“But again the magicians of Egypt used their magic, and they, too, turned water into blood. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard. He refused to listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had predicted. Pharaoh returned to his palace and put the whole thing out of his mind.” (Exodus 7:22-23 NLT)

I believe learning to ponder things is vital to the life of abundance. Mary, mother of Jesus, appears to have this same belief as she practiced pondering things in her life experience.

Pondering is not worrying. To truly ponder, from my experience, requires a sense of wonder: a watchfulness that expects to see God / God’s way. It looks to God for comprehensive understanding of situations and experiences in search of truth and the righteous way. It seeks God to know His opinion and align self with Him. In my opinion, to fail to ponder life before our Holy God is dangerous for us and those around us.

However, there are three things we as humans tend to do instead of pondering: we worry, fear, and fret; we fume, plot, and plan; or we put it out of sight, out of mind, and ignore it. Here, we see Pharoah doing the latter of those three things. The hand of God against him is deemed insignificant and unworthy of his attention.

Beloved, I believe that scripture reveals to us that nothing is allowed into our lives without first being sifted through God’s righteous fingers, and set forth for His Holy purpose. Instead of fretting and fearing, pondering watches for God’s trustworthy Hand, ready to glorify and praise Him. Instead of fighting and fuming against what God is doing, pondering brings us to align and ally with Him in the work He is doing. Pondering never assumes God is not trying to tell us something, teach us something, or use us in some way. Righteous pondering always sets its sites on God, to know truth that leads to godliness, that we may walk with Him in accomplishing His purpose and glory in His reality.