September - Words of Wisdom

My St. John Family and friends, as we enter the last quarter of the calendar year, many are preparing and anticipating the turning of the upcoming new year and what lies ahead. But we know that the Lord’s calendar is different from ours. He is not bound by time and just because we commit to restarts, does not mean He will do something other than His plans of how He rules over His world. However, God will honor the choices and commitments we, His people make especially when they bring glory and honor to Him. Psalm 81:16 says, “But He would feed you with the finest of wheat, with honey from the rock; I would satisfy you. In reading the whole Psalm, God is saying to the children of Israel, if the people will listen to His voice and put away foreign gods, then God would bring his blessings. We today need to lay aside our “gods” and anything that gets in the way of our relationship with the Lord, and He will then honor and bless us. Ultimately, we are not seeking the blessing itself, but the relationship with our Maker, Creator and our King. My prayer for our church family is that these thoughts help guide us and help us focus on what truly matters in these last four months of 2025. Let us focus and remember: ¹Honey from the Rock signifies blessings and abundance. Psalms 81 begins with a posture of praise. God had delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, out of slavery and bondage; but somewhere along the way, they had stopped listening to God’s voice and fell into disobedience. Like them, some of us have halted at listening to Him. Now is the time to seek Him and the honey will spring from an unexpected place – the Rock. The goodness comes from continuing to seek Him alone. ²The gifted blessings and abundance are conditional. Yes, we seek Him not just to first know Him, but to continue to do so. We must not turn our backs to our own selfish and desired ways of this world, or any of our choices that are contrary to God’s and bring about any detriment into our lives. ³The honey (blessings) will point us to Christ. What is meant by this, in a spiritual and mystical way, the rock is the design of Christ, He is the Rock of our salvation. The fullness of grace is in Him. The blessings of the “Rock” are His mercies and the precious promises of the everlasting covenant and the Gospel. These are the sweetest honey from the Rock. God’s salvation is given to us who believe. As we continue to live on this side of Heaven, we taste the honey from the Rock because He will: Satisfy our needs (Psalm 81:10); Subdue the enemy and be against our foes (Psalm 81:14); Give you His best, the finest of wheat and honey from the Rock (Psalm 81:16). So let us keep tasting the honey from the Rock, focus to be more obedient and not look toward plans for next year but on the right now. The time is on us to seek Him daily.