Greetings in that beautiful name, Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour! Happy “Summer 2016” ! It has finally arrived…and in style! I trust that you had a grand weekend and Monday – enjoying the warmth, okay the heat and the lingering time of daylight. Today I will be praying for, asking Father to release times of refreshing upon you and to re-energize you!
Last night we finished our latest group Bible study and are ready for a summer break. We have been doing an extra assignment over the last six weeks. Each week we have progressively taken one verse from Psalm 23 to reflect upon…and last night was verse six: Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (NIV). We had a variety of responses as to how the verse affected them or what images did the words create in the mind or what emotional impact was experienced. We had a good time of sharing and were ready to move on when someone shared that the word “Surely” resonated with him…a little discussion followed before we continued with our lesson. I like words and I have been thinking of “surely” – looking it up in the dictionary and thesaurus to find that it means…assurance, confidence, beyond doubt, definitely, positively, and those kind of words.
Jesus often used the phrase…”verily, verily I say unto you…” and the word “verily” can mean “surely”. I did a quick study through my concordance and discovered that God likes to use “surely” and “verily” and “I tell you the truth” to season his words of instruction. I found “surely’ in Genesis 2:17 to highlight the fact of consequences for disobedience and then again in Revelation 22:20 to underscore the fact that He would be there at the end of time. In Genesis 22:17 God uses “surely’ to encouraged Abraham of future blessings. One of my favourite positioning of the word was in Genesis 28:16 when Jacob states…“Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it…How awesome is this place!…” (NIV). I was encouraged to know that in Scripture there are powerful, assertive words used to express ideas and commands and thoughts.
It is interesting how one word can instigate an adventure of pondering and searching. There is a popular song…you knew that I would get a song in here somewhere…that I would add the word – “surely” to : “Surely, you are always on my mind” – maybe that is the song that God sings over us ( Zephaniah 3:17 )…absolutely, positively, beyond a doubt, confidently, definitely—we are always on God’s mind!
Be blessed !