“Set out Your wonderful loving-kindness, O Savior of those seeking refuge in You, by Your right hand, from those who rise up against me.”
(Psalms 17:7 MKJV)
Regarding this scripture, Spurgeon wrote: “His favours are always performed with the love of his heart. He does not send to us the cold meat and the broken pieces from the table of his luxury, but he dips our morsel in his own dish, and seasons our provisions with the spices of his fragrant affections. When he puts the golden tokens of his grace into our palms, he accompanies the gift with such a warm pressure of our hand, that the manner of his giving is as precious as the boon itself.”
Immediately upon reading this devotional passage, I thought of my “Bread Crumbs” experience. “Blessings take many forms,” I thought.
Briefly, let me share with you what I experienced with Y’shuaJesus about twenty years ago as I trudged from monastery to monastery on the Greek peninsula of Mt. Athos.
Mount Athos is home to many monasteries that welcome and host “pilgrims.” The first monastery in which I spent the night served only Turkish coffee and sent me on my way, hungry, thirsty, and still quite worn out from the previous day. It was in the hills, however, near a small chapel, that a monk shared bread with me. It was stale, too hard to eat. But it caused me to know that the Lord, indeed, was present in my hunger, thought of me, and promised that He’d be my provision.
Now, as quoted in the devotional, it says simply “marvelous loving-kindness.” And this is a wonderful way to spin off a devotional. But something caught my inner eye as I read, “Set out Your wonderful lovingkindness. . .” It works along with my experience with the dried crust of bread with which G-d blessed me.
G-d set out His loving-kindess to me, showing me not only His favor, but bringing me to the awareness that it is in Him in which I receive all sustenance. Indeed, Y’shuaJesus is the living water, the essential ingredient to our lives, making all food possible, and other blessings possible.
I saved those crumbs of bread. They are reminders of G-d’s mercy and kindness and provision. No, He didn’t fill my stomach at that particular moment. But He filled my soul in that I knew He looked upon me and that He had set before me a table from which I’d be filled.
I believe this is the beginning of my acceptance of delayed gratification. No longer must I have it now. I can wait because the table is set and it will be given to me in abundance when it is time.
And in my story “Bread Crumbs,” I relate that the next night I feasted and was treated with what was nearly reverence, by the monks of another monastery. (Perhaps I’ll post that story for you one day.)
Thank You, Y’shuaJesus, not only did you invite me to eat with You at Your table, You fill me with Yourself, now, that I might be sustained until the time comes that I receive Your blessing, and eventually that I sit with You at Your Great Feast. AMEN.
Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
JonahzSong 