26 - 02 - 2017, 02:37 PM
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 He put you through hard times.
He made you go hungry.
Then He fed you with manna,
Something neither you nor your parents knew anything about,
So you would learn
That men and women don’t live (aren't sustained) by bread only.
We live by every word that comes from God’s mouth. Deut. 8:2
Amazing the things you can learn about verses you thought you already understood. This verse stood out to me.. and I couldn't get around it.. so I dug deeper.
As I was walking in the park with the dog this morning, I had Deut. 8:2 jotted down on a scrap of paper to meditate on. How my eyes were opened to the whole mess of last year's trials!
Suddenly it all began to make sense...
The Lord humbled me for sure.. and tested me and really.. truly.. allowed me to experience failure in a way I had not since I was a college girl. As I mulled over the choices I'd made.. and how badly I did in the 'test', I had a hard time not getting overwhelmed.
But it seemed to me the Lord was saying clearly, that he allowed me to fail for His greater purposes.
My Pastor friend and long-time mentor, Mike, once told me, "Donna, you will fail. I promise you." I was sick at heart! What did he mean? Failure to me was a fate worse than death. I couldn't bear the thought. I shivered and prayed he was wrong.
But God has his purposes in failure.
God often turns the 'valley of Achor' (trouble)
into a door of healing and hope.
"Then I will give her her vineyards from there, And the valley of Achor (trouble) as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. Hosea 2:15
What he meant was serious failure--And serious failure is what I experienced. What I didn't understand was why would God allow me to fail?--or you either for that matter.
Has it been a long time since you 'failed'. Is a contrite and repentant heart not your daily experience? Stay in God's word and dig deep enough.. and you can easily get there.
Humble -anah: defile 3 afflict as a discipline (God agent) Deuteronomy 8:2,
Yes, I have been very humbled in some ways.. I couldn't be more so. I know now that I stand on the edge of a precipice and without God's holding me up, I'd fall. I know now that I am capable of any sin. I came way too close for comfort.
Hungry - רָעֵב be hungry be roomy, voracious, desire vehemently;
What drove me over the precipice? Hunger..plain and simple. Hunger for 'something' but I knew not what. Soul hunger really. A craving for emotional fullness that could not come from man.
Manna- mánna – literally, "What is it?" – the question asked by the wandering Israelites in the OT when God gave them manna (divinely-sent bread wafers) (see Nu 11:6). 3131 /mánna ("necessary provisions") refers to what God provides to live in His preferred-will (cf. 2307 /thélēma).
Why?.. to fill us of course. Funny that we turn to all the wrong things to get 'full'. I have talked about that often. But the Lord didn't give his people earthly food. He gave them 'manna'. Today, we get manna from meditating on his word.
It is filling up on God's words and repenting over any sin brought to light.. that has transformed me. I am not the same person I once was and it is in no way to my credit. I don't 'try harder to be good. I just seek Him first.. diligently. He does the rest.
Live - chayah: leave Original Word: חָיָה
a. Sustain life, live on or upon (על), by bread Deuteronomy 8:3; elsewhere in pregnant sense of fulness of life in divine favour, sustained by (על) everything that issueth out of the mouth of ׳י Deuteronomy 8:3;
I have learned the hard way exactly what the Lord wanted me to learn. To depend fearfully and desperately on daily sustenance from His word to get through the day in a way that pleases Him. I have no false illusions as to what will happen if I stop.
I will change back.. probably within a week..back to the normal fleshly, self-pitying, self-absorbed, self-indulgent person I once was. Then I really will be back in Romans 7.. doing what I don't want to do.. and unable to do what I want in my spirit to do.
The answer was just as short and simple as Paul said.. I thank my God.. through Jesus Christ my Lord! Jesus is the answer.
When you camp at the Lord's feet, reading and meditating on God's words.. one by one..asking him to make it real in your heart and life... you will be sustained.
You will live the new life in Christ you were meant to live.  It's far better and more wonderful than the old life. I wouldn't go back for a million dollars. If I could let you get in my head to see what it looks and feels like.. I'd do it.
But the Lord wants you to seek Him first.. and find out for yourself.
Mouth- motsa: a place or act of going forth, issue, export, source, spring Original Word: מוֹצָא
a. utterance of mouth or lips (especially of solemn or formal speech), ׳מוֺצָא פִייֿ Deuteronomy 8:3; ׳שְׂפָתַי מ Jeremiah 17:16; Psalm 89:35; so Deuteronomy 23:24; Numbers 30:13 (P).
The next time you find yourself going around 'Mt.Sinai' one more time.. doing the same things.. repeating the same miserable cycles.. struggling with the same besetting sin, try putting your time with the Lord first.
If you have to cry out to God 10 times a day..
reading His word again and again..
asking Him to show you what is wrong.. then do it.
God's word WILL change you.
It can't NOT change you.
You will eventually 'enter into his rest' and find the fullness and peace you crave. He let you struggle so you would have no choice but to rely on him and turn to him rather than others things.
Dear Lord, thank you for humbling me and letting me fail. Thank you that failure was the impetus leading me to repentance.. and then transformation. I am glad I can't walk without you. I am glad I am too weak to do so. May we all recognize how weak we are. That our normal human efforts at godly living are just surface conformance.. not real spiritual fruit. Let my dear readers, I pray, try it.. and 'taste and see' that you are truly good and can fill them with joy. Amen
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