“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” Romans 10:14
What’s Our Inventory?
This morning when I woke up, an old praise song was playing in my head. I have not sung this song, nor heard it, in over 40 years, yet every word was in place just as if I was sitting in my former church’s pews of long ago. I marveled at the ability of the Spirit to just draw that out of my brain’s filing cabinet at will, with no effort on my part.
When I went to my Bible, I found that the song was actually a Scripture, as were most of the praise songs of the early seventies. It was Psalm 34:1-4. “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth…”
I don’t know exactly why He did this for me, but I can tell you that I was overcome with a strong sense of the Lord’s nearness and His obvious working behind the scenes of my life. He can work in our minds as surely and easily as He can do any other work.
More importantly to this devotional, I began to think of all the ways He uses the songs we’ve sung, the words we’ve heard, and the stories and Scriptures we’ve read to bring Himself to our mind at unexpected times. He knew what the day ahead looked like for me, and by His grace He gifted me with thoughts and songs of Him.
Never underestimate God’s ability to use not only the things we’ve heard, read, seen, and sung, but also His ability to use what we have personally said, read, or sung to others. Throughout our lives, there is a continual building up of the inventory of, as it were, a great library—all those things that are stored in our memory, to be pulled out as needed. We often don’t know what we need, yet the Spirit meets us right there by drawing the provision out of our memory. It is evidence that He dwells within us and works for our good.
When we teach our children truth, when we share our testimonies with others, when we sing the same songs over and over in church, and when we read His Word faithfully even if we think we have read it so often before—all this is getting truth deep down inside, to be called out as needed. Keep teaching your children, even if you think they aren’t listening. Keep sharing your God stories with people. Don’t roll your eyes at singing the same songs or reading the same words in the Bible. You never know when the Spirit will pull that forward in your mind to meet a need.
“Holy Spirit, we are glad for Your presence in us. Let us retain what we read, hear, and sing so that we will have what is needed at the just the right time. Amen.”