"A Personal Gilgal"

 

“A Personal Gilgal”

(Please read the previous article, “Life’s Gilgals”, before this one.)

 

In the last posting I cited five significant events which took place at Gilgal, Israel’s base of operations for claiming the Promised Land. On September 1 God gave me a “personal Gilgal”, a deliverance from issues of my past which had haunted me for most of my life. Without going into specifics I “graduated” and am looking forward to the freedom that comes from being released from bondage. Charles Wesley put it this way in his great hymn, “And Can It Be”: “My chains fell off; my heart was free. I rose, went forth and followed Thee”.

To arrive at my “Gilgal” I needed to do a lot of soul searching through prayer, meditation and exploring Scripture. I asked with Samuel, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10) and hymnwriter Emily May Grimes Crawford, “Speak, Lord, in the stillness, While I wait on Thee; Hushed my heart to listen, In expectancy”. I didn’t have to wait very long for God to speak to me through His Word. Here’s what He said:

*”,,,He will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair.” (Isaiah 61:3, NLT).

*”I will give you back what you lost to the locusts.” (Joel 2:25, NLT).

*”I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.” (Jeremiah 31:13).

*”Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18-19, emphasis added).

Need I say more? I say with George Keith in “How Firm a Foundation”: “What more can He say than to you He hath said, To you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled?”

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan