Dear Tabernacle Family,
Recently in a youth group bible study, I was sharing with our students about how God is so faithful to meet us and speak to us no matter where we are in life. In fact, all throughout the Bible we see God either directly speaking, using an angel, or a messenger to speak to people who didn’t think God had anything to say to them.
I think we often discriminate against ourselves based on our age. How many times have you said, "I’m too young to do this" or "I’m too old to do that.” Honestly, we use a lot of journey-markers to internally discriminate against ourselves. Have you ever said, “I don’t have enough money,” “I don’t have the skill,” or “I’m not at this place in my life yet?”
I was reading about David’s life recently and this commentary just jumped out at me.
The commentary said this: ”And young as he was, David thought of God, and talked with God, and God talked with David, and God showed David His will/plans/purposes.”
How awesome is that? What I love even more is you can apply this statement in so many different ways.
You can fill in any perceived weakness and replace it where the word “young" is. You can fill in so many words here, “young as he was:" “tired as he was," “addicted as he was,” “poor as he was,” “ rejected as he was.”
Imagine if you started saying this over yourself?
"As tired as I am, I am going to think about God, talk to God, and God will talk to me, and show me His will!"
"As poor as I am, I’m going to think about God, talk to God, and God will talk to me and show me His will!”
“As (fill in the blank for yourself) as I am, I’m going to think about God, talk to God. I know God is going to talk to me and show me His will!!!”
Psalm 119:9-16 MSG
How can a young person live a clean life?
By carefully reading the map of your Word.
I’m single-minded in pursuit of you;
don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.
I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart
so I won’t sin myself bankrupt.
Psalms teaches us how to stay on the path with God. How do we do it? By hiding God’s word in our heart. By carefully reading the map. By looking for the road signs God has posted for us. By communicating, talking and listening, with God.
God’s communicating with us all the time. And you don’t have to be special to hear God. You just have to be like David. And (blank) as you are, you can still think about God, talk to God, and God will, for sure, talk to you and show you His will.
Blessings,
Mark Passarella