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 August 4,  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) Health -- dentist appointment, walk as often as possible, exercise daily.

2) Communicate -- notes to grieving friends; note to Airbnb hosts; try to contact Jennifer.

3) Ministry -- SS lesson prep, blogging, host home prayer meeting at our cottage; cleaning the church.

[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 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.  If I had a fear, it would have been that the dentist would find some tooth that needed work.

Joys: Ministry is a joy.  We take joy in hospitality, especially at our little cottage. We planned a staycation day for the Monday with several joys in NH state parks -- an aerial tramway ride, coffee atop a mountain, a picnic by a lake.

Worries: I try not to worry.  If I were to worry, it would be about my dentist appointment or my hubby's psoriasis.

Desires: That the answers to some perplexing questions might begin to be revealed.  That God would be glorified in the events of this week.  That people would be encouraged by my communication with them.  That Steve would be completely healed from psoriasis.

Stressors: Always the constraints of time, energy, hot weather, and aging.   Trying to balance everything is challenging.

🌿 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 every aspect of this week.  You are omniscient and You are the One "who revealed secrets".  You are sovereign over my concerns and my limitations.  You are able to give me strength far beyond my own.  You are able to expand my time.

* Lord, I feel ... so inadequate for all of this -- and, in my own strength, I am indeed inadequate.  I feel blessed and privileged to be Your child and to have Your Word.  I feel free to live in such a beautiful area and to be able to visit state parks for free.  I feel grateful to have our cottage, blessed by the peace and rest we enjoy there, and by the hospitality we're able to extend.

* Lord, help me with ... Wise use of my time every day.  Help me with self-discipline and diligence.  Help me with my character flaws and sin issues.  Help me with my Scripture posts and Sunday School lesson preparations.  Help me to be wise in planning meals within the restrictions of my hubby's diet.

* Lord, forgive me for ... times when I worry or stress about situations.  Times when my attitudes are not right or when I'm tempted to manipulate circumstances.  Times when I'm unwise in my use of time or my choices.

Make a note of four or five people you are praying for.  I listed  a young couple looking for a new home, an unborn baby whose birth is overdue (and her parents, feeling a bit anxious), and a retired couple in a life transition.

🌿 The next section in this helpful guide is SCRIPTURE MEDITATION.  I chose to first meditate on this week's Scripture, Psalm 56:3, 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= "When I am afraid, I will trust in Thee."  (Psalm 56:3)

O = C.I. Scofield, in the Scofield Reference Bible, titles this Psalm "Reliance upon God."

The ESV titles Psalm 56 "In God I trust."

The biblical heading for this psalm in the KJV is "To the chief musician upon Jonath-elem--rehokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath."

The ESV translates this heading "To the Choirmaster according to the Dove on Far-off Terebinths.  A Michtam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath."

"Michtam" is probably a musical or liturgical term.

"Trust in" literally means "lean on".

Cross-references for "trust in Thee" -- "Blessed are all they who put their trust in Him."  (Psalm 2:12)

"In the LORD put I my trust; how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?"  (Psalm 11:1)

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 a God who can be trusted.  He can be trusted even when I am afraid.  (Considering all of the incidents in Scripture where He tells people to "fear not", maybe especially when I am afraid.)

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

I'm a frail, fallible human being who is prone to fear.  I'm also a child of an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise God who is completely trustworthy.  I live in a world, in a culture where things often feel uncertain and unsafe, but I can trust God regardless of the circumstances..

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

 I should live as a person who trusts in God even when I am afraid, considering all of the attributes that He will bring to bear on my behalf, in my situation.

Charles Spurgeon wrote: " It is a blessed fear which drives us to trust. Unregenerate fear drives from God, gracious fear drives to him. If I fear man I have only to trust God, and I have the best antidote. To trust when there is no cause for fear, is but the name of faith, but to be reliant upon God when occasions for alarm are abundant and pressing, is the conquering faith of God's elect. Though the verse is in the form of a resolve, it became a fact in David's life, let us make it so in ours. Whether the fear arise from without or within, from past, present, or future, from temporals, or spirituals, from men or devils, let us maintain faith, and we shall soon recover courage."

"There is nothing like faith to help at a pinch; faith dissolves doubts as the sun drives away the mists. And that you may not be put out, know that your time for believing is always. There are times when some graces may be out of use, but there is no time wherein faith can be said to be so. Wherefore faith must be always in exercise ... Let it rain, let it blow, let it thunder, let it lighten, a Christian must still believe. 'At what time', said the good man, 'I am afraid, I will trust in Thee." John Bunyan.

Albert Barnes wrote, "It is a good maxim with which to go into a world of danger; a good maxim to go to sea with; a good maxim in a storm; a good maxim when in danger on the land; a good maxim when we are sick; a good maxim when we think of death and the judgment--What time I am afraid, I WILL TRUST IN THEE." 

Spurgeon quotes Bishop Beveridge: 

                                What is there in God we ought to put our trust in? 

                                1. In His promises. 

2. In His properties. His power, wisdom, justice, mercy, all sufficiency.

 Why should we in all our fears put our trust in God? 

1. Because there is none else can secure us from our fears. Whereas, 

2. There are no fears but God can secure us from them, either by removing the thing feared, or by subduing the fear of the thing.

P= "Lord,You know that I am a frail, fallible human who is prone to fear.  I'm living in a culture and world where things often feel uncertain and unsafe.  Yet I am Your child!  I have a relationship with the all-wise, all-powerful God of the universe and I can trust You to care for me in any fearful situation.

"I pray that You will help me to live every day as a person who trusts in You in every circumstance of life, even when I am afraid.  I thank You for how You will help me with this, in Jesus' name, 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) Safety traveling to and from Boothbay,

2) Light rain as we traveled back, but fine weather while there.

3) Having found a new-to-us Airbnb that we really liked and would love to stay at again.

4) Good fellowship, calm seas, and the delightful experience that is the Cabbage Island Clambake.

5) A good outreach at the outdoor market.  It was lightly attended even by vendors, but we had some excellent opportunities with people.

🌿 SPIRITUAL GROWTH is the next prompt, and this week there's an emphasis on  FASTING. We were to make a plan to fast from something this week, and to consider how we would replace our fasted item with the pursuit of God and His Word.  [And again, if you are following along, please think about this for yourself.]

I do intermittent fasting every day and find it does open up more time for prayer and Bible study.  Whenever we are at our cottage, we are fasting from internet and social media, as we have no wi-fi there.

🌿 Lastly is a GOSPEL-CENTERED AFFIRMATION: 

The trustworthiness of the Lord calms my fears.

We can take this comforting thought into the coming week as we seek to trust the Lord at all times, especially when we are afraid.

And that's the Sunday Scripture for this week!