Dear Friend,
Do you ever feel that the most encouraging, beautiful parts of the Bible are probably for someone else? Yeah, God loves the world. Yeah, God loves all the people of the world. But a doubt lingers... Maybe I'm an exception. Maybe I'm not really that lovable...
Today, I want to share with you a technique to take a scripture—one that's full of hope and comfort and deep truths—and ask the Lord to make it real for us.
Let's start with a scripture that seems "nice" but that could easily slide off our Teflon coating:
"The Lord your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with his love,
He will rejoice over you with singing."
- Zephaniah 3:17
It's beautiful, but we might easily read it once, say "how lovely," and move on without letting these words do the work they have the potential to do.
One way to help this sink in to us would be to repeat it to ourselves: "The Lord your God is with you..." Line by line, we could speak it into a mirror or repeat it while doing another task like driving or washing dishes. (Some people even suggest memorization bit by bit like quizzing ourselves with fill-in-the-blanks: "He will quiet you with his ____.") The repetition can help the words move from the conscious to the subconscious (and from short-term to long-term memory), so much that we can retrieve their truth in moments of stress.
Another tactic would be to take one line per day. In other words, "The Lord your God is with you" on Monday, "He is mighty to save" on Wednesday, etc. We could chew on that one line while in line at the grocery store, while chopping vegetables, while taking a walk, or while going to sleep.
Honestly, the previous two suggestions are great but they don't help me personalize the extraordinary promises of this scripture. THIS helps bring it home for me: changing the "you" pronouns to "me." (Note: many times "you" in the Bible refers to a plural second person. God often speaks to the importance of living in community. He views his corporate Church as his bride, so in personalizing scripture, we don't want to miss the ways God calls us to be in and responsible to and for community.) I also like the idea of repeating "my God" or "the Lord my God." What do you think about reading it this way?
"The Lord my God is with me,
My God is mighty to save.
The Lord my God will take great delight in me,
My God will quiet me with his love,
My God will rejoice over me with singing."
- Zephaniah 3:17
Now I might chew in the personalized passages in a similar way as suggested above: with repetition or line by line.
Finally, we can hone in on the verb tenses. I love that it says: "The Lord my God IS with me,
My God IS mighty to save." This is NOW. The author of creation IS—in this present moment—WITH me. Whatever I'm dealing with right now—my Lord can handle it. He can save me from it because He IS powerful and mighty. See how this invites God to be near? In fact, God is already near, but chewing on the scripture in this way helps me remember or acknowledge the reality that He is near and can handle whatever is happening.
Since we know that God is outside of time and that He is the eternal "I AM," it is not wrong to make the future tenses in Zephaniah 3:17 more immediate as well:
"The Lord my God is with me,
My God is mighty to save.
The Lord my God takes great delight in me,
My God is quieting me with his love,
My God is rejoicing over me with singing."
When we declare "The Lord my God takes great delight in me," we are affirming the truth that the Lord's delight in us is habitual, eternal. We can't add or subtract anything from the way He ENJOYS us. Just imagine that. Can it be true? Could it be true that the Lord of all creation delights in you?! I don't know about you, but I see a loving parent with giant smile, proudly and joyfully holding a child--his child.
I like using the present progressive tense in the next two lines:
"My God is quieting me with his love,
My God is rejoicing over me with singing."
Why? This way, we affirm that, even if I'm not quiet now, God is in the process of quieting me. I am in the process of receiving that love and allowing it to quiet me. And the Lord my God is rejoicing over me. It is happening now. He is singing with joy about me (what?! really!?) and I am in the process of accepting that or enjoying that or receiving that.
And as I chew on the scriptures in these ways, God comes near. I acknowledge that my God IS near. He fights for me. He delights in me. He is singing over me. These truths sink deep into my soul. And I am healed.
May the Lord bless you in your chewing.
Love,
Your Friend Melana
