Priscilla Shirer – Treasure in the Book

The treasure you’re looking for is in the Book.
Comment with a Scripture that’s been encouraging you lately!

“The things that are “freely given to us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12) are the only things we need to know now. A lot of the reason we grow so upset and disturbed about not hearing specifically from God is that we want what isn’t “freely given.” When we pray, “Lord, show me Your will,” we’re often asking for things that He knows are not pertinent for another twenty years. We want God to paint the whole picture right away, but He wisely withholds certain truths and information from us until we need it, when we can actually do something with it besides just mess it up.”
― Priscilla Shirer

When I was in college. Um Right before I went to college, I went to the University of Houston.
And I remember having a graduation party at my parents’ house.
My mom and dad and the mother of one of my closest friends, Nicole.
Um, they got together, they decided to have a party for us at the house.
There were very few of our friends there.
It was mostly like my parents friends because you know, when you’re going off to college, you want to invite all the people who can help you support, you get to college.
So we had this great party at my parents’ house.
I was watching some home video footage about the of it the other day and sending little clips of it to Nicole who has been one of my lifelong friends and we were going to the University of Houston together and we were going to be roommates together.
And I remember getting all of these gifts from people, mostly cards and stuff like that with little financial gifts in us to help us to get ready for college.
One of the things that I got though was a little book.
It was about half the size of my bible, like a little gift book that said the Promises of God on it.
It was from Mrs Holt. Mrs Holt has been a family friend since I was a very little girl.
And Mrs Holt is a very generous woman. Honestly, a very wealthy woman too.
And her gift to me was this little Promises of God book. And I thought, well, that’s cute.
So I said thank you to her and I was very grateful for her.
I thought, well, this might be a good devotional, you know, maybe when I get to college.
So I did take it with me.
I packed it up with all my stuff and all my clothes and my laundry baskets and all the stuff that we were taking to college.
I went to college. I remember taking that little book and in the shuffle of moving into college, I put it into one of the roars and of course, as the semester went on and more and more papers and school supplies and all that stuff took priority and took space on my desk.
It just kind of got buried way down at the bottom.
And I went through not just one year but two years, three years of school.
I remember packing up after that third year of school to head back home, um, for the summer and I gathered up all my stuff.
I was cleaning out my stuff from my dorm.
Room because I was gonna be moving to another space when I came back and I ran across that little promises of God book that I had not opened up.
Not one time in the entire three years that I had been on my college campus, I’d completely forgotten about it buried down there underneath all my busyness and all my stuff.
So when I saw it, a smile came across my face because I was thinking about Mrs Holt who I hadn’t seen in a while.
And I pulled out that little book because I was about to pack it and I just opened up that front page just to see.
And she had written in there my name and written a little note in there.
I, I remember seeing that the day that I had gotten it and just kind of smiling as I shuffled it and as I went to pack it in the box, a little piece of paper fluttered out and there was a check inside of that little book for several $100 that this little college student could have used all those years.
And as I was looking at that check thinking you got to be kidding me.
I was thinking about all those times as a college student, I had been digging around for extra quarters and extra dimes and extra nickels and extra little dollars here or uh borrowing from a friend or doing everything I could to try to make ends meet.
And I was thinking about all the times that I had run myself ragged trying to make ends meet myself.
When if I had just opened up the book, there was treasure already in the book to give me everything I need to, to sustain me, to support me through what it was that I was facing.
But I hadn’t taken time to open up the book.
I want you to know that it would be an injustice to you.
For me to, to allow you to come in this space and do everything except open up the book because I’m telling you the treasure that you are looking for is not in someone’s opinion, it’s not in motivation, it’s not an inspiration.
There’s a place for all that stuff. But I’m telling you the treasure you’re looking for is in the book.