I am so behind on blogging and I am also late in posting my last two memory verses, but both of them have been very meaningful to me in recent days. As many of you already know, in January of this year, I committed to the LPM Scripture Memory Challenge to memorize 2 verses of scripture each month for the year 2009. I can hardly believe it, but with these 2 verses, we have memorized 16 out of 24! We only have 8 more memory verses remaining for 2009! I cannot tell you what a blessing this Scripture Memorization plan has been for me!
The verse that I selected for August 1st was a verse that God just seemed to keep putting before me. I heard my pastor refer to it in a recent sermon and then when I went to Deeper Still in Greensboro, Kay Arthur mentioned this verse in her teaching in Hebrews that Friday night. I knew then that this was a verse that I needed to have in my "arsenal".
"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it."
Hebrews 2:1 (ESV)
It is so easy to drift, isn't it? Have you ever been floating on an inner tube or air mattress out in the ocean when you decide that you need to paddle back to shore, only to find that you are way downstream from where you originally started out. You thought you were floating in the same place, but all the while you were drifting--without even knowing it--unaware that you had moved from your original location.
I believe that our very heritage is being destroyed in this country. We, as a country, have not listened to God and we are in trouble. I believe that God is saying to America, and to me in particular, that He wants us to wake up and listen to Him!
I pray that the verses that I have committed to memory this year, might be an anchor for me --that I might "pay closer attention to what I have heard...lest I drift away from it"!
The verse that I chose for the second half of August is found in Ephesians and is one of my favorite promises found in God's Word. I have always loved this verse, but after Priscilla Shirer taught an amazing lesson on this verse at Deeper Still, I will never look at it in quite the same way.
"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us"
Ephesians 3:20 (NASB)
Just a few of the awesome points that Priscilla made about this passage that made an impression on me were:
- My ability to rest comes from whether or not I believe that He is able to handle what concerns me.
- Whatever difficulties I may face in life, I need to see them through the "filter" of God.
- Whether or not He chooses to change my situation is a question of His sovereignty --not of His ability!
- The most incredible miracle is - not when God changes a circumstance, but when He changes a life.
I guess if I had to summarize the main message that I take away from this verse is that OUR GOD IS ABLE! Whatever it is......OUR GOD IS ABLE! If we truly believe that God is God, we will let Him do His job! We can rest because God Is Able!
He is able to do it FOR ME and He is able to do it FOR YOU, sweet friend!
