I love this verse; as I meditate upon it, I am encouraged to take my attention off myself and place my attention upon the LORD God. First, the LORD God is a sun. This reminds me of John 1:4: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” The Lord gives His people the light of true spiritual knowledge. Psalm 84:11 also brings to mind the following verse:
The LORD can give wisdom (light of understanding) to know the right things to think, do and say in even difficult circumstances. As I depend upon Him, though circumstances be daunting, yet I need not succumb to fear and anxiety.
Psalm 119:114: Thou [art] my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.
The LORD, our shield,defends us from His and our enemies. He gives us hope and encouragement through His Word.
The LORD gives us the grace of salvation and finally brings us to glory; as we were reminded in a sermon by Christopher Love today based upon 2 Timothy 2:1: “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” Christ is the Author of grace; He gives the being of grace and the increase of grace.
The LORD gives His people every good thing, spiritual and material. As we reverence Him in godly fear, as we seek Him, as we live lives of purposeful obedience to Him, we can trust our desperate and continuing needs to Him. He will give us the wisdom we need in difficult situations. He will give us the grace to behave lovingly when we are tempted to do otherwise. He will give us a calm and trusting heart when we are tempted to be fearful or anxious.
God is not indiscriminate in the bestowing of His good things, His spiritual pearls (Matthew 7:6: Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.); His spiritual blessings are for those who walk uprightly, who trust in Christ for salvation, and who live lives of purposeful obedience to Him. If we claim to love God, this will be evidenced by our obedience to Him:
Well, that turned out well with focusing on lots of different aspects of the verse. Thanks for those thoughts, Momma! Very true. 🙂
1 cor 13 the “love chapter” interesting that so many wain in “fear” as dread to the devine rather than respect as a loving father. To me it seems that the 2 dynamics at work in life are based simply either in “fear” or in “love”. The beginning of wisdom maybe the “fear” of the devine, but I sure wish the translation would denote a parental love embracing that “fear”. Which child feels that their parent would cast them out to die?? I remember the thought in the NT that “we” being less than the devine as being a kindly parents still give good gifts to our loved ones..how much more would the father give unto his…
No man has any greater love than he lay his life down for another…fear would prevent such an act of love. The loving act of Yeshua to sacrifice himself was love… he is a model of love – not fear to follow.
Walking in doing good isn’t a strain, but rather a “being compelled” by nature…we are born again..unto new works that we should walk in them. Is a gift that no one can boast. Aho. I tend to concentrate on the light rather than to dispell the dark. 🙂
May the light dwell within all that breathe Elohim as they would breathe O2.
Thank you for your comment, John. (For those who don’t know, John is my younger brother. 🙂 )
You bring up some interesting points, about which I would like to cogitate, and then blog.
Thanks!
Joyce