I stood at the end of her hospital bed in the ICU. Other than a therapist, I was the only one in my sister’s room. In her quiet, trembling voice she asked, “Susan, am I dying?” I was possibly the one person she could entrust that question to.

The fray was real; a battle she was losing. I regret my words that morning.

Although true, my words skirted her reality. She knew. She didn’t pursue the conversation. A missed opportunity to offer hope and grace in her waning days.

We bear the image of God and are created to reflect and bring him glory. Speech is one of the things that set up apart from the rest of God’s creation. In that moment, my words didn’t allow my sister to see God’s glory.

During our drive home last month from Kansas, Bill and I were comparing notes sharing about his Zoom call and a text message I had received earlier that morning. Our friends were living their own fray. Their hards took my breath away. They were begging for words, words of hope. For me these words take time. I need to be praying for them. I need to be praying for me. I want my words to send the love of God in their direction. I need to listen to God who knows the words they need.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”
Psalm 19:14

“The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer.”
Proverbs 15:28a

Along with a few others, these are scriptures I pray for myself regularly. I often think ahead of the people I’m pretty sure I’ll be offering words to that day from the check-out clerk to friends I know. I pray, may the words of my mouth … I want my words to give grace to those who hear.

“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths,
but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion,
that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Ephesians 4:29

A few weeks ago in responding to an email from a neighbor, my words were greatly misconstrued. I could almost feel the darts coming back at me. In times like these, I want to gather my own darts. But would that be acceptable to God? Would that give grace to the neighbor? As I pondered, God helped me choose other words. The darts have ceased.

Sometimes my words are prayer words sent off to God alone.

Four friends are living their own fray of  serious cancer. Although I do connect with words they hear, I more often offer prayer words for them and their spouses. I’m thankful that in each case they let me know how to pray well. And a wonderful gift to me are their words. They share the hope they receive. Their words turned back to me minister deeply, build up, give grace. The power of their words give perspective to their circumstances.

When I consider my words, I’m learning to ask these six questions. If I don’t hear a yes, I pull-back.

Are my words true?
Are my words kind?
Are my words helpful?
Are my words necessary?
Have my words been invited?
Is this the right time for my words?

 

Copyright, Sue Tell, March 2021

 

Pregnant with our first son, everything was new — even not sleeping well. At my next visit with Dr. Lane (yes, I remember his name), my list of questions included why I was not sleeping.

He asked, Well, are you resting?
Me, Yes.
Dr. Lane, That is good. At least your resting.

I was hoping for a professional solution to my tossing and turning.  God is using those words spoken 40+ years ago to minister to me now.

“Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him,
for he shields him all day long,
and the one the LORD loves
rests between his shoulders.”
Deuteronomy 33:12, NIV

Knowing that I think much about rest, my friend Joyce texted me this scripture. Immediately I recorded it in my journal and began praying over its truth, especially the first line. As a believer and beloved of the Lord, I knew that these words were for me as much as they were for Benjamin 3000-ish years ago.

It took awhile, however, before I began experiencing their truth.

How many times have I quoted to God — just in case he forgot — “He gives His beloved sleep”? Psalm 127:2, last line. Quoted, yes, but the quote was more like a beg. Please God, let me sleep! Eventually my body would rest and succumb to sleep.

That first line of Deuteronomy 33:12 doesn’t just say rest. It says rest secure in him, in God. I’m learning what that is. Instead of begging God with Psalm 127:2, I’m learning to rest my request and rest in God. I’m learning to place my security in God where it belongs.

“Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10) not only applies to waking times, it also speaks to those times I want to sleep. Be still, rest!

The applications of resting secure in him are endless. It speaks to much more than sleep.

I wonder how many times my begging prayers are setting expectations on God. God, I know you can heal my husband’s eyes. You even brought sight to a blind man. Please!
I wonder how many times my begging prayers rise from a lack of trust in God’s character.
I wonder how many times my begging prayers are not allowing God the freedom to be God.
I wonder how many times my begging prayers communicate I know what good looks like.
I wonder how many times my begging prayers are based on my timeline.

I can almost hear God saying, Sue rest your requests!

One of our favorite pastors said, if God answered all our prayers, we’d never be able to trust him.

