Selah!

Selah! A rather unusual title for Rest a While’s Blog for this month, but there is a good reason for this as a little further reading will reveal.

First of all what does that word mean? After all, this word appears a number of times (74 in all), in the Bible; predominately in the Book of Psalms.

Although nobody knows the exact meaning of the word, it can be a musical term where instruction is given to slow down and pause before moving on to another expression in the arrangement. Perhaps even to allow a musical interlude in a song before singing continues.

But it also carries a spiritual weight inviting us to pause. An instruction to stop and reflect on the heavy or joyful truth that has just been read before reading on.

As you read ahead you will see a number of verses from the Psalms and their parallels or compliment verses from the New Testament. Only a few comments have been added because there is nothing like the word of God to speak for itself.

May you be blessed and encouraged and perhaps begin to exercise the privilege of pausing during moments in life to reflect on the goodness of God before you continue on your pathway.

Before Christ comes into the life of the one who has humbled themselves before God for the forgiveness of sin for salvation and cleansing, life is all out of sync as well as the body. The weight of the conscience is unrelenting. Living is an existence until there is a purpose that only the living God can accomplish in the life of the believer. When confession of sin and true repentance happens, then the life of Christ enters in and makes all the difference.
The life of the believer has access to the Father in all circumstances because that which formally separated us from God has been removed forever.

Once we are saved, we now belong to Christ who purchased is with His precious blood. We are no longer our own and our lives are best lived for Him in His strength.
He is not only the Saviour of our souls, but life is at its best when He is owned as Lord of our lives.
He is everything to the one who is trusting in Him.

Those who are outside of Christ are still in the darkness without hope. There is no weight, no value and no purpose in life without Christ. We were like them before we were save by the grace of God.

How important it is to have a nucleus of God’s people with whom to assemble and fellowship. It is almost impossible to walk the Christian life alone, because we are too vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy of our souls.
Like the sheep of the Lord’s fold we must follow the Great Shepherd and stay in His fold where we can be protected and provided for.

Going through trials and troubles goes with the territory of seeking to live a Christ honouring life, but we do not ever go through those trials alone, and because of this we can rest in peace. His "perfect peace."

It is good to remember those times in the past when we saw God at work. Because there are times when we may question the goodness or may be even the presence of God Himself! Depending on how we are feeling His promises may feel irreverent, and we may feel as if we have caused Him great displeasure.
This is the time to remember when we rejoiced in what we knew God was doing in our lives. Those times when we prospered spiritually and we lived in an environment of blessing.
Remember that the God who was so good to us in the past hasn’t changed. He is still good and faithful today. He is at work and one day we will understand why those dark times were necessary.

Seeing as we now are serving the most worthy of all masters, let us do so with every ounce of our being for His honour and glory. Let us make the most of every moment while we have them.
What could be more fulfilling in our walk with God than to bring delight to His heart?

Of course our lives in Christ would not be complete without our blessed hope! That is the promised appearing of our beloved Lord Jesus to take us to His Father’s house that He has been preparing for a long time now.
Whether we go to be with the Lord Jesus through the article of death, or in the catching up of His people from the earth to meet Him in the air, we will have all been redeemed from the grave.
The best is yet to come … very soon. Perhaps Today!

Added to all of those exhortations to pause and reflect, is the encouragement from Paul the Apostle to train our thinking in order to be more than a conqueror and live in the good of the sweet fellowship of the God of peace Himself: