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(Proverbs 31:25-26)
"She is clothed with strength and dignity; She can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue." |
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| Thursday, February 22, 2007 |
| a royal's desire |
(or rather for the past 2 daes as well), i was reading abt queen of sheba in 2 chronicles 9:1-12. as i analyzed verse by verse, i was very convicted and inspired by her desire to pursue the truth. In the first verse, it was said that she "came with hard questions". what are some hard questions that we have thought about? some hard questions people have asked us? one of the hardest question that i always felt it was hard to answer satisfactorily was 'why is there still so much suffering in the world if God is about love?' i remember the enthusiasm i had when i was a young christian or even when i was just studying the bible. i would discuss with my friends ever so fervently... yet as i grew older, i became weary of hard questions. i wanted to shun people who would ask that kind of questions; or i would look at them with a critical eye and judged them to be hard-hearted towards God. i slowly lost the joy and the enthusiasm to dig deeper into the Word and became comfortable with what a certain level of knowledge of convictions. it took my best friend's fallaway to make me to be so broken and to seriously re-evaluate my relationship with God and how i had to desire to grow with the right motivation. queen of sheba went to Solomon with hard questions that had troubled her heart; she had heard alot abt Solomon's God-given wisdom but she still doubted. She needed to listen and to experience it herself. This reminded me of Bereans who in Acts had that heart to re-examine and to think carefully abt what was taught to them by others about God. i always remember what a sister shared to me. the gist of it was 'we can live on borrowed convictions for a while but to remain faithful til kingdom come, we need to have our OWN convictions.' it's very true..God had been showing me very clear examples of how this piece of advice rings so true through different people and situations.
another thing that i was fascinated for a while was the amount of wealth and fortune the queen was bringing. it was amazing how much she was willing to bring to go to a king whose fame she doubted. why did she bring so much gold still? i feel that this is precisely where the difference of a skeptical heart and a cynical heart stands. a skeptical heart will ask ask ask ask ask and will have the willing heart to listen and leaves the options of accepting open. a cynical heart will ask ask ask ask ask but never once giving any chance to himself/herself to believe in the answers given. the queen of sheba was doubtful yet she was also hopeful thus she brought all that wealth to pay for the answers. she was willing to pay the price. it made me also think abt how highly i prize God's wisdom. how much do i cherish God's Word? When the queen was so overwhelmed and convinced of Solomon's wisdom and about God, she unhesitatingly gave all that wealth to Solomon. Did Solomon need the money? I did not think so... but she still gave it! Does God really need us to pay the price? No... he is the all-powerful God! Yet it's a measure of how much we really desire to have God as the center in our lives.
What encouraged me a lot was verse 12. Solomon gave back queen of sheba MORE than what she gave him. Solomon gave the queen all what she desired and asked for... and he gave more than what she gave him. Eh... strange huh? What is meant by this? For me it meant that the answers to the hard questions, the solutions to her troubles in her heart, the satisfaction of her desires COST more than what she gave. She gave 4.5 tons of gold and it was still not enough?! Wow... God is not stingy at all. The answers that God provides for us; the amount of blessings he gave us... this are things we can never ever have the means to pay back in full. Yet does God withdraw his love from us? No... not at all! He just continues to love us so much. Is it really too much for us to love God and put him as the center of our lives? :)
this are some thoughts from my quiet time... hope you will not get too confused over my thought processs. :PLabels: my time with Him |
ranted by Jerraine @ 11:57 PM  |
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