Song of Solomon 7:10 says, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.” His desire … God has desires. I want to grow in trusting that his desires are good, for his glory and my good.

“What then shall we say to these thing?
If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Romans 8:31

God is for us. Let’s rest our requests.

 

Copyright, Sue Tell, February 2021

 

 

 

God continues to clarify for me how he defines pulling-back.  Sometimes it relates to meddling. Hmmmmmm, I don’t like that.

“But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer
or as a meddler.”
I Peter 4:15 (underline mine)

I forced myself to ask, why is a meddler mentioned along with those other really bad things?

Dictionary.com defines meddler as involving oneself in a matter without invitation.
The Cambridge-English dictionary says to try to have an influence on things that are not your responsibility.

Thank you to my friend Amy, my who shared with me, I often want to use my gift of discernment to “share” with my husband “insight” I think he needs to lead others. But my sinful flesh has definitely gotten mixed in with that insight. These areas are not my responsibility. I had been meddling.

I began to see the connection between pulling-back and meddling. Sometimes they are the same thing; sometimes they are not.

Allie* is going through a horrendous divorce. She is not my responsibility, but she is a friend and I do have an invitation. I am not pulling-back, I am reaching out.

Bill and I are leading a sabbatical team for Jay* and Carrie*. Our role is to ask questions that allow them to discern what they are hearing from God as opposed to giving advice or offering words to direct them. I am not pulling-back from questions; I am pulling-back from advice.

In our Sunday School community, I serve as one of the shepherds, being a friend to some of the women. I initiate; I listen; I pray. But I don’t carry responsibilities for other parts of our community. That’s where I’m learning to pull-back. They don’t need all my wonderful ideas! “It is soooooo much easier to give advice, and even think it is wanted!” Bulls-eye, Marion.

Then there are our GRANDS. Often I (we) need to discern where our participation is welcome and where do we need to pull-back.

My dear friend April shared her insight. When I am inserting myself into someone else’s place, I’m assuming someone else’s responsibility and missing my “good work”. All good things are not MY good things. 

And the applications of pulling-back continue in little decisions and big ones.

If I don’t pull-back, my time, capacity, and energy to give myself to God’s purposes for me are in jeopardy.

Back to Jonah … Jonah pulled back from what God asked him to do with dire consequences. Check out chapter 1. I heard the question from God, is there something God is asking of me and I’m pulling back?

I knew the answer right away. YES!

But I needed to pull-back, in some ares to cease meddling. This is offering me the freedom, the capacity, the energy  I need to follow God’s purposes, his good work for me.

The very next verse in I Peter 4 gives the alternative to meddling, “but let him glorify God”. That’s my heart.

Am I making sense?

*not the real name.

 

Copyright, Sue Tell, February 2021

 

One of the big themes in Jonah — perhaps the biggest — is our God is an pursuing God. What a wonderful gift to us.

As I take a look back, I see God pursuing me as a child. Even when, it wasn’t always the best motive, I wanted to attend church. I wanted to be part of our youth group. They were my people, my friends. God was pursuing me.

Relatives noticed a bent toward things of God in my life. I remember as a young teen an uncle giving me a small laminated card about the size of a business card with the words of St. Francis of Assisi.

I no longer have that little card, but I wish I did. It’s a piece of my spiritual journey.

And to this day my heart resonates with St. Francis’ prayer.

God pursued me through my Uncle Warren.

In last week’s blog I shared another piece of my story. A piece where I was trying so hard to be a good Christian as an adult serving with a mission organization. After several frustrating years I gave up, tossed that trying overboard and donned the I’m content mask. (If you missed reading it, scroll down.)

Even in my rebellion, God continued pursuing me. Just like he was pursuing Jonah. Just like he was pursuing the pagan sailors on their way to Tarshish. Just like he was pursuing the Ninevites.

Like Jonah’s actions, my actions did not, indeed could not, thwart the good plan of God. God is relentless in his pursuing.

