(Week 9/2024)
A word fitly spoken is like APPLES OF GOLD in a setting of silver [Proverbs 25v11]
Some of you are fortunately self-sufficient in electricity and therefore independent of Eskom. For most of us, however, the never-ending irritation of loadshedding is a constant reminder that for thousands of years when night-time came, people had to rely on candles or lamps to see in the dark. Without a lamp they would walk into objects, trip over things and get lost which is why the readers of Psalm 119v105 would have clearly understood the metaphor: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path”.
The first lesson this verse tells us is, if we do not have God’s Word to light up our path of life we will trip and stumble morally, spiritually and emotionally as we blunder around in the dark. Secondly, we need to keep the lamp full of oil or else it goes out – olive oil in the Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit and He enlightens God’s Word for us – without His guidance we cannot understand the Bible. Thirdly, because an electric light gives brightness over a greater area we have many options as to where we walk and the way to go – which can be negative because we can get confused and distracted from the right path.
When we are content with the light of God’s Word for each step of our daily walk, we will find that we won’t be tempted to choose another direction and thus freed from that great destroyer of happiness, namely worry. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”. -Matthew 6v34. This is not to say we must become CARELESS – rather that we should be CAREFREE because He has our future in His hands as the apostle James makes clear in chapter 4v13: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” Let us not be arrogant and plan our lives outside of the light of God’s Word, but take heed of the simple chorus “One step more, one step more, give me faith for one step more”.
Amen
Graeme Greenwood