Should I be thankful that I have fewer “I wish I hadn’t said” moments than “I really should have said” ones? God’s divine sense of humor is evident in directing me to Proverbs 15:23NLT for my website and blog, AFittingReply.com. He’s showcasing my greatest weakness for certain, but if He can use my words for anything good, then He’s everything He claims and more!
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you.
For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches.
Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.
For apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:4-5 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.15.4-5.NLT
“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”
Ephesians 3:20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.3.20.NLT
““My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.55.8-9.NLT
“God’s time scale is so different from ours. Abram wants a son, and feels his time is running out; God envisages a race with countless millions of descendants. Abram feels his life is approaching its termination with nothing very much settled as to God’s purpose in calling him out of Ur of the Chaldeans; God sees the entire course of redemptive history.
A visionary act of kindness to anchor Abram’s faith is also an instance of God’s long-range plans, his vast frame of reference: he is establishing his covenant with Abram and his offspring, a covenant relation into which Christians enter today (Gal. 3:6–9).”
“In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.
What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith.
God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”
So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.”
Galatians 3:6-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.3.6-9.NLT
Read the Bible: Genesis 15, Matthew 14, Nehemiah 4, and Acts 14
“Remember the things I have done in the past.
For I alone am God!
I am God, and there is none like me.
Only I can tell you the future before it even happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.”
Isaiah 46:9-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.46.9-10.NLT
“It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old.
She believed that God would keep his promise.
And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them.”
Hebrews 11:11-12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.11.11-12.NLT
So what if you’re Sarah? How did Sarah’s faith look and sound? Abraham had his own issues, some of them stymied him repeatedly, but I’m a wife and mother so I read Sarah’s story with a feminine voice and more than a hint of conviction.
I hear her (and myself) grumbling about the heat and the bugs and the snakes and the lack of water as she plodded through her days wondering what on earth her husband was thinking when they left Ur of the Chaldeans.
She probably mumbled under her breath about the ungrateful nephew tagging along as she desperately longed for children of her own. I feel her tears warm on my own cheeks as she waited month after month for years for evidence of the promised child in her barren womb. This may have been the only redeeming quality of her nomadic lifestyle- no relatives and neighbors judgmental glances to endure. Did she ever level at Abraham the demand Rachel made of Jacob? “Give me children or I’ll die!” (Genesis 30:1)
I sense the anger welling up toward her husband who not once but twice allowed her to be claimed for another man because he feared for his life on account of her beauty.
I can’t imagine what she was thinking when she sent her handmaiden in to her husband to bear a child for her, but I have no trouble summoning up the regret, the jealousy and the resentment she felt afterwards.
And when she overheard the Lord’s messenger declare that she would finally bear a son the following year, she actually laughed out loud, and then denied it.
Faith is a funny thing. It’s part talk and part walk and 100% Holy Spirit! I’m so thankful the Bible includes Jesus’s parable about two brothers whose father asked them to go work in the vineyard and His conversation with a father whose son suffered with seizures.
“But what do you think about this?
A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’
The son answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway.
Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’
But he didn’t go. “Which of the two obeyed his father?”
They replied, “The first.”
Then Jesus explained his meaning: “I tell you the truth, corrupt tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the Kingdom of God before you (leading priests and elders) do.”
Matthew 21:28-31 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.21.28-31.NLT
““What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!””
Mark 9:23-24 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.9.23-24.NLT
The New Living Translation for Hebrews 11:11 contains this embedded note.
He believed. She believed. God made it happen. God, who works all things together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them, (Romans 8:28) is God who alone sees each heart. He alone knows where my faith lies.
I wish Sarah hadn’t even thought of suggesting to her husband that her handmaiden conceive for her. I wish Abraham had never asked Sarah to say she was his sister to save his own skin. Neither of these actions look at all like faith but thank God, He sees beneath our hard heads and thick hides. He sees our desire to please Him enmeshed in our fragile humanity. He doesn’t just expect the impossible; He does the impossible! He is making all things new.
Knowing what we know, having access to the entire Bible, both Testaments, means we first hear God’s promises and then we see Jesus as the fulfillment of every last one.
“For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!”
And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory.”
2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.1.20.NLT
Jesus is our righteousness and our ultimate glory. Wishing to unsay or undo something in our past is fruitless, but by the grace of God, we press on to take hold of that for which God has taken hold of us in Christ. (Philippians 3:12) Faith acknowledges Jesus as Lord today, dying to self daily. (Luke 9:23)
“Indeed, we all make many mistakes.
For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.
We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth.
And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong.
In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches.
But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire.
And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire.
It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body.
It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself.
People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue.
It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison.
Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God.
And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth.
Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!
Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water?
Does a fig tree produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs?
No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty spring.
If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom.
But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying.
For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom.
Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.
It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.
It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds.
It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.
And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.”
James 3:2-18 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.3.2-18.NLT
“A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare.
Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.”
Proverbs 15:1, 4 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/pro.15.1-4.NLT
“Congenial conversation—what a pleasure!
The right word at the right time—beautiful!”
Proverbs 15:23 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/pro.15.23.MSG
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”
Psalms 19:14 NLT
A Fitting Reply 