Sally Lloyd-Jones put it this way in The Jesus Storybook Bible, Jonah is having a conversation with God in the beginning of the Jonah narrative. God asks him to go to Nineveh and “tell your worst enemies that I love them. ‘NO!’ said Jonah. ‘Those are bad people doing bad things!’ ‘Exactly,’ said God. ‘They have run far away from me. But I can’t stop loving them.’”  (italics and underline mine) God not only was pursuing the Ninevites, he was also pursuing Jonah.

“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets
in many portions and in many ways,”
Hebrews 1:1, NASV (italics mine)

God speaks loudly of his pursuing character of love in many ways in the Jonah narrative. He does it through his relationship with Jonah, through his desire for the Ninevites, in his sovereign intervention with the pagan sailors, and in the object lesson God uses to teach Jonah in chapter 4. God is demonstrating once again his rule over creation, his very creative ability to communicate truth, and most of all his pursuing love.

The narrative ends with God asking a pouting Jonah a question about his pursuing love. We don’t know Jonah’s answer. But in his anger, Jonah once again experienced God pursuing him.

The text doesn’t let us know how Jonah responded. What are your thoughts?

But I’m sure, God never stopped pursuing Jonah. God never stops pursuing me and you.

“… for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love …”
Jonah 4:2

Sally Lloyd-Jones puts it this way,
“Even though you’ve run far from God, he can’t stop loving you,”

Amen.

Copyright, Sue Tell, February 2021

 

 

 

 

Jesus asleep in the boat with his disciples (experienced fishermen) on the Sea of Galilee is an echo of Jonah asleep in the the ship with the pagan sailors as it tried to sail across the Mediterranean Sea.

“Jesus is not present on every page of the Bible,
but the grace of God is evident in every narrative.”
Bryan Chapell

In both narratives the Lord allowed a huge windstorm, a furious squall on the waters threatening the vessels and the men they carried. God was waiting to pour out his grace.

On their way to Tarshish across the Mediterranean, the mariners reacted by trying to lighten their ship by hurling their cargo overboard and by calling out to their gods.

On the Sea of Galilee, the disciples response was to row harder, to row faster. Neither the hurling or the rowing helped.

How often is my first response,  what can I DO to calm this storm that is threatening me?

Like the disciples I knew Jesus personally.
Like the disciples I was mighty afraid.
Like the disciples I was struggling with belief.

What did I do? I hurled trying overboard; I no longer cared. Rowing harder looked Iike pasting on a smile and hiding behind a suffocating mask.

All the while, Jonah and Jesus slept on. I’m not sure I felt like God was sleeping through my hard; but I had lost hope.

Because calling out to their gods didn’t calm the storm the frustrated mariners woke Jonah. A last resort. Perhaps his “god” would respond.

The angry disciples shook Jesus awake, do you not care that we are perishing?

Both the mariners and the disciples were filled with great fear. I was too.

How many times have my prayers tried to wake God to my predicament? How many times have I begged, please help! Those desperate prayers originating from fear were my last resort.

On the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee, God quieted the tempestuous waves and the seas ceased from their ragings. On the Sea of Galilee, Jesus spoke only three words, “Peace! Be still!”

How often are those God’s words to me, “Be still (Sue) and know that I am God.” You are going to see my grace in this chapter of your life.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;”
Isaiah 43:2

God controls the waters. The grace of God prevailed. Hope returned slowly but surely.

Several years later, God gave another opportunity to trust that he would calm the waters swirling around our family.

 

Ezra was only 6 months old when he was rushed to the ER. For twelve long weeks in four different hospitals, physicians worked to diagnose and treat the hyperinsulinism that controlled his young body.

Ezra’s family lived in Los Angeles at the time. I lived with them for six weeks alternating with his parents twenty-four hour shifts in the hospital and caring for his two older siblings at home.

“I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.”
Psalm 121:1, 2

Whether in the hospital, around their neighborhood, or at the park, everywhere I looked there were hills — in Los Angeles! The psalm was penned to instill confidence in those on their way to Jerusalem to worship. The hills were full of terrifying animals; they were to be feared. Yet those making that journey knew that their help rested in the Lord. Those verses spoke peace to my heart in those days. Those words calmed the waves of my reality.

How often did I need to remind myself of these words, this truth? Often! Daily! My daughter-in-love stitched this for me. To this day it hangs in “Mana’s Writing Room” and reminds me, “My help comes from the LORD, who is always awake, always near, always aware, always ready to dispense his care, his love, and his grace.

