“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Psalm 34:8 (NKJV)
During the course of my spiritual journey, God has shown me that how I define words is not necessarily the same way He views them.
In Isaiah 55:8 God declares to us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.”
Now that verse certainly is true, but sometimes I think we take practical, everyday words and assume that God’s understanding of them are just the same as ours.
Words like provision, love, security, eternity, good and blessings.
Over the years, I can see how much of my frustration with God was due to the fact that I simply never acknowledged that God does not use a worldly dictionary.
I tended to let my earthly world around me define the meaning and value of words.
I was taking natural words and trying (really hard!) to fit them into a supernatural relationship with my Creator.
Think about trying to convey your heart to someone who understands the meaning of some words in a whole different way.
That leads to a disconnect resulting in frustration and discouragement!
In order to move forward in my relationship with God, He had to take me back to a very foundational place.
He had me focus on His true character…who He says He is, and not who the world tries to convince me He is.
Once I was able to perceive His true character, He taught me to view events and situations from His perspective as well as mine.
In doing that, I began to see how some of my natural words changed in their meaning when I defined them within God’s economy.
As I allowed His meanings of words to take precedent, much of my world fell into place.
It was as if I received different shaped puzzle pieces that easily fit together giving me a clearer picture of my situations.
My confusion and disappointment with circumstances fell away as the truth of God’s words renewed my mind.
The word blessed in Psalm 34:8 is a great example.
This verse does not tell us that blessed is attached to a tangible element of our world.
Now a blessing CAN BE manifested in something tangible, but here it is simply tied to the word trust.
Blessed is the man who trusts Him!
Not the man who is rich, or has perfect health, or has great wisdom, or has a great job, or has healthy children, or so many other tangible things we tie to blessing.
Blessed is the man who trusts Him!
This blessing comes from simply trusting the Lord.
This type of blessing takes us far beyond the circumstances of our earthy existence and right into the promise of our future heavenly home.
We might think we have nothing concrete to show the world for this type of blessing, but the blessing is felt as we reflect the image of our Creator with our trust.
Try changing the understanding of other words such as good, provision or love by truly meditating on how God uses them.
Use Scripture, the inspired Word of God, as your new dictionary.
Ask God what He wants you to understand about certain words, and use that as your standard.
Allow the Lord to give you a whole different meaning to your vocabulary that puts the focus on eternity.
Trust God to give you new revelations concerning the use of your language and be blessed by them!