Often I have read Scripture with the attitude of a disciplined check-off list: get up at 5 am, walk the dog, brew tea, have quiet time, exercise, make breakfast, etc. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to have discipline, but when it comes to reading God’s Word, I have often read it quickly and missed the details because I was just skimming and not gleaning.
So skimming is rushing through but gleaning is collecting gradually bit by bit, according to the Oxford Dictionary. Whenever I glean through God’s Word, I find valuable nuggets; like this gem I found in Luke 1:45, “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” This nugget is found in the story of when Mary goes to visit Elizabeth just after she was told by the angel of God she would give birth to a child, who is the Son of God. Elizabeth affirms Mary’s blessing.
The beauty of God’s Word is that as you glean you find other nuggets along the way. So Luke 1:45, “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said,” is true. Mary was blessed because she believed the angel of the Lord. Is there anyone else in Scripture that was also blessed because they believed that the Lord would do what he said?
How about Abraham? Romans 4:17, “This is what the scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates things out of nothing. So Abraham believed that the Lord would do what he said, just as Mary also believed the same thing.
My question is, if God blessed Abraham because he “believed that the Lord would do what he said,” and over 1,700 years later God blessed Mary because she “believed that the Lord would do what he said,”
Is it possible 2000 years later that believers today would be blessed because we believe that the Lord will do what he said?
What has God told us that we should believe? John 20:31, “But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.” I choose to believe God’s word to be true. His promises are timeless, they are for those who lived in the past, for those who are living today and for those who will live in the future. We too are blessed because we have believed that the Lord would do what he said.
Now what has God told you personally? Do you believe it as Mary and Abraham believed God when he spoke to them? The promise is for you too. “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said” (Luke 1:45).
Today, choose to be a gleaner of God’s word and discover the promises written for his children.