God continues …

“He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber not sleep.”
Psalm 121: 3, 4

Not even, and especially even, when the storms threaten. Perhaps that is when his grace shines best.

 

Copyright: Sue Tell, February 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hebrews 1:1 says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,” God spoke to the prophet Jonah and through Jonah, God speaks to us.

I knew the answer to the questions as soon as I heard them. God’s relentless love came to me in questions.

Sue, how is your life like Jonah’s?
Sue, are you dragging your feet on something God is asking of you?

Yes, I identify with Jonah. God has been nudging me for a few years. Fear has held me captive. UGH! I was dragging my feet. Like Jonah I had my reasons why what I was hearing was a crazy idea. Or at least that is what I thought.

Pull-back, my hyphenated word for 2021, has been speaking to me in little and not so little ways. As I’ve been practicing pulling-back, I’m lifting my feet and walking forward into the new, the unknown, the desire I’ve had, and the desire I believe God has for me. Fear is disappearing.

God’s purposes , his relentless love will not be thwarted — even by our disobedience. “Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah …” (Jonah 1:1 and 3:1). Jonah heard God’s voice. He knew God’s desire. “But Jonah …” (Jonah 1:3). Strong-willed Jonah had his own plan to flee away from the presence of the LORD. (Jonah 1:3 and 1:10).

Fleeing from God, truly an impossibility. God entrusted a job to Jonah; God’s purpose will be accomplished. Jonah learned that. I, too, can no longer flee from God’s purpose for me.

My friend Ronni shared, “My main takeaway from Jonah is the far reaching effects of my obedience or lack of. My obedience is not just for me.” My obedience is not just for me!!!

God’s relentless love is showcased throughout the Jonah narrative. Chapter 1 showcases God’s love for the unbelieving sailors on their way to Tarshish. Jonah’s disobedience brought them face to face with the one true God. Chapter 2 highlights God’s heart for Jonah as he resides in the belly of the great fish. In that awful place, Jonah calls out to God in his distress. He acknowledges God’s activity in his life. He remembers. His hope is restored. And in God’s relentless love, he spoke to the fish and Jonah was freed from his prison. God’s love for Jonah had not changed. Chapter 3 highlights God’s relentless love for the people of Nineveh as Jonah obeys God and goes to Nineveh. “Then the people of Nineveh believed in God;” (Jonah 3:5) Finally in chapter 4, God’s heart is explained. First in the words of Jonah himself …

“… for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,
and relenting from disaster.”
Jonah 4:2

Even though Jonah spoke those words as part of an angry rant to God, they are true. Jonah knew it and Jonah experienced it.

God explained his heart to  strong-willed Jonah through the story of the plant. God appointed a plant to provide shade for Jonah to save him from his discomfort for which Jonah was thankful. But then God appointed a worm to attack the plant and a scorching east wind. Jonah was mad! (Jonah 4:5-10) God explains his lesson to Jonah in a question that ends the book …

“And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city,
in which there are more than 120,000 persons
who do not know their right hand from their left,
and also much cattle?”
Jonah 4:11

Interestingly God’s question is left unanswered. We don’t know Jonah’s response, but for sure we know God’s heart. I wonder if again Jonah’s strong-will is tempered. What do you think?

Copyright: Sue Tell, February 2021

 

 

 

 

“Stories are the most prominent biblical way of helping us see ourselves in ‘God’s story’,” Eugene Peterson.

In the Jonah narrative I see God’s relentless love at work. The sailors on their way to Tarshish experienced it (Jonah 1); the residents of Nineveh experienced it (Jonah 3); Jonah experienced it. And in several ways, Jonah’s story is my story as well as I experience God’s relentless love to me.

“Those who cling to worthless idols
forfeit the grace that could be theirs.”
Jonah 2:8 NIV

Perhaps these words originally referred to the sailors on their way to Tarshish who openly followed other gods. They could also be speaking of the Israelites living in Nineveh who had gone astray from the one true God. Maybe they are describing Jonah who thought he could outsmart God.

And in them, I heard and I still hear, God speaking to me.

