What do I want to say today?

Today I am pondering many things. One of the things that I love about God’s word is how it all works together in a wonderful way to provide exactly what I need to learn at exactly the right time.
On any given day I can fully comprehend one aspect of a particular scripture, yet other concepts and meanings are shaded from my mind until I am ready to understand them. When I began this journey with Christ, I was an infant, I had no spiritual teeth. I had to be spoon fed very slowly, and take things in manageable chunks. As mothers we know the danger of feeding our small children certain foods before they are ready. As a responsible mother we would never give an infant a T-bone steak before they had even developed their teeth. Being a Christian is a process, a wonderful life changing process but there are times when the process is difficult and confusing. Even now after fifteen years of studying God’s word I still find things that confuse me. It took me many years to learn the benefit of a grown up healthy diet of digesting and chewing on the word of God. By this I mean really taking a deeper look at what it means for my life and how to apply what I learn in all that I do.
I ran across a very small verse that is sandwiched (more food metaphors) in the book of Romans in my study time this week.

RO 15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

So through “endurance and encouragement” I must continue to search everyday for the lesson in the words that were written “in the past” for my life today. It gives me real tangible evidence that God’s word is as living and active today as it has ever been. Even when I come upon a concept that confuses me I endure with my study and at the appropriate time I will be encouraged. I know that in God’s timing things will fall into place and the light and truth of what it is that I am supposed to be learning will be cemented in my life.
As I prepare over the next few day for a weekend retreat with the women of my church I approach this time on the mountain with great expectation. I am in desperate need of time away. I am in desperate need of a fresh encounter with the living God. I am hungry for a revelation from God’s word that was “written in the past” to be opened to me in the present.