Written 23 October 2013 for My OBS Small group
I wanted to share something with you as I was thinking about and praying for our group this morning. This morning, I referred to the group as 49’ers, which I try not to do because of the 49’ers football team. Anyway, as I was driving to work, I started to think about a different set of 49’ers, as known as “gold-seekers.” So, on my quick breaks I have done a little “49’er mapping.” In praise and worship, the gold flag symbolizes; glory, deity, God-head, eternal, divine-light, anointing oil, and testing, just to name a few. Testing brought to mind the song, “being tried in the fire but I am coming out Gold.” Which makes me think of refining; refining means, to free from impurities; to improve or perfect by pruning or polishing. (Wow, isn’t that what God is doing when He test us. He is trying to remove some things from us to bring us to a new level of faith in Him. He renews our mind and remolds our heart into the image of Him.)
Something else that caught my attention in my study of 49’ers it said, “at first the gold nuggets could be picked up off the ground. Later, the gold was recovered from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques such as panning.” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush). Does that kind of sound like our relationship with God? When we were first saved, there were some “gold-nuggets” (revelation, blessing, etc) God gave us easily, but as we grow in our relationship in Him, we have to dig and go a little deeper in the riverbeds (go deeper in Him and His Word). Like in Matthew 12, The Parable of the Sower, when the disciples asked Him “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” And He responded. “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing they do not hear or understand.” Panning means to wash in a pan for the purpose of separating. So, panning helped the 49’ers sift through the dirt and reveal the gold. Just as our techniques (praying, studying, and Verse Mapping) help us sift through and go deeper in the Word of God to reveal God’s treasures. Also, God’s parables were a form of “panning,” separating those who walked after Him and believed from those who did not.
So Group 49 we are “Gold-seekers” a sisterhood of women unified in Christ; Seeking after him daily with ALL our minds, souls, and hearts. We pray, study and meditate on the Word of God daily to renew our minds and transform our lives…and we will not stop until we attain the Glory of God and look like Him.
His Love is Enough 