I don’t remember what prompted me to memorize that verse many years ago. (I do remember being teased about memorizing from the book of Jonah.) Now I see God was nudging me about something I was clinging to that would not allow me to experience his grace, his relentless love. His nudge took several years before I responded.

As I reflect back, those worthless idols I was clinging to are obvious. I was clinging to my definition of purpose, of acceptance, of identity, of fruitful ministry. Those idols blinded my eyes and my heart to the grace God was wanting to shower on me.  Although my desires were okay and in line with God’s desires for me, I was clueless as to how God wanted to work out the reality of those desires in my life. So I clung to my idols; what I thought was the reality. And for many years I forfeited the grace God had for me.

Like Jonah, the word of the Lord came to me. Unlike Jonah, I really did want to do God’s bidding. Jonah tried to flee from God’s presence (Jonah 1:3) … an impossible desire. I did what I thought I needed to do to follow God. I thought my doings would would prove my identity. Another impossible!

“But to all who received him,
who believed in his name,
he gave power to become children of God;”
John 1:12 RSV

I needed to deal with my identity idol. John 1:12 was the first scripture I purposed to memorize. I memorized it successfully, but I didn’t listen to its truth that I had become a child of God. John 1:12 revealed my true identity. But I continued to live with my idol not remembering the identity God — in his relentless love — gave me.

These days, I regularly rehearse my God-given identity and his relentless love and allow it to lead my doings. I don’t want my doings to become my idols.

What idols do you see yourself clinging to?

Copyright, Sue Tell, January 2021

 

 

Jesus and Pilate are engaged in a tense conversation just before Jesus is led away to be crucified. In the English Standard Version, John 18:37 says, “… For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world — to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Jesus knew his purpose.

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Can you imagine a priest who cannot talk? Zechariah was such a man. As a result of challenging — instead of trusting — the message of Gabriel that his long ago prayers were being answered … that his wife would conceive and bear a son and his name would be John (Luke 1:13), Zechariah lost his ability to talk. Did Zechariah’s muteness and unbelief change God’s purpose for his life?

The Lord reminded Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;” (Jeremiah 1:5). That was true for Jeremiah; it was true for Zechariah; it is true for me and you too. Ephesians 1:5 reminds, “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,”

Because I have a good forgetter, I remind myself of these truths almost daily. Long before I was born God had a plan and a purpose for me and for you too. Sometimes it’s hard for me to trust; sometimes it’s very encouraging.

Back to Luke 1. Gabriel now visits Mary (verses 26, 27). Mary’s response differed from Zechariah’s challenge to Gabriel’s message. Mary’s was one of trust and also the desire for more understanding (verse 34). She reflected on Gabriel’s message (verse 29); she submitted to the miraculous (verse 38); she sought the company of an older, godly woman (verses 39, 40); and she deflected all the glory to God (verses 47-55).

Mary submitted to the miraculous purpose Gabriel was announcing to her. My response is more often, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) UGH! I need to grow!

“Nothing you see, is impossible with God.
Mary, you have nothing to fear. I have told you all you need to know for now.
You are more ready than you realize, stronger than you know.”
from Touching Wonder, by John Blase
(I read his book every December and never fail to hear from God.)

I want to be like Mary. I want to believe and act on the purposes of God for my life.

Two things hold me back, keep me stuck — fear and other good opportunities.

The last phrase of John 18:37 speaks to that fear, “Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” I’ve been hearing God’s voice through his word and through many friends.  I need to listen. I need to trust scriptures that I memorized years ago, like …

“fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10

I am an extrovert; I am a people connector; I am an idea person. That means it’s easy for me to offer ways to improve. And God has designed a purpose for me and if I’m going to live that purpose out, I need to pull-back!! Everyone does not need my ideas. I need to keep focused on God, to listen, to respond to him and not to all the other opportunities that lay in front of me.

My hyphenated word for 2021 — Pull-back. As I’ve continued to think about this, I added purpose.

Because of God’s purpose for me, I’m practicing pull-back.

What about you? What word has God given you for 2021?

