Applying Scripture

Applying Scripture

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.

Psalm 119:105

Cassie plopped the notebook next to her open Bible on the tray table and then fluffed the hospital pillow. She was ready.

Gather information, she wrote, after reading of Nehemiah’s questions to visitors about the Jews who had escaped exile and had remained in Jerusalem (see Nehemiah 1:2). Nothing new there. She never went into a new product line uninformed.

Pray. She paused as she read of Nehemiah’s asking for God’s direction (see 1:4). She knew she often jumped into a project without asking anybody’s opinion, let alone God’s.

Check feasibility of plan, she wrote next, as she read of Nehemiah’s plan in chapter 2 to request a leave of absence from his employer, the king (see 2:5-8).

Invite others to help. Suddenly she forgot about her list as she got caught up in the account of Nehemiah’s selecting those to accompany him to Jerusalem, where he methodically studied the ruins of the once-majestic wall. And always, he acted only after he had prayed. Soon the drama on the page was so real it was as if Cassie were watching it on a stage. She listened as Nehemiah invited the leaders and other citizens to be part of what God had directed him to do: “I said to them, ‘You know very well what trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this disgrace!’” (2:17).

“Let us rebuild,” she read again. Then she felt a wash of relief. Maybe, just maybe, she could let the others in her business help too.

Cassie was released from the hospital the next morning, armed with pills to tone down the stomach acid and with her own determination to find other Scripture passages that would help her run the business. —SANDRA

Lord, I’m so quick to run ahead of you, armed with my own knowledge and my own sense of the right way to do things. But when I trust my own understanding, I fail time after time. Help me to seek your wisdom through prayer, through your Word, and through the counsel of your people. And may I remember that anything in conflict with your Word is not of you. Thank you for not being the God of confusion. Thank you for guiding me once I ask.

The thinking woman doesn’t allow others to do her thinking for her. While she graciously listens to the counsel of others, ultimately she bases her choices on what she knows is God-pleasing and what she senses He is saying to her.

—HELEN K. HOSIER, WRITER AND SPEAKER