His Very Words, Part 4
Interferences to Hunger – Delight Deficiency, Dessert, Difficult Passages, and Distractions
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Before reading this Part 4 of His Very Words, it might be helpful to read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 first!
A good friend met me over lunch this week. I don’t see her often because her children, grandchildren and other responsibilities keep her life full! She is overwhelmed most days. But she said, “I cannot miss my time with God in the morning. It is the best part of my day.” She delights in God’s presence and the rest falls into place with few interferences to her hunger for His Word.
After we receive Yeshua (Jesus) and come into His new life, interferences can disrupt our hunger for Him. He asks us to be aware of these interferences and to be on guard against them, because while we are here on this earth, we have an enemy who does not want our best.
Delight Deficiency
We are often not hungry for God’s Word because we are not eager to meet with Him, and perhaps we are not eager because we don’t understand that He enjoys our fellowship. He is the Lover of our soul Who beckons us into His presence! The more we linger with Him in His Word, the more we recognize the dialogue He desires to have with us. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” He puts desires in our hearts! He has thoughts and plans for us and wants to share them with us! (Psalm 139:17-18)
Dessert
We are often not hungry for the meat of God’s Word because we eat too much dessert… dessert like podcasts, devotional snippets, news, and television – those easy, tasty treats. These treats can be great but not if they replace the reading of His Word.
I remember sometime years ago reading a popular Christian romance novel. The effect was obvious – I lost my appetite for His Word. I was alarmed by this immediate loss of hunger and nurtured myself again in His Word. I have read many books on many subjects that did not disturb my appetite, so I pray to discern the difference!
Difficult Passages
We are often not hungry for God’s Word because we don’t understand it. But when we are perplexed by difficult passages, we can just lift our questions up to God until He answers. We can rest and continue with the passages we do understand. We can trust His Word is true.
Jackie Perseghetti has a beautiful website called A Kingdom Heartbeat. In her blog post It’s more than just land, she gives a good explanation of a difficult passage. When you read it, you will understand that we can trust God with passages we don’t understand. The post is well worth reading! You may access it here –https://akingdomheartbeat.com/its-more-than-just-land/
In my writing His Very Words, Part 5, I will explain two passages we often don’t understand but that are easily explained in their Jewish context.
Also, some passages may seem boring or strange, but if we persevere, not only will we find gleaming treasures that sparkle off the page, but those same passages eventually become clear. We will often find hints (Hebrew remez) layered within the text. In other words, along with the obvious meaning of the text, we see hints of future events and our personal relationship with Him. The writer may have been unaware of the full meaning of the words coming through his hand – the meaning that would be revealed later.
We see one of these hints in the story of Noah: After Noah sent a dove out from the ark to see if the water was abated from the land, “the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him in the ark; for the water was on the surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark to himself.” (Genesis 8:8) This small verse, hidden away in the story of the flood blossoms off the page with its fragrant hint of our safety in the Lord.
Distractions
We are often not hungry for God’s Word, because distractions interfere. Some distractions are unavoidable, such as pain, sickness, exhaustion, and grief; Other distractions are ones we allow. Some distractions are common among us and some are unique to us. Sometimes my fervor to write and teach can distract me from just being quiet in His Word. The biggest distraction is my phone. Once I look at it, it leads to more distraction, so I purpose to wait until after my morning quiet time.
If I curb distractions, I often hear Him redirect my days’ plan. Listening to Him in His Word brings me sooner to my goal… His goal. He has given us 24 hours to – sleep (8 hours), work (8 hours), and rest and play (8 hours)!
The words of Yeshua in Matthew 6:24-34 give us a plumbline perspective for how to think and spend our time. The original Greek word for anxious in these verses is mĕrimnaō (pronounced mer im nah’ o). The meaning of its root word includes distracted thought. Merimnao means to be anxious, worried, or full of care. The Old English translates the words as take no thought, which really means don’t overthink it. As we endeavor to have more quiet time with Him in His Word, we can start by soaking in these verses:
24 No one can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
25 For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body, what you will put on. Is life not more than nourishment and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the sky for they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into storehouses, yet your heavenly Father nourishes them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27And who of you by being anxious can add a one hour to his age? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider well the lilies of the field – how do they grow? They do not labor nor do they spin [thread for cloth]. 29 Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these.
30 And if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, “What will we to eat?” or “What will we to drink?” or “What will we wear?” 32 for the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Father, give me faithfulness, delight, perseverance, and focus to meet with You!
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