March 6th bible reading

Finding God in the Redundancy

 

Every Monday, before I read the passages for the day, I pray and ask God to give me wisdom according to James 1:5.  Today I prayed something different.  I told the Lord that I wanted to know him more.  I didn't just want head knowledge but I wanted to know him intimately, I wanted to experience God and in doing so gain a wisdom greater than any I have known.  I wanted to be empty of me so I could be filled by the Lord with a deeper understanding of him and to have that impact my life. 

 

I said amen and opened up my one-year bible to March 6^th.  What did I find?  A repetitive list of the offerings that each of the 12 tribes brought to the Tent of Meeting.  Twelve, nearly identical, paragraphs of silver plates, gold bowls, oxen, lambs, and fine flour.  Not what I had hoped for when I had just prayed to know God more.  I read the first three tribal offerings and then I started to do what I guessed many others might do, I told myself that it was ok to just read the name of the tribe and then skip the repetitive offering and go on to the next and do the same until I made it through all 12 (saving myself a lot of time).  After all, each tribe brought the exact same thing so what did it really matter if I read each one? 

 

But when I started to do that I felt the lord tugging at me saying, "No, you always say you believe that every word was written for a reason, don't rush through this."  I exhaled and slowly read through the tribe of Zebulun's entire offering just as I had for the 3 tribes before.  Then Reuben and their offering, then Simeon and their offering, then Gad and their offering, then Ephraim and their offering.  Before I got to the last one though, as if God was smiling with excitement, I felt him showing me why I needed to read each one individually, why he had recorded them all individually:

 

"Each tribe was special to me, each gift was special to me.  It doesn't matter if they all gave the same offering, it was uniquely theirs and I looked upon each of them with individual delight and joy.  I don't lump those I love into one, I love each of my own individually.  That is why these gifts are listed separately, to help show you that I am a God who sees you alone, who knows you alone, who loves you alone, who cares about you alone, and who delights in you alone."

 

I think I audibly said, "Wow".  Then I read the new testament reading in Mark and God drove the point home with the story of the widow giving her coins, her all, her offering to the Lord:

 

"See, nothing goes unnoticed by me.  If you bring me the smallest gift or one of plenty, as each tribe brought me, I see it all and I know it is you.  You are not a nameless, faceless child to me.  I see you Ruth and I love you for you."

 

My heart melted.  God answered my prayer using the least likely thing, the redundancy of Old Testament tribal offerings that I was ready to deem not important.  I was thankful that God stopped me from skipping it over, as I would have completely missed the answer to my prayer.  It has caused me realize that I need to pray this prayer every day and I need to enter every day ready to see God and not just in the big and obvious but in the mundane and the redundant things that are so easy to over look.  God is always speaking, desiring to get our attention and reveal his love, glory, grace, and beauty to us in ways we have yet to discover.

 

God wasn't finished answering my prayer.  When I was done reading I stood up and was singing along to Christian music and replaying what God had revealed to me in his word.  Then all of a sudden the knowledge he had just shown me of who he is, that he loves me individually and deeply broke deep into my heart and I experienced the truths of it for myself (in a way words can not describe) and I did something I don't do often; I cried out of joy.  The lord sings over us and I finally got to experience that (Zeph 3:17).  Why?  Because I finally prayed the way I should have all along, from a place that desired to know my God and my savior from deep within.  It wasn't just wisdom I sought but experiencing who God is. 

 

I have always had the knowledge that God loves me but today he made that truth live in me.  He clarified and caused it to be very personal.  I know the Lord more then I did when I woke up and I am blessed for it.

 

God loves you!  God loves you!  God loves you!  God loves you!  He looks down and he sees you individually, your heart, your pain, your needs, your offerings, your prayer, your surrender.  He is not looking or comparing it to anyone else.  He is not lumping you in with the crowd.  He has taken notice of you individually and he is delighting in you and lavishing over you in his love.  I pray that the Lord will break through your day today.  I pray that the power of who he is, his love for you and his delight over you would fill your heart and mind.  God may choose to use the big and obvious to reveal himself to you but I think he likes to show us every day a bit of who he is in the small, mundane and redundant things that allow us to find him and hear him singing his songs of joy over us.