¡Hola, hola! Friends, welcome to week 25 of our Bible Reading Challenge! Welcome to another week of expectation as we open our Bibles to nourish our souls and trust that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes and hearts to know God more, to love Him more, to worship Him more.
I am aware, as I am writing this email, that many of us are going through severe trials. And all trials, we know, are meant to make us grow, to refine us, to increase our faith, to help us know God more and to love Him more. Yes, and amen. But the road that takes us through trials is sometimes pretty long and, honestly, very exhausting. How can we walk through it? Where can we find the strength to persevere? Where can we find power to do the next thing we ought to do cheerfully?
Friends, the only place where we can find this strength, this sustaining power, is in the Word of God. God gave us His Word and His Holy Spirit to fight and win. In Christ we have all that we need to persevere and come out the other side of the trial with much rejoicing.
This passage in the book of Romans impresses me every single time: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (emphasis mine). Do you see this? When we believe in God and in His Word, God Himself, the God of hope, fills us with joy and peace, “so that we may abound in hope,” so that we may not lose heart, so that we may not faint and leave God’s way because we feel hopeless.
And how do we believe? Well, in the same letter to the Romans, Paul tells us, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God.” There is no other way, Friends. There are no shortcuts, no substitutes for this.
Do you feel hopeless? Come to the Word, come to Christ. Are you weary from your trials? Come to the Word, come to Christ. Is your faith too weak that you can’t even find the strength to open the Bible? Come to the Word, come to Christ. By hearing, your faith will be strengthened, and the God of all hope will fill you with all joy and peace in your believing.
Weariness, discouragement, and unbelief must be fought in our lives, and God has given us His Word and His Spirit to fight them with the promise that after the battles we must face cease, we will be standing strong, deeply rooted in Christ.
So, Friend, if you are behind in your readings, just skip those parts, remember that you can always come back to those later. Jump in on the day we are on and take the Book and read it and the God of hope will be with you.
This week we will finish reading 2 Chronicles, and will read psalm 127, 121, 122, 123, and Proverbs 14. As you read the narrations in Chronicles, keep in mind a basic timeline: this book was written a 1000 years after the book of Kings, during the post-exilic period. As the author of the book, Most likely Ezra, is writing this book the temple is destroyed and rebuilding it is his greatest priority. But as he is writing this book, God is moving the heart of kings and rulers to help his people rebuild the temple. We will see -again- how God’s purposes always prevail and how He is faithful and His promises are all true. Don’t miss the next webinar, we will be talking more about this and I am trusting that you will find it encouraging.
May our prayer this week be, “Lord, may we all be like the wisest of women who works diligently to build her house, forgive us when with our words and actions we tear down those whom you have given us to build up and deliver us from folly. In Jesus name, amen.” (Prov 14:1)
Under his sun and by His grace,
Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship
