“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made… when I was made in secret, and cu-riously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet be-ing unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written…How precious also are thy thoughts unto me…”, (Psa 139:13-17).
In this scripture, the Psalmist makes us to understand that everything about us is clearly documented in a book (the Bible). This also applies to our families, destinies, communi-ties and nations at large. God said a similar thing to Jeremiah; “before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (Jer 1:5). He further confirmed His good plans for us in Jere 29:11. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end”. However, for these wonderful plans and purposes of God to come to fulfillment in our lives, we need to know them and commit them to prayers as expected. According to Hos 4:6, lack of knowledge brings destruction on the people of God. It makes them lose their hidden treasures. Knowledge of God's plan and purpose for us will enable us position ourselves properly to benefit from them. The enemy delights in keeping us ignorant of these plans so that we do not fulfill the mandate of God for us and we end up frustration and bondage.
Jesus, our Master did not commence His earthly ministry until He discovered the will of His Father for Him. He discovered this from the books. “…in the volume of the book it is written of me”. (Psa 40:7). His discovery of this enabled Him to prepare Himself for the great task of redeeming mankind and He fulfilled it successfully. The Israelites were in desolation for so many years and did not know when the affliction will end until Daniel dug deep into the books and discovered God's timing regarding the desolation. (Dan 9:1-2). This information enabled him to pray in line with God's will for the nation of Israel. Unfortu-nately, many Christians are lazy when it comes to studying the bible. Some can afford to spend long hours on mundane things. They are glued to television sets for hours watching films, soccer, etc. Long hours are spent at gyms, social media, beauty and hair salons. The same child of God that will spend hours reading newspapers and magazines cannot afford quality time with the Bible. Although there is nothing wrong in all these activities, but we need to understand that there is time for everything and priority should be given to matters of eternal values.
Beloved, it is time for us to cultivate the habit of digging deep in the word so we can search out God's plans and purpose for us and work towards fulfilling them. There are hidden treasures in the Bible and it takes diligent study to discover them. We need to dig deep into the word of God if we are to benefits from these treasures. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter” (Pro 25:2). Let us go beyond shallow study of the word and get deeper. Peter; the fisherman toiled all night and caught nothing but when Jesus instructed him to launch into the deep, he did and had a miracle. Our lives and destinies are embedded in the word of God and since we shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, let us receive grace to be a word addicts.
Remain blessed and highly favoured in Jesus name.
Pst H. Nzeribe