Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Doubts”
Our Bible verse for today: “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “God wants to be heard and understood by us.”
One of the greatest truths in the Bible is that God wants to be understood by His people. He wants us to hear Him and He wants us to understand what He is saying to us. He can’t expect us to obey Him and to correctly follow His will if He doesn’t first clearly communicate His desires to us.
In the devotional message two days ago we read about the young man Gideon and his genuine desire to simply be sure he understood God correctly. He asked God for clarity and confirmation, and God gave it to Him. That’s a pattern we see repeated all throughout the Bible and it’s what Jeremiah meant in Jeremiah 33:3. Call to God with a sincere heart and in His way and in His time, He will reveal to you things you didn’t know or understand.
In James 1:5 the Apostle tells us that if we lack wisdom (or have doubts about what to do), we only need to ask God and He will give to us the wisdom we seek.
Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the most popular verses in the Old Testament: “For I know the plans I have for you’ – this is the Lord’s declaration, plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Unfortunately many people stop there and they don’t continue on to verses 12 and 13. They should consider those verses as well because they are an important part of the promise:
“You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you – this is the Lord’s declaration …” Jeremiah 29:12-13
God wants to be heard and understood by us so we can then obey Him. But it takes effort on our part. We have to want to hear and understand Him. Every one of the verses I cited, and many others in the Bible teach us that we have to desire to hear and understand God and we have to go after that understanding, we have to make the effort to seek it out. Having such an encounter with God is the reward of diligent and passionate faith.
Tomorrow, as we continue to consider ways to deal with our doubts and find answers from God, I want to revisit a lesson from Andy Andrew’s wonderful little book “The Traveler’s Gift”, and another from Henry Blackaby’s excellent Bible Study, “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God”.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 