Beloved, our dusty road is in the country, some mornings we take our little dog, Tory, with us for a ride. We have all kinds of critters on the road, skunks and armadillos, oh my. Our little bright eyed beauty girl is all eagle eyed and this morning she spotted a skunk. As she was barking, I was so thankful that the skunk didn’t spray and stink up the road. Sometimes our journey on the dusty road is stinky and sometimes it is filled with beauty.
That leads us to this verse today about wisdom.
Do not be wise in your own eyes: Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh. And strength to your bones. Proverbs 3: 7-8
Our word today is beauty, beauty is defined as a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. Beauty is in the Bible 31 times.
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. 1 Peter 3: 3-4.
So what does wisdom and beauty have in common? When we reflect God’s love through wisdom we display beauty.
Thoughts
Another key word is fear and the definition of fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. The word fear is in the Bible 336 times. I love that we are to fear the Lord and depart from evil. Read these verses with me.
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18.
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. Psalm 19:9.
My favorite verse is, ” God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1: 7
My road quote tonight is a Bible verse,
The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. Genesis 16:7.
Hagar was being mistreated by Sarah and she ran away. The road leads both ways and once Hagar is found she comes back home. I started a reading program for the Bible and I just read the book of Genesis and this story was prominent in that we also learn that God’s name in this story is the God who sees, El-Roi. We read on the internet that, “El Roi is the Hebrew name for God meaning the God who sees me. We discover this name of God in Genesis 16:14-15. We meet Hagar, an Egyptian slave, who encountered God in the desert and addressed Him as El-Roi, “the God who sees me.”
Daily, when I am at the hospital, I know God uses me to be the one to encourage when someone’s loved one is sick. One thing I do is to listen, and I offer to pray. Sometimes, patients are in the hospital time after time and I have the opportunity to serve them more than once. Today, I wasn’t able to reach the son so I spoke to a patient’s ex-wife and we shared how creative and wonderful the patient is with the obstacles he has had to overcome. However, his greatest battle is now and so we prayed. Later I spoke to a daughter who struggles to help her mom, my history of helping Doug’s mom flashed across my mind. You see when we travel on a dusty road, our experiences shape our lives. Lastly, a husband stopped back at the ICU to show me the progress his wife is making in her journey at a rehabilitation hospital.
There is an old song by the Gaither’s, “Something beautiful, something good, all my confusion, He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife and He made something beautiful out of my life.”
Beloved, tonight in my personal life, God answered a prayer I have been praying for over a year. Two nights ago, in our home, nothing but angst, I reached out and asked for prayer. I have stayed faithful to writing, reading, and praying and in His mercy and Grace, the God who sees, El-Roi answered this prayer.
Proper respect of God will bring health and beauty to the dusty road you travel.
Prayer
Father God,
El-Roi, you are the God who sees, you are the God who answers prayers, you are the God who was with Hagar in the desert and the God who delivers us from our fears and declares us righteous. You love us with an everlasting love, you do not give us a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind. You have given us the beauty we see along our dusty road. Thank you for the journey. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
