Walk Boldly With Jesus

Favorite Scripture Verses

Episode Summary

Proverbs 16:3 “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” (NRSVCE) This episode is about having a scripture verse or two that you have memorized for when you are in need. Also, it talks about this Proverbs verse is talking about. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode Notes

Favorite Scripture Verses

Proverbs 16:3 “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”  NRSVCE

I heard this verse on the Bible in a Year podcast and Father Mike said that it is one of his favorite passages.  He said he has this on a book mark ever since he was a little kid.  I think this is great!  I did not have any favorite passages when I was a kid.  I knew bible stories, but to have a verse that could help guide you is an amazing idea.  Then I was watching a mentoring session with Pamela & Lonnie Crim and he mentioned that one of the first scriptures he learned was Jeremiah 29:11 “ For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”  He said someone gave him a coffee cup with this on it when he was a teen and it became a verse that he relied on a lot.  

The idea of having a few favorite scripture verses that you know well and that you can rely on when you need guidance or when you strength is a great idea!  It is not something I had ever thought of before.   I am fairly new to reading the Bible.  I certainly didn’t have any scripture verses memorized before the last few years.  The more books I read, the more I am hearing the authors talk about their favorite verses.  Or they are talking about how we need to grab hold of the promises in the bible and claim them for ourselves.  This is a new concept to me and it is one that I am on board for.  I can be all in when it comes to claiming God’s promises.  He gave them to us, so why wouldn’t we claim them for ourselves?  

I would say most people probably don’t claim them because they, like me, have never heard of such a thing.  What does that even mean, claim the promises for myself?  How can you claim a promise?  The Bible was written a very long time ago, how we claim those promises in today's day and age?  Would they still hold true?  Will they still be relevant?  If you are like me, you probably had so many questions like this come to mind when I said that we should claim God’s promises that are written in the Bible.  Let me explain the best I can my understanding of what the authors are saying.

When we claim a scripture verse or a promise from the Bible we are adopting if, if you will.  We are saying that we want this verse to guide us and to be one that we can rely on.  We are telling God that we claim this promise for our life.  We are saying we believe this is true, not only when He said it, but now as well.  We are saying that we trust God will keep this promise in the same way that He has kept all of His promises.  One way to claim a promise is to write it down and place it somewhere where you can see it often.  Memorize this scripture so that when you are feeling down you can call it to mind quickly.  Or, when the enemy is challenging you or making you feel bad, you can quickly recall God’s promise and God’s words.  

I have a few written verses around my desk that I look at from time to time.  Although apparently I don’t look at them enough because I have today verse, Proverbs 16:3 on a post it note on my wall and I didn’t even know that until I just looked up.  The other two I have are John 14:12-14 “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.  I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”  And Matthew 17:20 “ He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”  If you don’t have a favorite scripture verse to rely on in difficult times, I recommend maybe writing a few down.  If you need help you could do a quick google search, you could take one of the ones mentioned here today, or you could look in the Bible and see what stands out to you.  If you ask God to lead you to the right verse or two, He will.  

I wrote the Proverbs 16:3 verse down because I feel it is so important.  I think it is something that we could all benefit from not only knowing, but remembering and referring back to.  “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”  Often times we have an idea and we set off to make it happen.  We need a job, we go out and look for one and we accept the job that we get offered.  How often do you pause when you get an idea and run it by God to see what He thinks?  God knows what is best for us, I think most of us can agree on that.  So, why are we not consulting Him with our plans?  Why are we not stopping to pray about our decisions more and asking God to weigh in on these decisions?

Did you ever really want to do something but every time you tried to take a step forward with that plan it seems you were met with a roadblock?  Did you ever have a plan and yet nothing went according to this plan?  Have you ever had a time when it seemed like the whole world was against you?  I wonder, when this was happening, did you pray about it?  Did you pray about your plan before you acted on it?  This verse says if we commit our work to the Lord, then our plans will be established.  When you come up with a plan, turn that plan over to the Lord.  Instead of trying to come up with all the details of that plan on your own, tell the Lord what you want to do and ask Him to establish a plan for you.  When the Lord blesses your plan everything is so much easier.  You do not run up against roadblock after roadblock.  You have asked God for help and He will help you, He will show you the way.  

The best example of this is when I felt God was calling me to write a book.  I talked to the Lord about it and I told Him that I would write the book if that is what He wanted, but He would need to tell me what to say because I was not sure what He was looking for.  I showed up most days to write and I wrote the words pretty easily.  My friend and I prayed that I would know what publishing company to send it to and I felt like God made that clear to me.  I did not run into a lot of road blocks writing this book and I believe that is because I committed this work to the Lord.  I was writing the book for God, not for myself and I asked for His help.  

Are there some places in your life where you are having a lot of trouble?  Does it seem like everywhere you turn you are running into a roadblock?  Are there some works in your life that you have not committed to the Lord?  If you find yourself struggling in some area of your life, its never too late to talk to God about it.  Tell Him your plans, tell Him your thoughts, ask Him for His suggestions and His Blessing.  It doesn’t take a lot of time.  I am not saying before you do anything you stop and have a three hour conversation with God about it.  What I am saying is that things in your life will go a lot smoother if you commit them to the Lord and pause for at least a moment and turn things over to the Lord.  He knows what is best and He wants to help us.  If we would just stop and ask He would save us so much time and heart ache.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we ask that you help us all to commit our work to you.  We ask that you help us to pause and ask for your thoughts before jumping into any new situations or plans.  Lord, we ask that you are with us in our plans and that you pave the way for us so that our journey isn’t so difficult.  We invite you in Lord, we ask that you accompany us on our journey.  Lord, we ask that you bless our endeavors and guide us to the best choices.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!