I have been remiss of late to update the page, “Word of God Speak.” The page is devoted to insights, perhaps revelations, I see while reading through the Bible. As you may recall,
I am reading from The Message Bible. The way Eugene Peterson constructs the verses, paints such a clear picture in my mind. I do not know if that is the reason God the Holy Spirit is able to speak things to me, but I have found it most enlightening. In the writings of the Apostle Paul to the ekklesia in Corinth, you find this verse. “But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” I Corinthians 13:13.
I have known it as “the love” chapter my entire life, and it is. However, right now, at this very moment, we have three things to hold onto that will lead us to the undeniable freedom and the crystal clear understanding of the godhead’s love for us.
Trust steadily in God. Never give up, especially when it “looks” like it will not happen. Trust in God. Do so in a manner that is unwavering. In the Old Testament, before he sat on the throne of Israel, David faced many challenges. He was able to overcome each of them—one at a time—in part, because he encouraged himself in his God. In the Old Testament book of Psalms, David wrote about remembering times in his past that his God enabled him to slay a lion, and a bear, even a giant.
David recalled how hopeless the situation looked at that moment, but he leaned on his God, who brought him through. These past victories encouraged him to continue trusting in God—steadily. It gave him strength to look at the current impossible situation with hope that his God would do it again.
Consider this. In each of the situations David remembers—the Bible bares this out—it was only David and the situation, the lion, the bear, the giant, but David fought and David won. If he were self-centered, he could have easily claimed the victory as the work of his hand—giving God no credit at all. However, David’s heart was after God’s heart, causing him to realize that it wasn’t his victory at all. Indeed, he fought, he played a part, but the victory came because God—his God—was very present doing what he in his own self could not do.
This steady trust leads to unswerving hope. Taking on a lion, as unheard of as it was, was one thing, but to take on a bear, who can do such a thing, only God. But now a giant, whose leg is bigger than David’s whole body.
I can imagine that the thought of accepting the two victories as wonderful enough and leave the giant alone, passed through David’s mind. I can imagine the words of his brother’s screaming at him for even being there could have worn him down. But David, hoping in the God that showed up with the lion and bear, was not about to let the giant get away with cursing his God.
This is the place that a deeper dive would have meaningful purpose in exploring divine intervention and human ego; in other words, was God telling David to go, or was pride driving him to enter the battlefield? However, this is not the place to take that dive.
I believe that once you learn to trust like that, that such unswerving hope is a (super) natural next step. Once you have taken those steps, to love extravagantly will seem the (again super) natural next step. I say it this way, because that kind of love can only come from the godhead—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Once again, David showed this kind of love after learning that the king (Saul) who put out the order for his death, and his son (Jonathan) died in battle. Instead of being happy, that such a man was gone, and now the throne of Israel was his, be mourned as though he lost a best friend—and indeed in Jonathan he had. But such extravagant love could only come from his God.
Perhaps this offers some help in staying the course and continuing the journey; trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.