Lord, be gracious to us;
we long for you.
Be our strength every morning,
our salvation in time of distress.
At the uproar of your army, the peoples flee;
when you rise up, the nations scatter.
Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts;
like a swarm of locusts people pounce on it.
The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness.
He will be the sure foundation for your times,
a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.
- Isaiah 33:2-6
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
- Jeremiah 29:11-13
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
- Genesis 3:8-9
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.
- 2 Corinthians 2:14
Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
- Psalm 84:5-7
You have trusted in your wickedness
and have said, ‘No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you
when you say to yourself,
‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
- Isaiah 47:10
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
- Matthew 6:33-34
The Boilerplate
My wife took a Bible Study in 2011. (There was a note in the study guide that identified September 2 and that the study was being held on Friday mornings, or I might not have ever figured out what year.) My wife had become a Christian in 2000. She greatly respected the pastor’s wife who was also a pastor. The pastor’s wife spent time as the interim associate pastor, and this Bible study might have been during that time.
My wife passed away in March 2023, and I found this study guide as I was cleaning up. It is a Beth Moore study guide. Most of the questions are close-ended, mostly fill-in-the-blank. But my wife was eager to learn. She wrote her thoughts in the margins, sometimes encouraged to do so by Beth Moore. I will use her comments as I did once before, calling this a “with a little help” series in that my wife contributes. There is more to follow in that she wrote Scriptures and prayers in a notebook. Probably what she found in her personal Bible study, giving her encouragement through the long illness that took her life.
So, instead of writing about a topic at random, I am going to write on my wife’s comments in the Study Guide. It may follow the study guide topics, but it may not.
Discussion on this topic
In reading the Jeremiah 29 passage, how is walking with God more wise and brings more fulfilment?
“We’re seeking God out and being more interactive with Him with everything. The other way, God is just a bystander observing (just along for the ride or ‘walk’).”
- My wife’s response
When the question talked about “walking,” my wife’s mind went to the countless business trips that I went on and she “went along, just for the ride.” She had wanderlust. We would occasionally go grocery shopping roughly an hour from the house, just to get into West Virginia, so we could be in another state for a few minutes.
But getting back to my wife’s answer, God is still active in our care, but when we are not walking with God on that journey, we do not sense that connection very well.
When Adam and Eve sinned, why do you think God asked them questions?
“He wanted to know if Adam and Eve still wanted Him.”
- My wife’s response
I had thought the He wanted Adam and Eve to confess, a very important thing in our walk, but my wife was looking at an even deeper form of confession, to confess that they screwed up, but they still longed to be with God.
The Genesis account leaves out the further communication with God. Animal skins are used to make garments, thus an animal sacrifice was used to cover their sin, literally covering their nakedness. And the idea of a burnt offering was passed along to Cain and Abel and Cain knew he was doing wrong without the animal blood sacrifice. So, that communication was made to Adam and Eve.
Looking at 2 Corinthians 2:14, why should we choose walking God’s way rather than our own?
“He brings us triumph and through Him we’ll be able to spread the knowledge of Christ.”
- My wife’s response
In Psalm 84, what do you think “hearts on pilgrimage” means?
“That our hearts will be transformed and be refreshed and full of praise and blessings.”
- My wife’s response
Literally, pilgrimage is a “pilgrim’s journey.” It has come to mean a person’s personal journey through life from a Christian perspective. Possibly this verse is the origin of that. But my wife’s insights point to that fact that we do not make the journey alone. And the journey affects us in more ways than just getting older. We are transformed. But we are also refreshed. Usually, on a long journey, you get more and more exhausted, but as you approach a certain destination, refreshment seems to come from nowhere. And when we realize that refreshment came from God, we are filled with praise and blessings.
But when I think of pilgrimage, I think of Aberdeen and Columbus, Mississippi, and maybe a few other towns in that area, near MUW, Mississippi University for Women. The university is required to be for men also, but it was first started as a college (MSCW when my sister was there) for women. Both my sister and her daughter graduated there, my sister getting her masters in speech therapy. But the university would lend pretty young collegiates to these towns to dress in the attire of what would now be two hundred years ago. The owners of the historic homes in the city would open their homes for public display. The ladies in their olden attire would then provide a history of the home, how certain chores were performed in those days, and the history of the area. The pilgrimage was usually when the flowering shrubbery was in full bloom: azaleas, camellias, etc.
What about human knowledge and wisdom (Isaiah 47:10)?
“That we trusted our own wickedness and its misleading. ‘I’m so smart. No one is as smart as me.’”
- My wife’s response
But God’s knowledge and wisdom comes to us when we humble ourselves before Him. When we are like my wife says in her answer, we do not listen very well to God’s wisdom and knowledge. We think we know enough to do it alone. But God has His ways of humbling us at times.
What does Jesus that we should do each day in Matthew 6:33?
“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all things will be to you as well.”
- My wife’s response
And what does Jesus say about each day in Matthew 6:34?
“Each day has enough trouble in its own. Don’t worry about tomorrow.”
- My wife’s response
My wife was a constant worrier, but it drove her to prayer more as she came to grips with Jesus saying that we should not worry.
What is your biggest temptation, the one you still need more help from God in resisting?
“Bad thought, letting Satan into my head. I try to keep my focus more on God.”
- My wife’s response
This chapter in Beth Moore’s book was divided into several sections regarding God’s daily treasures. God provides us strength, a sure foundation, wisdom and knowledge, a fresh morning word, and victory.
Some of these daily treasures become more profound, or they stick with us better, when we start the day in prayer and reading the Bible.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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