Wednesday, August 1, 2018

1 August 2018 - word finders



When I found your words, I devoured them;
they became my joy and the happiness of my heart,
Because I bore your name,
O LORD, God of hosts.

Do we really treasure God's word? Or is it more like homework for us? Is it an assignment that we grudgingly accept or a privilege that brings us joy? If it is like work how do we learn to love it more? We can't leave it buried in a field. We have to dig it up. We must be like the merchant and actually search for the pearls. It starts with faith that believes there is something to find. But it is rewarded with genuine treasure.

The word of God is a light to guide us. It is a weapon against the enemy. It is bread that sustains us in the desert. It is the power of God to those being saved. When we are suffering and bound the word of God cannot be bound. It is the imperishable seed that brings new life.

We are invited to taste and see how good the word of God is. To do so we need to dig and search. We need to be ready to find something because we will in fact find it if we look. It isn't about being an excavation expert or a particularly skilled merchant. Yet to possess the treasure we must be ready to surrender whatever else that requires.

The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

In order to buy the treasure we need to realize that it is such a treasure that nothing we can give for it is actually proportionate to how great it is. The seller is taking a loss. We have to have eyes open to see this in the treasure when we find it or else we might miss it. We don't want to miss it because it has such potential to transform us.

And I will make you toward this people
a solid wall of brass.

Let us call to mind the saints who discovered this treasure spoken to Jeremiah and who then experienced the power of it themselves. Certainly Paul and the other apostles experienced this. Saint Alphonsus Liguori could never have persisted through the dark night in his own life without the treasure of the word.

But I will sing of your strength
and revel at dawn in your mercy;
You have been my stronghold,
my refuge in the day of distress.



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