Nehemiah thoughts

I'm so forgetful to unpack and study the Word.

I wish I was better at it!

I read a passage of scripture every morning over breakfast

But actually delving in, taking notes and nutting out the meanings?

Shocking.

 

I am trying to get better

But it's almost the end of uni holidays and I still am no better than my methods during the semester.

Do I . . .

Wake up, read the word, have breakfast?

I have poor concentration when I've just woken up.

Go for a 'worship walk' to freshen up and then unpack the word over breakfast?
By the time I've walked, made breakfast and sit down I usually only have time to read over the scripture.

Read the scripture in the morning, ponder it throughout the day and unpack it later at night?

Hmm. Maybe I'll try that one!

Hopefully I don't get too busy at night. 

Well anyway! 

I read Nehemiah 9 this morning with my new M'Cheyne Reading Plan.

Don't get me started on reading plans.

I have many. 

(Perhaps this problem is that I feel the Spirit leading me into certain truths each day and I focus on those scriptures, rather than following a rigid set plan. But, nevertheless, I do see the benefits of reading plan and so am trying to adhere!)

But Nehemiah 9 basically summarised the children of Israel's story in a nutshell!

It was so cool.

I got this 'Birds Eye' view of God's sovereignty, mercy and grace for His children.

" ..You are a God ready to forgive, 

gracious and merciful, 

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 

Even when they had made for themselves a golden calf and said:

'This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,'

and committed great blasphemies,

you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.

The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day,

nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go.

You gave your good Spirit to instruct them 

and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.

Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness 

and they lacked nothing.

Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell."

I would just like to say . . .

that my God is good to me. 

I keep going in verse 22:

"And you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner.

So they took possession of the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and the land of Og King of Bashan.

You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven

and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.

So the descendants went in and possessed the land,

and you subdued before them the inhabitants of the land,

the Canaanites, and gave them into their hand,

with their kings and the people of the land,

that they might do with them as they would.

And they captured fortified cities and a rich land,

and took possession of houses full of all good things,

cisterns already hewn, vineyards, olive orchards and fruit trees in abundance.

So they ate and were filled and became fat

and delighted themselves in your great goodness."

I think that this verse confirms to me:

I don't have to forge my way ahead in life.

I don't have to know my goals and steam roll ahead to achieve them.

I don't have to struggle against oppression and disappointment

I don't have to wander about in confusion.

Why?
Well because the Spirit guides me into all truth.

I am led by a pillar of cloud in the day, when things are clear.

And a pillar of fire by night when things are unclear.

The truth is burned upon my heart

Since I've begun to seek the Lord first with all my heart, mind and soul,

Dying to self and surrending everything to Christ,

In everywhere I've stepped; the land has been given to me.

Opportunities I could never anticipated nor brought about myself

Have come my way.

Impossible doors have been open for me to walk straight into and enjoy,

 I have recieved breakthrough from every personal struggle.

I have found my delight in my Lord,

and all my desires are found in Him.

I am constantly satisfied. 

The world still tempts me.

 I am part of a secular Leadership Course at uni

It is the handbook to 'sucess.'

I am constantly encouraged to take my life into my own hands,

To create my own opportunities,

To create and work my vision, goals and networks. 

But insead of casting vision for my life

I seek to sit before the Lord and to recall the ordinances and words He has spoken into my life about where I should go.

Instead of creating my own opportunities,

I trust that God will use my mere 'slingshot', or 'staff' to accomplish His great purposes.

 I remain faithful to glean as much as I can from what God is teaching me through the Leadership Academy,

But I constantly remind myself to die self Lordship.

I love that my life is not my own.

He has purposes for my life 

and He is ever faithful to accomplish them.