Over Christmas break, I put together a variety of verses I’ve memorized over the years and put them in order according to where they’re found in the Bible. Then, I put them inside clear page protectors with the front of each page containing shorter passages or single verses and the back being a chapter that I’ve memorized. Then, I filed these pages into my big 3-ring Bible study binder with a nice tab that says “Scripture Memory.”  Oooh.  It felt good.

I love getting organized! (If only I could stick with the grand plans I come up with.)

So, the other day I was walking at the park, carrying one of these pages of verses. As I walked, I was reciting these verses out loud and praying as the Lord was leading. And here are some of the verses that were included on that one page.

“Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24 ESV)

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8 ESV)

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-8a ESV)

And I had one of those awesome “Aha” moments where these random pieces all came together.

Wisdom and might and wealth, speaking in tongues and prophecy and faith, these are all gifts out of His good hand.

But above all these things, the Lord Himself practices love, justice and righteousness. He has all the wisdom, all the might and all the riches of the world. Yet, He delights in these things: love and justice and righteousness. This is what is good. If I have great wisdom and power and wealth and if I have every single spiritual gift known to man, but have not love, I am nothing.

I couldn’t help but see the repeated themes in these passages.  Themes of wisdom and knowledge, themes of wealth and helping the poor, themes of power and might and love.  They are sprinkled through the Old Testament and the New.  This is who our God is.  But there is something over all these things.

He desires a humble heart from me as I receive these precious gifts from His hand to His glory.

Father, forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me for my own pride, for thinking that I am something when I am not. Every good and perfect gift is from You. What do I have that You have not given to me? Bless me, Father, with a humble heart that seeks to follow You in all of Your ways, as I practice steadfast love, justice and righteousness here on earth and may it all be to Your glory. May they see my good deeds and glorify You, my Father in Heaven.

Have YOU had an “Aha” moment this week?  How has God opened your eyes to something you thought you already understood?