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Glory Seed Devotional’s, 2017: Anticipating and Experiencing Jehovah-Jireh...
Off the wall question!
Shalom!
With the question of which came first the chicken or the egg in mind, think about this question, does anticipation follow hope, or does hope follow anticipation? I know the question is a little off the wall but then I’ve been known to go off the wall sometimes myself. I know the question is probably pointless, or is it? Let’s think about it for a moment as we consider the following scripture. “The humble will see their God at work and be glad. Let all who seek God’s help be encouraged. For the Lord hears the cries of the needy; he does not despise his imprisoned people.” (Psalm 69:32–33, NLT)
I am sure you’ve noticed neither hope nor anticipation is in the scripture yet when you begin to read between the lines both hope and anticipation come alive. “Let all who seek God’s help be encouraged.” Let’s try that sentence a couple of different ways.
1) “Let all who hope in God’s help and be anticipating.”Or. 2) “Let all who anticipate God’s help be hopeful.” Which makes more sense? The answer is (from my experience) both of them make sense. I believe you cannot have one without the other, the two of them along with a third word “encouragement” form the Major Blessing from God we call Hope.
Read the scripture again and try to find the key word to Hope and its three components hope, anticipation, and encouragement. “The humble will see their God at work and be glad. Let all who seek God’s help be encouraged. For the Lord hears the cries of the needy; he does not despise his imprisoned people.” (Psalm 69:32–33, NLT) You guessed it, it’s the second word HUMBLE! I suppose you already know how important it is to be humble but in case you’ve forgotten here’s a reminder. “God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.” (Matthew 5:5, NLT)
I’ve had many experiences that have helped me in my need to be humble but the most recent one happened yesterday in church. I had been asked to lay my hands on and prayer for an elderly lady with health issues. That posed no problem but then after walking from the back of the sanctuary to where the lady was seated when I got there I was out of breath. Pulmonary fibrosis would not allow enough air in my lungs to breath let alone use my voice. I never realized until that moment how much air it takes to talk.
As I prayed I could hear my voice getting weaker and weaker and at the same time I could feel myself getting dizzy because I wasn’t getting enough oxygen to keep everything going. As I stood there praying I felt my wife push up against my shoulder to offer her support. It was at that point I realized and experienced what real humility is. Humility is when you allow yourself to be supported by someone other than yourself. And it occurs mostly out of necessity, but volunteering is the way to go. Yesterday both Patti and God were my support and I inherited the blessings of both of them, had I pushed them away I would have fallen to the floor.
Humility + hope + anticipation + encouragement = Hope = Blessings!
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all.” (2 Thessalonians 3:16, NLT)
Grace and PEACE,
Gary
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“Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.