Tap into God's mysteries

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TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 33-36; Psalm 22

TO CHEW ON: " 'Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.' " Jeremiah 33:3

Everywhere around us there is change in the air.

• In Canada regular elections mean that we frequently have changes in leadership with changes in leadership philosophy, from left to right or right to left policies. 

• Popular science insists that the recent increase of world temperature and the severity of weather events (storms, droughts, floods) are the result of human activity. As a result we are being pressured to change our ways and lifestyles in order to slow this "man-made global warming."

• Strange diseases and strains of infection resistant to medicine are appearing and wiping out thousands.

• Radical groups are terorizing whole nations. In the last years we've seen streams of refugees emptying out of countries in the Middle East and Africa.

In the middle of this uncertainty and flux, God's words to Jeremiah here come as a welcome invitation to us. Two words in Jeremiah 33:3 stand out:

"Call to Me and I will answer you…"

["Call (qara) means to call out, to cry out, to address, shout or speak to someone. It is often a loud cry meant to get someone's attention. It can also mean to call something by its name (as God named light and darkness - Genesis 1:5) or name places, holidays or children (Genesis 29:35) - from "Word Wealth" by Dick Mills - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1006.]

God invites us to call on Him!

"… and show you great and mighty things which you do not know."

["Mighty (batsar) could also be translated "secrets," "mysteries," or "inaccessible things."] 

God is telling Jeremiah that He will give him privileged information, showing him things that, without God's revelation, would be hidden from him.

The sidebar article in my Bible that introduced me to this thought concludes:  

"Such 'revelational insight' has always been essential for a clear understanding of victorious spiritual warfare. One cannot pray effectively without insight into how to pray as well as into what things God truly longs for us to seek after in prayer" - Dick Eastman, "Divine Revelation and Spiritual Warfare" - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1007.

I love these thoughts for myself and all of us during our times of change, upheaval and uncertainty.

• God invites us to call on Him.

• He promises to show us things that only He knows, to give understanding about our times so we will know how to pray and live.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for the invitation to call on You. Help me to make a habit of doing this first when I encounter things I don't understand. Please give me ears to hear Your "great and mighty things" answers and the faith to live by them. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 22

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.