Wonderful Words of Life (Philip P. Bliss, 1838-1876)

1. Sing them over again to me,
wonderful words of life;
let me more of their beauty see,
wonderful words of life;
words of life and beauty
teach me faith and duty.
Refrain:
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life.
Beautiful words, wonderful words,
wonderful words of life.

2. Christ, the blessed one, gives to all
wonderful words of life;
sinner, list to the loving call,
wonderful words of life;
all so freely given,
wooing us to heaven.
(Refrain)

3. Sweetly echo the gospel call,
wonderful words of life;
offer pardon and peace to all,
wonderful words of life;
Jesus, only Savior,
sanctify forever.
(Refrain)

Joshua 1:7-9 English Standard Version

⁷ Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success^[a] wherever you go. ⁸ This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Someone, somewhere at some point in time, began to ponder and pray …..

They have probably been pondering these questions for quite some time …..

So, we have been gazing at the unsearchable beauty of the Lord our God.

We have been craning our necks upward – mightily focusing on His face.

We have been craning our necks and eyes upwards until it now hurts us.

Not just our necks hurt, not just a struggle against keeping our eyes open,

But now we also find steadily creeping into our heads – new thoughts we do not recognize – or as much as we recognize them – we deem them 100% unwanted.

We search for God, turning our faces and our thoughts away from the world.

Now, without our permission, our day-to-day thoughts are being muddled.

We like it- we like it (maybe) – we like it not – we realize it – we are not sure?

We cannot stop these thoughts – we try to re-shape them – but no success?

Are we struggling against our worldly thoughts leaving our heads?

Might this be true?

Without realizing – are we struggling against God trying to get into our heads?

Struggling with negative thoughts? Maybe low self-esteem? Self-putdowns?

When I think about these thought struggles, I am both awed, amazed and (gasp) very scared at how easy it is to adopt or fall into a bad thought habit.

That’s right I said it, “habit.” All our thought patterns are, in fact, habits.

Our whole lives, we have all been taught, trained on how to think and what to think and why to think what we should think until they become 100% natural.

And these habits can even impact our ability to problem solve and our ability to decide how, what we use to filter truth vs untruth. Even learned helplessness is copied and can gradually develop into (negative) thought and behavioral habits.

Sometimes, these thoughts become a significant burden we know not what to do with the breadth of them. Scratch heads? Move forward? Stand still? Retreat?

We are looking for the indescribable, unknowable, unsearchable, face of God anywhere and everywhere we can. We want to cannot look upon His face, to look upon His visage, crawl or walk up to Him – look directly into His eyes!

But that is not possible to do and survive.

But survivability is not our concern – we only want to be eye to eye with Him.

Beholding His face – Looking into His eyes – knowing His thoughts for us, is very much where we all prefer to be. We will brave everything for this chance.

We cannot know the thoughts of God for us and that disturbs us – we are all called to look upon Him, but reality is we cannot do so – but our thoughts are still on God – YET our eyes and our souls our thoughts remain 100% fixated.

We are now fixated on God despite our thought habits! This is great news because just as we develop bad habits, we can retrain our thinking and learn new habits. It’s really pretty simple but requires truth, faith, commitment.

Let me introduce you to the one presenting us with this array of questions.

He is Joshua, Son of Nun …. His reality has just been seriously altered ….

Before him, the prospect of replacing Moses as leader of millions of people.

Prepared to lead? Prepared to stand still? Prepared instead to retreat?

Prepared to think, act and believe according to his understanding?

And what would that accomplish for him, his family, his people, His nation?

God knows all of our thoughts before we even have them – but in the midst of our sorting out our own stuff – are we realizing that God is trying to overcome, overwhelm the unrelenting burden of our thoughts at the exact same time?

How? God persistently speaks His greater thoughts over our lesser thoughts …

“⁷ Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success^[a] wherever you go. (Joshua 1:7 ESV)

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8, ESV)

What are we to make of this seldom considered, thought-provoking revelation?

Whatever the time, whenever the season of life, it’s 100% safe to say we are the sum total of our habits. If you want to know your future, just look at your habits today! It will show you where your thoughts and behaviors will be tomorrow.

God says ….

“⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:8-11 ESV)

The finite Mind and wayward Thoughts of Man Repeat ….

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.
⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
⁸ It will be healing to your flesh^[a]
    and refreshment^[b] to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5-8 ESV)

⁵ Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked;
    whoever guards his soul will keep far from them.
⁶ Train up a child in the way he should go;
    even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:5-6 ESV)

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2)

When I allow myself to think about setbacks, hurts and the many different pains of life we experience through people, places, things or events, I realize there is ever a choice we can make; there is a crossroad before us; a decision:

Do I hand myself and my emotions over to my own thoughts, hardships of life and allow them to define me? To permit my thought to dictate how I should feel and ought to live? Or do I, in my pain, bring it to God and find healing and rest?

I guess that’s the difference between freedom and chains. You may be afraid and have it in great abundance, but fear doesn’t have to have abound in you.

Over seasons. the stories and scripts we tell ourselves are powerful. What we tell ourselves not only threatens to define our behavior but also predicts our future.

Do we speak negativity and lies in opposition to the Word of God, or do we speak the truth of God as medicine over our hurting souls and against the lies and narratives we have been taught? Being set free is to experience the truth of the gospel showing up in every area of our lives, even in our thought life.

To fight my thought battles, I use Scripture to correct false assumptions and to confront bad behaviors. When our experiences and thoughts don’t line up with biblical truth, we should always yield our thoughts and accept the 100% truth of Scripture in all its authoritative truth. Make it our filter and meditate on it over and over until God develops our new thought habits. It will replace the old one!

The Truth Will Set You Free (John 8:31-32 ESV)

³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Our thought habits can be such a pervasive trap. Or they can be the source of a pure spring that flows from the Word of God, deposited deep into our lives.

We are not to be continuously chained to negative thinking anymore. Living Word of God: We no longer have to be. Yield to the truth that can set you free.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

God, my Wisdom, Speak, them over again to me, thy Wonderful Words of Life ….

Lord of wisdom, I sometimes finding understanding the Bible to be difficult. I know you want me to apply your word to my life. I thank you for giving me your word so I can grow in my relationship with you. Help me grasp what you want me to know as I read your revealed word. Open my eyes so to see the wonderful truths in your instructions. Be my teacher, be my wisdom, be my truth, so I can live and obey your word. Thank you for your wise advice. Gloria! Alleluia! Amen.

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