Thy word is…” - Psalm 119.105

“Junk miles”.  That’s what runners used to call the running they did every day, day after day, day in and day out - just to keep fit for the races!  Runners still do the running, they just realized to call them “junk miles” wasn’t accurate.  These miles were important and became extremely useful when considered properly!

“Thy word is…”

“I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.” - Genesis 30.27

Here are the words of a man who was anything but good, honest, kind, caring etc. etc.  These are the words of Laban, father-in-law to Jacob.  He was a sly dog and a trickster if there ever was one – and God never has anything good to say about him.

“…let thine eyelids look straight before thee.” - Proverbs 4.25

I often stop and think about this verse on the fourth of each month when I come across it during my monthly reading of the Book of Proverbs.  Something I would recommend to everyone – I know I need all the wisdom I can get and Proverbs IS the Book of Wisdom especially when read along with other regular and consistent Bible reading!  The following verses help us see this truth as we consider the phrase above:

“Paul, an apostle,

(not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father,

who raised him from the dead;)...” - Galatians 1.1

Every time I read this verse the words in the parenthesis strike me!

“Is anything too hard for the LORD?” - Genesis 18:14

How often we think that we have some serious questions that God needs to answer for us.  Our life takes some twists and turns and we often look up and ask “Why?”

This verse in Genesis records the LORD having a question for us:

“Is anything too hard for the LORD?”

“I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease,

whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” - Nehemiah 6.3

These words of Nehemiah sound rather arrogant.

They are not.

Nehemiah had a job to do.  There were troublesome, wicked, ungodly people trying to stop him.  They were trying to intimidate him.  Distract him.  Bully him.

“Casting all...” - 1 Peter 8.7

How often we need to be reminded of this great verse in the Bible, basically, “Don’t hang on to our problems, struggles or difficulties!”

“Casting all your care upon him;”

That goes against our nature!

Surely if we “hang on”... “hang in there”... “be tough”...  “don’t give up”...  Surely that is what will see us through?!

“...of the LORD’s mercies...” - Lamentations 3.22-23

“It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed,

because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

I thank the Lord that He brings this verse to my mind dozens of times throughout a year.

Where would any of us be without the mercy and compassion of God?

“...in the way...”

Genesis 24.27

This is a verse we revisit from time to time because of the way it gives us perspective.

Have you ever felt like you were just - “in the way”?

Life bustles this way and life bustles that way and you’re neither here nor there, you’re just “in the way”!

Sometimes that is exactly where we need to be - as born again Christians - “in the way”!

“we have this treasure”

2 Corinthians 4.7

The above quote comes from the Apostle Paul, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”  (2 Corinthians 4:7-10)