Tag: My thoughts

27.k. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”

 

Ephesians 3:17  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

 Job 11:7-9   “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?  It is higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know?  Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.

 Psalms 103:11-12  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;  as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

 Isaiah 55:9   For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 Psalms 139:6    Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

How wide is the love of God in Christ? Wide enough to include every person.

How long will the love of God in Christ last? Through all of eternity.

How deep is the love of God in Christ?  Deep enough to reach the worst of sinners.

How high is the love of God in Christ? High enough to take us to heaven.

We don’t ask these questions very much do we?  We do ask for blessings, healings, restoration, refuge, help, and there is nothing wrong with that.  However, there is something a bit off when we don’t seek to know and understand more about our heavenly Father.  Maybe we would rejoice more in who God is rather than what He gives.  Maybe we would be more thankful, generous, kind, peaceful, joyful, loving, hopeful, obedient………………  I think we would grow exponentially if we would seek to understand and comprehend how deep, wide, long, and high the love of God is toward His children.Think of the smartest person you know or have heard of and know that before this person has a thought in their head God knows it completely. Think of the most complex science in physics, chemistry, astrophysics, quantum physics, human anatomy……God created it by speaking it into being.  What we think is complex to comprehend and understand is less than elementary to God. Much about God will become clear in Heaven but for now, this side of eternity, we do well to honor and glorify Him.

176. For the simple are killed by their turning away

2 Kings 5:1  Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” And the king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.”

So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, “When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” And when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me.”

But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.

Proverbs 3:7     Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.

Isaiah 55:8-9    For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

John 4:48     So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

1 Corinthians 1:25    For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1 Corinthians 2:14-16    The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 3:18-20     Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.  For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,”  and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”

Proverbs 13:10     By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom.

Proverbs 1:32    For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them;

Naaman was a man of valor, commander of the army, and once he had heard there may be a chance that he would be cured of Leprosy by a prophet in Israel, he went to his king for permission to go to the prophet in Israel to seek a cure.  I imagine as commander of the army, Naaman expects respect.  Note how Elisha sent a messenger out to speak to him.  “Go wash in the Jordan 7 times and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.”  Naaman had an idea in he is head on how he should be healed and this was not it.  He was so mad that he left in a rage and was not going to the Jordan.  In the end, his servant gets him to follow the words of the prophet.  Were it not for this he would have left the land of Israel and the healing prophecy.

We have ideas on how we think things should work out in our lives.  We expect things to work a certain way.  When we think like this we leave no room for the plans and purposes and will of God in the matter.  When we do this we start to close our eyes and deafen our ears and harden our heart to things of God and are on a path that does not honor God.  Come to  God with open heart, mind, and soul that are receptive to His purpose, plan, and will for your life.  Open your eyes, listen with your ears, and soften your heart to the things of God.

157. having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his willH

1 Kings 17:8  Then the word of the Lord came to him, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

Luke 4:25-26     But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land,  and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

Isaiah 55:8    For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

Romans 9:15     For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

Ephesians 1:11    In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

God’s purpose, God’s plan, God’s will, will seldom make sense to us but can be trusted and relied upon.  How are we to understand unless God opens our mind to things we cannot comprehend.  If we were to give a lifetime to trying to discern God’s plans and purpose in just one event, we would not scratch the surface of it in our lifetime or a million other lifetimes.  God spoke creation into being and breathed life into it.  Who of us can fathom the awesome power and majesty in just the words from His lips?  There is so much that goes on in the world and throughout each day, there is tragedy happening to man.  God directed God allowed, and all His purpose.  When we think of some of these tragedies it is hard to apply “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”   But who are we to say God was unfair in His purpose and plan.  Who are we to say what appears to be bad and tragic are not going to be blessings for thousands.  That is just it, we don’t know.  However, we can cling to, rely on, and trust in God, for He will never leave us or forsake us and has plans and purpose to help us, not to harm us.  No matter what comes our way learn to say it is well with my soul, for I believe in Jesus Christ and I am just passing through this world into eternity with my Redeemer and Savior.