Copyright, Sue Tell, January 2021

 

 

 

 

 

In Paul’s words to the Ephesian elders recorded in Acts 20, he offers this blessing,

“And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace,
which is able to build you up
and
to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”
Acts 20:32

In the fall and early winter of 2019 and 2020, God allowed me to spend many hours with my sister in Virginia who was in her final stages of COPD. In those days her faith was uncovered and her trust in God renewed. God allowed me to have a front row seat.

We quoted and prayed over the phone or in person scriptures that spoke of God’s love to us. God’s everlasting love in Jeremiah 31:3 was most often at the top of our list. “I (God) have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” I would pray that God would help us to trust that in the waning days of Barbara’s life.

In these very trying days, we experienced God’s word offering hope and building us up, in our faith just as Paul wanted for the Ephesians. And we experienced the inheritance that God had prepared before the beginning of time.

As I look in my rear-view mirror to last year, I greatly miss my sister. And I also am experiencing great peace. Her suffering is changing relationships and bringing the reality of God’s love to others. There are new things to pray for.

Once again, I’m reminded of Isaiah 55:8, God’s ways are not my ways. I need to take my eyes off the circumstances right in front of me, and re-calibrate my hope to the Word which is able to build up and give an inheritance.

“the LORD appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with and everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
Jeremiah 31:3

The third verse of “Joy to the World” encourages, “No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He come to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found, …”

 

As I’ve pondered the trying times (I hesitate to call them suffering) of finances, depression, and death, and the scriptures that I’ve recorded for you the past three weeks, God has led me to a new, deeper, and greatly encouraging understanding of John 18:36,37 which I will share with you next Thursday (Jan 28) which also led me to my word — or this year — two words for 2021.

Copyright, Sue Tell, January 2021

 

 

 

Our friendship with Sandy started when she was a student at the University of Illinois in 1972. She has been a gift to us ever since. Her heart for God and her love for others continued to shine through all the chapters of her life.

Jump ahead 27 years to 1999, a busy year for us. Bill served as one of the Vice-Presidents of the U.S. Navigators and in that role was directing the once every four years national staff conference. Hospitality was a big part of our lives and I made sure our guest room bed always had clean sheets. I love ministry and I’m a people connector; these were busy and good days.

As winter turned to spring, and then to summer, something seemed off kilter. The national conference now history had gone well. The campus ministries were getting ready to welcome another group of students. (Even though we weren’t ministering on a specific campus at this point, that segment of the Navigators has always held our hearts. We were tracking with them.) And the national leadership team — of which all the Vice-Presidents were a part — was preparing for the new fiscal year. Life’s busyness continued.

It started with physical symptoms, sleepless nights, racing heart, and worries. Our doctor started by treating the physical symptoms. By the end of September we realized that what Bill was experiencing was more than physical. By the end of October Bill’s depression was accurately diagnosed.

Once again, Sandy entered our lives. In one of the notes she sent our way, she shared Isaiah 33:6. God will be the stability of your times!!  Yes, God will be our stability. Not the medicines Bill was given, not the time off from work to recover, not the books we were reading, not the counseling, which we so much appreciated, not the new realities we found ourselves in, but God. Sandy could not have picked a better truth to share with us. I copied it into my journal on my prayer pages for Bill and have been praying over it ever since. That was over 20 years ago.

God showed his stability to us in his abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge as we traversed this new territory. We needed new knowledge. We needed that knowledge tempered by wisdom, which led to salvation. We were learning that when we lived appropriately in the presence of God (the fear of the LORD), we experienced the endless resource of Zion’s treasure.

“Oh, How abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of the children of mankind!”
Psalm 31:19

Isaiah 33:6 has held us close as we walked with our sons in their major life transitions. It supported us through the 12 week hospitalization of our youngest (at the time) GRAND. It ministered to us as we made some major shifts in what our ministry looked like.

And then 2020, then COVID-19. Our ministry plans were changed; our travels to visit our kids and GRANDS was changed; how we went to church looked different; how we shopped for groceries was all new. But God was the stability of our times. Different and brand new circumstances challenged but didn’t change where our stability rested.

I’m so thankful for Sandy pointing us to Isaiah 33:6 all those years ago. God used it in our lives then and we’ve continued to experience the need for its truth now.

“and he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.”
Isaiah 33:6

 

Copyright January 2021, Sue Tell