This Is What the Sovereign LORD Says!

Meditations for the Season of Advent

December 9, 2022

This Is What the Sovereign LORD Says!

The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn.

Say to them,

‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says.’

Ezekiel 2:4 

Ezekiel recorded the words of God to Israel many thousands of years ago, but they can just as easily be His words to me today. I am very much in need of the Holy Spirit coming to me, repeatedly, and reporting to me, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says!’

I need this remedial training because it is so difficult to completely overcome the ways of my past that are so deeply ingrained within me. And I am not alone. I recall my wife, Cheryl, sharing with me an incident when she was driving her mother to the store. At the time, her mother had been widowed for about a year. Cheryl’s father had been quite successful in life and had provided well for his family. Cheryl’s mother was completely debt free and had a substantial income in her retirement. As they drove toward the store, Cheryl’s mother turned to her and asked, “Do you think I can afford to buy a new pair of house slippers?” Given her financial standing, her question seemed absurd. Given she had been raised in poverty during the Great Depression, her question made perfect sense. The experiences of our past deeply shape our perspective on today.

I have noted in previous meditations that we live in a culture that emphasizes awareness of emotions and feelings. Our culture teaches a person to act on their feelings. When you follow this path, your feelings will become your beliefs about yourself and your world. Keep on this path, and your beliefs that were born from your feelings will become the core of who you think you are. The experiences of our past deeply shape our feelings about today. Therefore, we need the Holy Spirit reminding us of the truth of God. We can choose to turn from our past and its influential feelings and turn to God’s Word. When we chose God’s Word, we will see that the world’s culture has told us a pack of lies about who we are, and who God is, and we will learn that God, in Christ Jesus, is telling us the truth.

Truth:

We are the beloved of God, with whom He is delighted

and upon whom His favor rests.

My Takeaway: The virgin conceived a child who we know as Immanuel, God with us.  Immanuel is the way, the truth, and the life, This Is what the Sovereign LORD Says! (John 14:6)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.