You have never heard (the Father’s) voice nor seen His form, nor does His word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one He sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. John 5:37-40.

Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge. Psalm 62:8.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night. Psalm 92:1-2 NKJV.

Do we appreciate the tremendous blessings we receive? I have been praying for family and friends and realized this morning just how completely they are being blessed as they await needed jobs. I forget all too easily in my rush to worry that Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, knows. There is a time for trusting Him to know what is needed. And reading our chapter, Ezekiel 29, could and does apply to any nation today. In the tenth year, in the tenth month on the twelfth day, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. Speak to him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, you great monster lying among your streams. You say, “The Nile belongs to me; I made it for myself.”…Because you said, “The Nile is mine, I made it,” therefore I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt a ruin and a desolate waste from Migdol to Aswan, as far as the border of Cush. The foot of neither man nor beast will pass through it; no one will live there for forty years. I will make the land of Egypt desolate among devastated lands, and her cities will lie desolate forty years among ruined cities. And I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them through the countries. Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: At the end of the forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the nations where they were scattered. I will bring them back from captivity and return them to Upper Egypt, the land of their ancestry. There they will be a lowly kingdom. It will be the lowliest of kingdoms and will never again exalt itself above the other nations. Egypt will no longer be a source of confidence for the people of Israel but will be a reminder of their sin in turning to her for help. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.’” v. 1-3, 9-16. It goes on to describe how Egypt was used as plunder for Nebuchadnezzar when he could get no reward after a 15 year siege against Tyre, v. 17-21.

The first verse cited above was in Hearing God by Dallas Willard and what he wrote applies today and throughout all generations and nations. Willard wrote: “When we read the Bible as if the persons in the Bible didn’t struggle as we do, it becomes simply a book of doctrine. It becomes an abstract truth about God that people can search endlessly without encountering God Himself or hearing His voice (John 5:39). How can people miss the point this way? In The Root of the Righteous, A. W. Tozer remarked: It is altogether possible to be instructed in the rudiments of the faith and still have no real understanding of the whole thing. It is possible to become expert in Bible doctrine and not have spiritual illumination, with the result that a veil remains over the mind, preventing it from apprehending the truth in its spiritual essence. Pray: Seek God in prayer, asking Him to enlighten the eyes of your heart so that His word abides in you. Implore God to keep you from searching endlessly without encountering God Himself or from studying without receiving spiritual illumination.”

How we each of us need our hearts and minds illuminated with the truth of who Creator God is and of how much He loves us. He is here and active in hearts turned to Him for understanding. Understanding takes time. On our own, individually or collectively, we get so much wrong. And, on our own we come face to face with the deepest need we will ever experience. The emptiness of not knowing God. Our wrong ideas about God lead us astray and into the wilderness of lies this world is built upon. But there is truth. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.”’ Acts 17:24-28. Not my words or my truth. The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul over 2,000 years ago and He inspires us still as we come to Him and trust Him to guide our understanding. We need help. In coming to Creator God, we come to life lived with Him and it is so good! Yesterday we attended the Celebration of LIfe ceremony for a family member who died too young. And the pastor pointed out that death is not the end. It’s the beginning of our life with God and we will have so much to learn with Him right there helping us. We have so much to learn and understand now and then, and it’s exciting! Understanding from God makes bearable the confusion and lies and deep hurts we experience in this broken world. Trust God for His wisdom and His love that will bring illumination to your spirit hungering for Him. He’s here. Always!