The Morning of...

God has used His Word to speak to and encourage me during my Quiet Time Bible Study each morning.  Even though I read through a plan, usually a different one each year, it seems like so many times the scripture was chosen just for me for that specific day. 

That being said, the Bible verses selected, for the morning in May when I went to the doctor to find out the results from the testing that diagnosed the Multiple Sclerosis, were in I Chronicles.  The reading was a list of name after name that went on for page after page.  It wasn’t even the prayer of Jabez…just names on that day. 

I remember having the thought of needing to be convinced of why those were my scriptures for that particular day.   It didn’t take long for the answers to begin to come.  God tells His story through people.  Even though it was included in a list, each name was personal and belonged to a unique individual with their own story to tell.  The names were also associated with their families.  Although the verses did not tell what each person accomplished, the importance was that they were individually part of God’s plan.  They were each created to have a relationship with God and worship Him.

I, too, am part of God’s Story.  He desires for me to worship Him and have a personal relationship with Him.  My life has value because of who He is and what He has done in my life.  I belong to Him, not because of what I have or have not done or because of what disease I do or do not have.  And joyfully I get to share the journey with family and friends as we each have a specific part in God’s Story. 

As many times as I have read the list of names throughout the Bible, I have never seen my name in print.  Of course, that could be considered a blessing with some of those names.  But because Jesus died on the cross as the sacrifice for my sins, rose again, and I have believed and asked Him to be my Lord and Savior, my name has been written in the Book of Life.  

II Samuel 7:21 (The Message)

You know me, Master God, just as I am. You've done all this not because of who I am but because of who you are—out of your very heart!—but you've let me in on it.

John 4:23

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

Revelation 3:5

He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.