides being delicious, that dinner got me to thinking about the scripture that I wanted to share today… but first let me finish my original thought…

I had mentioned to my daughter that I had passed over numerous opportunities, especially in the first decade of our marriage, where I could have graduated from part-time into full time ministry, but either felt that the timing wasn’t right, or that I did not yet possess the proper qualifications for such an undertaking.  I mentioned three specific occasions when leaders from the different denominations that we were involved with over the years, encouraged me to file the papers of ordination with them.

But my daughter quickly cut me off from going down that “What if I had” path of wondering and explained how she had come to explicitly believe that the Lord had led her Mom and I, along with our family, down the right path… the one that we had diligently followed!  She then mentioned different experiences in her own life when she obeyed the Lord’s leading, even though it wasn’t necessarily her first choice and then saw doors open up for her that she never would have perceived as possible.

It was especially confirming to me to see that some of those examples were first predicated by my listening to the directions of the Lord (against some strong negative input from individuals in our lives who were very contrary to the idea… including my youngest daughter at the time!) to pack up and move our family to Oklahoma to attend Bible School in 2006. 

One of the most important lessons that I have learned over the 50+ years of my Christian walk, is that in order for one to know that you’re doing the right thing and correctly hearing the voice of the Lord, is to make sure that you personally know Him, possess an increasing understanding of His will and ways and are ready and obedient to follow His leadings… which brings me to the words of the Old Testament Prophet in the book of Jeremiah chapter fifteen, verse sixteen, where the writer declares, “Your words were found, and I devoured them. Your words are my joy and my heart's delight, because I am called by your name, O LORD God of Armies.” (God’s Word ©)  

If you look at this Old Testament prophecy through the eyes of New Testament terminology, it is easy to deduce that this scripture has particular meaning to the individual Christian today as well as it did to Jeremiah back then.  Whereas the Lord only spoke through the anointing on the Prophet, Priest or King under the Old Covenant, He is now able to speak to each Christian through their reborn spirit and the presence of the Holy Spirit living in them as part of the New Covenant brokered through the blood of Jesus on the cross.

To me, this one verse clearly describes the way of success for the New Testament believer.  Above I mentioned certain things like having a personal relationship with the Lord, possessing an increasing understanding of His will for our lives and the importance of our obedience to His leadings in our life as being some keys to success in the Christian walk.  Well, this prophetic word from Jeremiah lets us know how to get those keys!

First, he instructs us to search for the truth in God’s Word and once found, to devour it.  I looked up the word “devour” and like you’d think, it means in both the original Hebrew and English, to “eat hungrily or quickly.” (Strong’s and the Oxford Online Dictionaries)  Have you ever sat down to eat dinner and get halfway through the food on your plate before your realized how hungry you were… with everyone else at the table looking at you?  That was a common occurrence at my house when I was a kid.  After playing outside for a while, I was starving and couldn’t wait for someone to get through the blessing so that I could dig in and chow down!

I believe that is the kind of enthusiasm and hunger for the Word of God that Jeremiah is talking about!  It didn’t take me long to learn what a good cook my Mom was!  As a full-blooded Italian, I think her cooking skills were a part of her DNA!  Piper had a high mark to hit when we got married and she started cooking for us!  But you know what they say… “Love conquers all” and as far as I was concerned… it didn’t matter what she cooked… she just looked so good cooking it!  And, as it turned out, she also became a great cook!

Jeremiah went on to exclaim how God’s Word was his JOY and his Heart’s Delight and how proud he was to be called by the name of the Lord.  But since this post is getting a little long, I’ll let you chew on the first few keys to a successful Christian life and we’ll discuss the others next time!

While I was continuing to study this verse over the weekend, I pulled out different translations to see if I could gain additional insight and suddenly remembered Piper’s “The Way” paperback version of The Living Bible that was given to her back in 1974 as an engagement present from one of the Ladies Circles in the Baptist church that we were attending.  When I turned to Jeremiah 15:16 I immediately noticed that she had underlined it, signifying that it was a meaningful verse to her. 

When I read this paraphrase of the scripture, it was almost to me, like she was standing in the room talking to me and explaining what God’s Word personally meant to her, declaring: “Your words are what sustain me; they are food to my hungry soul.  They bring joy to my sorrowing heart and delight me.  How proud I am to bear you name, O Lord"                                            

I couldn’t help but to tear up a little as I thought of how perfectly those words described Piper’s commitment and relationship to the Lord.  And on top of that, extra tears came forth when it also sounded like she was giving me a personal word of encouragement for my life now without her physical presence in it!  Together we had lived a life wherewith we sought to serve the Lord and hungered and thirst for Him on a daily basis.  I think she was telling me through her underlined verse in that old Bible, “to keep on, keeping on” with what had helped us to be successful in our Christian walk!

What about you?  What are you going “to keep on keeping on” in your life to be successful in your Christian Walk?  A good place to start, like I mentioned previously, would be to SEEK out the truth in God’s Word and then to DEVOUR it!  I’m getting hungry just thinking about it… or then again maybe that’s because its past lunch time!

Have a great week, and as you do, keep expecting God’s best for your life!