Sunday Scripture

 

Time for another Sunday Scripture!  As I explained several weeks ago, I've made some changes in  my Sunday posts,  using the Daily Grace Co. book Fix Your Focus, which is really not a Bible study as such, but more of a guide to help you fix your focus on God, His Word, prayer, gratitude, and spiritual growth, every week for 52 weeks.  I encourage you to follow along with us as we journal, look at Scripture, pray, and face the challenges of our weeks with our focus on Him.  I truly hope that others are finding this as helpful as I am.

This week's lesson was actually done by me the week of June 30, but I am working ahead of you readers.  So here goes!

🌿 WEEK-AT-A-GLANCE CHECKLIST is further on in each week's section. But since I am working on Fix Your Focus all week long, I find it works best for me to do this checklist first. This checklist offers us four points:  

* To make a plan for reading our Bibles and praying.

* To add any upcoming events to our calendars.

* To jot down a to-do list of tasks that must be completed this week.

* To make a note of our top three priorities for this week.

This last point is one that I need to pay special attention to every week.  I've been finding it so helpful.  (The other three points are things that I'm consistently doing.) 

For this week, my top three priorities are:

1) Rest-- a staycation, "set no alarms" day on Tuesday, relaxing time with friends planned for July 4

2) Homemaking -- trying to catch up with homemaking tasks at home and camp

3) Ministry --  planning for VBS snacks; visiting a friend in hospice care; posting in both blogs; phone calls with younger women; future Sunday School lesson prep; farmer's market outreach.

[If you are following along with our study, this is the place to make a Week-at-a-Glance checklist and/or priority list for yourself!]

🌿 The first actual prompt for each week is JOURNAL.  We are encouraged to take a few minutes to journal about our fears, joys, worries, desires and stressors concerning the week ahead.  [If you are following along with us, take a moment in a journal or notebook to do just that.]. Here's what I wrote on Monday, breaking it down into the suggested categories:

Fears: No real fears going into this week.  

Joys: It's always a joy to spend time with friends and to talk with my "daughters of the heart" in addition to my biological daughters.  Sunday School preparation and blogging are also joys..

Worries: No real worries, just concern for my husband's health, plus concerns about the planning of VBS snacks.

Desires: As always,  that God will be glorified in the events of the week.  That I would be a useful servant for Him and not in any way an unprofitable servant.  That I could get some good solid homemaking tasks accomplished.  To be able to blog most days for Christmas in July.

Stressors: Time and energy constraints, limitations of aging, dietary restrictions that complicate meal planning.

🌿 The next prompt is PRAYER. It was suggested that we use several prayer prompts to have a conversation with God about the week ahead.  [You can do the same.  Use the very same prompts for your own prayer.]

* Lord, You are ... in full control of this week and all that it will hold.  You are able to give wisdom for every task and decision I face.  You hold time and you are able to expand my time and energize me for its wise use.

* Lord, I feel ...tired and a little bit overwhelmed this morning.

* Lord, help me with ... the events of this week.  Visiting our very ill friend will be challenging, but we will look to You to lead and guide us in that visit.  The limitations of aging are frustrating, but You know all about these and will help us with necessary tasks.  Help me with my attitudes as well..

* Lord, forgive me for ... times when I worry too much about what other people think of me.  Times when I fail to trust You as I should.  For wasting time rather than using it wisely and productively.

Make a note of four or five people you are praying for.  I listed a dear friend in hospice care; her two children; a young couple seeking God's direction.

🌿 The next section in this helpful guide is SCRIPTURE MEDITATION.  I chose to first meditate on this week's Scripture, Isaiah 55:11, using the SOAP method, and then answered several suggested questions.   [You can use your own preferred method to meditate on this verse, and answer the questions below for yourself.]

S= "So shall My word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."  (Isaiah 55:11)

O= Verse 11 seems to look back to verse 10, where the Lord says that: "As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return to heaven, but instead water the earth and make it bring forth and bud and produce grain.  So shall His Word be."

