Life Verse

I know people who have a life verse, a piece of scripture that God has spoken to them that somehow embodies their entire life. I’ve tried in vain to find one and it just hasn’t clicked. I thought of I Corinthians 10:13 for instance that talks about God providing a way of escape for you when tempted. As much as I quote that verse and love it, do I really want my WHOLE life to revolve around a verse talking about temptation…ehh, not so much.

So giving up and not feeling as spiritual as those "life verse people" out there, I quit the search.

So of course that’s when it happened.

My life verse, er chapter found me.

It’s one I’ve read many, many times and have always loved, but it’s gone to new depths since I moved overseas. At different stages since my arrival, different verses have spoken to me.

First it was the promise of God’s presence even here on “the far side of the sea.”

Then it was the assurance of His plan for my life, and that I wouldn’t die a moment before the days ordained for me were up.

During dark times, it was His light that made the darkness seem like light around me.

As I struggled with constantly being offended, I needed His light to show me the offensive ways in myself instead of constantly pointing the finger at others.

When I had trouble sleeping, it was knowing that He would give me sleep through the night and be right there next to me when I awakened that comforted me (what a beautiful picture of Father/Child or Bride/Bridegroom to know that HE IS THERE when I awake, having watched over me through the night…sigh sweet, sweet God).

And now as I contemplate the future and the next step, it’s His familiarity with my ways and thoughts, His hand that guides me, and His plan for my life that gives me peace and settles my anxious heart

Psalm 139
O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.

5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?

22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.