Sunday Scripture

 

For this week's Sunday Scripture series, I'm almost finished with my simple study of a little devotional journal titled Reflections: The Woman God Sees, by Jane L. Fryar -- a journal gifted me by some dear young friends.   It has a daily devotional one works through -- about a month's worth or so.  The daily devotions were a blessing to me when I worked through the book, so I've been sharing them here.  I  There are just two more pages after this, so we will see what I come up with next!

The Scripture for today is Isaiah 43:4.   Here's the assignment: "Spend a few minutes writing about each of these words: precious, honored, loved."  I chose to SOAP Isaiah 43:1,4 as I considered this assignment.   (Our final lesson in the series, two weeks from today, will also involve Isaiah 43:1.)

S= "But, now, saith the LORD who created thee, O Jacob, and He who formed thee, O Israel, Fear not, for I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.

"Since thou wast precious in My sight, Thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee."  (Isaiah 43:1, 4)

O= These verses are quite obviously speaking of Israel, as we see from looking back at verse 1.  However, in a broad sense we can apply them to ourselves as believers.  

* God has told us not to fear
* He has called us by name
* We are His
* We are precious in His sight
* He loves us.

A cross-reference for "loved" is Isaiah 63:9 -- "In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old."

Warren Wiersbe comments: "God formed Israel, forgave His people their sins, and is glorified in them.  He speaks to His people and is faithful to keep His word.  May we never take for granted the privilege we have of knowing and worshiping the true and living God!"

A= In response to the assignment "Spend a few minutes writing about each of these words: precious, honored, loved." here's what I wrote:

PRECIOUS: Of great price or value, highly esteemed or loved; dear.  This is certainly true of believers.  We were so valuable to God that He paid an incredibly high price for us.  We are loved by Him; we are dear to Him.

HONORED: The KJV says "honorable".  I've searched the dictionary and no definition seems quite right for the meaning of "honored" here.  Although this one is pretty general, it probably comes the closest: "To regard or treat with honor."  

A verse that came to my mind was 1 Samuel 2:30 where God tells Eli, "Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed."  We do need to be honoring God with our lives.  And oh, what a position of honor we have as His children!

LOVED: An old dictionary defines love as "the benevolence attributed to God as being like a father's affection for his children."  There are so many facets to a father's love for his children, and it's such a blessing to be God's child and to have Him as our heavenly Father!

P= "Lord, how I thank You for Your Word and its comforting truths.  I praise You than I am precious in Your sight -- that You loved me so much You would send Your only Son to redeem me from my sin.  I'm so thankful that because of my relationship with You as Your loved and blood-bought child, I need not fear.  I cannot thank You enough for the privilege I have to know and worship You, the true and living God.  I praise You in Jesus' name, Amen."

And there is the Sunday Scripture for this week.  Just two left in this series!