God's Word will not return to Him empty.  It will do whatever he sends it to do.  It will accomplish His purposes.

ESV says: "So shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."

Cross-reference for "goeth forth" -- "I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear."  (Isaiah 45:23)

Cross-reference for "it shall accomplish" -- "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever."  (Isaiah 40:8)

Cross-reference for "prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" -- "Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure; Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country; yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it."  (Isaiah 46:9-11)

A= To help with my application of this verse, I answered the three questions from Fix your Focus:

* Reflect on what this verse tells you about who God is.

He is the One true God whose Word is so powerful that it will accomplish what He pleases and will succeed in what He sends it to do .

* Think about what this verse tells you about who you are.

As a child of God, I can absolutely trust His all-powerful, completely effective Word to accomplish His good purposes in my life, in the lives of others, and in our world.

* Throughout the week, consider how this verse should affect the way you live.

 I should live expecting God's Word to work powerfully in my life and in the lives of others.  I should pray for God's Word to take root in the lives of believers and to soften hearts of those who do not yet know Him.

Dr. H.A. Ironside wrote: "How Isaiah's own soul must have been stirred as he gave forth this proclamation! And what an encouragement it should be for every servant of CHRIST to remember that GOD has declared that His word will accomplish that for which He has sent it."

One author noted: "Isaiah used rain’s renewal to illustrate God’s refreshing Word: Scripture carries spiritual vitality. That’s why it doesn’t return void. Wherever it encounters an open heart, it brings refreshment, nourishment, and new life."

Another devotional writer commented, "Some years ago, I received a letter from a man whom I had never met telling me that a note I had sent to a nearby friend had found its way to him, and it had encouraged him in a time of weariness and dark despair. The friend to whom I had sent the note sent it to a friend, who, in turn, sent it to a friend, and so on, until it was sent to the man who wrote to me.

It may be that a simple word offered in love, guided by the wisdom of God, and borne aloft on the wings of the Spirit will have eternal consequences in someone’s life.

Should we not then fill ourselves with God’s Word and pass it on to others with the prayer that God will use it for His intended purposes?"

P= "Lord, how I praise You for Your Word, the Bible.   It is living and powerful!  It is life giving and sustaining.  You tell us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  I am so thankful to have Your Word in my own language, when so many do not.  I'm blessed to own multiple copies of the Bible and to have it always at my fingertips. I praise You for the blessing it is to read, study, meditate on, and memorize Your Word, and I pray that You will help me to do so faithfully.  I'm thankful that Your Word will never return to You empty, but will always accomplish Your intended purposes.  What a promise to cling to as we speak Your Word into the lives of others!  I praise and thank You for all of this, in the name of Jesus, the Word made flesh.  Amen."

🌿 GRATITUDE is the next prompt.  We were to reflect on the way God has shown His faithfulness to you over the past week and list five things we are thankful for.  [If you are following along with us, be sure to make your own list of five things!]. Here is my list:

1) A wonderful day trip with friends on the Monday.

2) Things going smoothly with the family event on the Thursday evening.

3) Answers to prayer for our nation as God works in and through our leaders.

4) Slight improvements in the psoriasis.

5) A good time at our Ladies of Grace meeting on Saturday.

🌿 SPIRITUAL GROWTH is the next prompt, and this week there's an emphasis on REST. We were to make a to intentionally rest this week.  [And again, if you are following along, please think about this for yourself.]

 Our day with friends on the Monday was pure rest and relaxation, playing tourist.  We also planned an overnight at our cottage where we did not set an alarm!

🌿 Lastly is a GOSPEL-CENTERED AFFIRMATION: 

God's Word never fails to accomplish His will.

We can take this encouraging thought into the coming week as we seek to share God's Word with others and to apply it to our own hearts and lives.

And there's the Sunday Scripture for this week!