did you say 'establish'?

Has it ever happened to you that you keep bumping into the same idea?

One of my new year's resolutions this year is to memorize a new Bible verse every week. Here are two I've been working on so far:

"Roll your works upon the Lord -- commit and trust them wholly to Him; [He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed." Proverbs 16:3 (Amplified)

"Let Your work [the signs of Your power] be revealed to Your servants and Your glorious majesty to their children. And let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of the Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the work of our hands, yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it." Psalm 90: 16, 17 (Amplified)

Now one of the good things about memorizing Scripture is the way it causes me to focus on words. When I focus on words, I want to know exactly what they mean. So I go to the dictionary and look them up -- even the ones I think I know the meaning of.

A word that appears in both of these verses is 'establish.' Of course I looked it up. Here are some meanings:

1] To make secure, stable or permanent; fix firmly in a particular place or condition.
2] To set up, found or institute on a firm or lasting basis: to establish a government, colony or business.
3] To cause to be securely or permanently settled in a particular place, position, occupation, etc. : to establish oneself in a new home.
4] To introduce (a law, custom, practice, etc.)and gain lasting acceptance for; initiate and cause to last: to establish a precedent.
5] To cause to be widely or unquestioningly recognized and accepted: to establish oneself as a writer.
6] To clear from doubt; demonstrate convincingly, prove: to establish one's innocence.

I believe there is something inside all of us that wants to feel our work and life are important, count for something, have significance. These two verses talk about that longing. We're promised that when we roll our work on God (commit and trust it to Him), he will establish it or make it fixed, secure, stable, permanent, lasting, recognized. In the Psalm 90 verses, God's establishment and confirmation of our work is spoken as a prayer and pronounced as a blessing.

On Saturday my daily Bible reading was Psalm 40. Verse 2 says:

"He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay
And set my feet upon a rock
And established my steps."

Do you see that? Another 'establish'! I'm beginning to wonder if there's a message here. Perhaps God is telling me personally to keep alert and watchful for ways that He wants to / will do some establishing in my life in 2008. (Of course I'll need to keep up my end of the bargain and entrust that work to Him in the first place.)

How about you? Have you been stubbing your toe on the same idea over and over. Perhaps God is trying to get your attention about something He has for you in 2008.