Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Forgetting those things behind

Pam Padgett ... teacher

Luke 11: 27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. 28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

 blessed:  fortunate; well off

As God works in our lives doing things we can see, we easily recognize that we have been blessed.  But we may overlook what a blessing it is to hear what God would speak to us and to do that. 

Recently a thought came to me about something I had said in the past, and it started pulling me down.  I turned to God with this thought and was reminded of what Paul said in the following ...

Phillipians 3: 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

As I refused to dwell on what I had said, and asked God to help me do what He wants me to do today, the weight this thought brought was lifted. 

This was the word of God for me in this instance.  And in doing it, I am blessed ... I am well off, no longer pulled down.  Even in what seems like a very small example, I am well off by doing the word given to me. 

We are so fortunate that God gives us His word, exactly what we need for the matter we are facing, getting through to us as He wills.  It takes effort to pay attention and meditate on the word God has given us, sincerely seeking how to apply this word to our life, and then doing that.  But we truly are blessed ... fortunate and well off ... when we both hear from God and do what He gives to us. 

James  1: 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.