The Sweetness of Devotion: Transforming Lives Through God's Word

So in Proverbs for example the writer says eat honey my child for its good honey from the comb was sweet to your taste know also that wisdom is like honey for you if you find it that is if you find wisdom there's a future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off. [00:00:31]

The psalmist in Psalm 119 ver 103 says to God how sweet are your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth there's an association that writers in scripture want us to make between being devoted to God and then experiencing the goodness of the blessed life that we're apt to miss. [00:00:55]

Ezekiel the prophet says at one point in the third chapter God comes to him and says take this book this scroll and eat it we talk about devouring these words and he does and he says it was sweeter than honey in my mouth or uh Psalm 19 in verse 10 the psalmist is talking about the words or the decrees or the commands of God and how good they are. [00:01:22]

Marvin Wilson was a professor of New Testament biblical and Theological studies at Gordon College and he talked about how when a child was learning Torah in certain uh uh times and places in Hebrew tradition uh they would read on the first day of their education have read to them verses from Torah from a slate and then the Slate would be covered with honey. [00:02:01]

Friend of mine Sher Blackman she is the spouse of Dr Rick but quite apart from that uh uh an author and a pastor and a teacher in her own right and she talks in one of her BL vogs about honeybees how they're these amazing creatures with a tremendous work ethic we talk about worker bees and uh they uh they have a quite a short lifespan. [00:03:16]

They produce something like a 12th of a teaspoon of honey they go into flowers and but but there's a strange thing that's going on that's quite incidental to what they think of as their task they have uh Ceda these kind of bristles or feathery type hairs that when they go into a flower have pollen stick to them and then when they go into another one they cross-pollinate. [00:03:46]

Often in the Bible there'll be stories of people uh uh uh a woman in the Old Testament uh Rebecca is um asked to offer a little bit of help and she gives way more she says I'll give you water to Abraham's servant and I'll Water your camels also and because of this it's clear that she is the one that God has in mind to be part of the continuation of the story of the people of God. [00:04:47]

Francis de Sales and uh he was born into a very wealthy Noble family his father was Lord of sales and of um novel and the Boise however you pronounce that Francis born in a castle he the oldest son so his dad wanted him to uh become a very important influential Aristocrat he was given a great education and also trained in writing and fencing and dancing but he was gripped by the presence of God in his life. [00:05:56]

Francis knew all of these activities quite well and perform other actions that are rigorous in themselves and by their very nature but the world does not see we don't know our story The heartfelt inward devotion that render such actions Pleasant sweet and easy look at the bees amid the banks of th they find they're a very bitter juice but when they suck it out they change it into honey because they have the ability to do so. [00:08:56]

God gives that ability to you God gives that ability to you today oh worldly people it is true that devout Souls encounter bitterness in their works of mortification but by performing them they changed them into something more sweet and delicious because the martyrs were devout women and men fire flame wheel and sword seem to be flowers and perfume to them. [00:09:25]

If devotion can sweeten the most cruel torments and even death itself what must it do for virtuous actions so today remember you little worker bee there's pollin on you it is the incidental unseen way that God uses what we're doing that has an impact Way Beyond what any of us could ever dream so as you're going from from one flower to the next just remember there's power pollen sticking to your Ceda. [00:10:05]

When you do something quite ordinary when you care for a child when you clean out a garage now I'm thinking about my day yesterday when you take documents to The UPS Store and mail them off for another person when you talk to a person who might be difficult to talk to maybe they talk too much maybe you find yourself getting kind of bored when you actually notice them and care about them and pray for them. [00:10:38]