TURNING BITTERNESS INTO JOY
Dear Lord, nothing can defeat Your gracious and redemptive purposes. In spite of the frequently profound rebellion of Your people, You continue to unfold Your Story in creative and unexpected ways. You often display the riches of Your grace in ways that we do not understand, and You can use adversity and turn it to good. You can turn our bitterness into joy and our despair into praise when we hold fast to You in times when we are too nearsighted to see the good that You see. I can't control a single day, and I don't know what lies around the next corner of my life. But You do, and You always intend my ultimate good. I ask that by Your grace I would release all bitterness and resentment and embrace a clear and robust hope in You, even though I do not know where my journey is leading me.
THE PROMISES OF GOD
Rooted In the Word - Psalm 1:1-3
Between 50 and 90 percent of the weight of living things is made up of water. Imagine yourself reduced in weight by 70%; as if all water were removed from your body. Imagine the huge tree in your yard reduced in weight by the same percent. Imagine all living things around you reduced in weight and size by 50 to 90 percent and you get a graphic image of the importance of water to life. Another way to picture our dependence on water is to realize that, in the United States, the average daily consumption of water per person is 100 gallons.
While water is precious to those living in the developed nations of the world, consider how much more precious it was in the arid, desert regions of the Old Testament. There, water represented life. To go without water for very long would result in certain death. The most valuable pieces of property in the Biblical world were those having wells or springs. People and animals could not survive the desert heat without consistent and abundant supplies of water.
Given that reality, it is all the more significant that the author of Psalm 1 uses life-giving water as a metaphor for the word of God. Just as water provides life to a tree, causing it to have verdant foliage and luscious fruit in season, so the word of God bears fruit in the life of the one who drinks deeply of it. As the roots of the tree are continually absorbing moisture from the soil, so there must be constant meditation on the word of God. It must provide the same delight and refreshment as a skin of cool water would to a weary traveler. And if one chooses not to consume the word of God-by listening to the words of the wicked, going in the direction of sinners, or fellowshipping with mockers-he or she will dry up and be blown away like chaff.
Are you thirsty? Ready to bear fruit for God? Then drink deeply of the word of God, sinking your roots into his truth. And get ready to gain some spiritual weight!
God's Promise to You: "Your spiritual vitality comes and goes with your consumption of my word."
THE PURSUIT OF GOD - PART 16
Apprehending God
Seeing and Observing/Hearing and Listening
Quoting Canon Holmes, of India, Tozer writes, "To most people God is an inference, not a reality." That is, they come to know him through some second-hand means. Perhaps they have heard about him from others, or have deduced him from evidence, or consider his name as a euphemism for some lofty concept or ideal, such as beauty or truth. With prophetic insight, Tozer anticipates our many "new age philosophers" that religiously worship the impersonal gods of manmade creation. But one cannot have a meaningful relationship with an impersonal ‘it,' no matter how much anthropomorphic make-up we apply. It requires a person and another person for there to be a personal relationship.
But even more troubling to Tozer is that Christians, who certainly ought to know better, are also guilty of worshipping an impersonal God. He says, ". . . for millions of Christians, nevertheless, God is no more real than he is to the non-Christian. They go through life trying to love an ideal and be loyal to a mere principal." In fact, people preparing for the professional ministry are frequently lured away by just such a temptation. I have personally witnessed people entering seminary with a strong, vibrant, and warm love of Christ, only to come out more in love with their carefully engineered philosophical and theological models of Christ. It is supremely tragic to witness Christians and their leaders being teased away from the rich manifest Presence by some poor counterfeit model of that Presence. From a distance they may look the same, but up close they are as different as a living, breathing person is next to a museum wax figure that has no life, no warmth, and offers no relationship.
To quote another Holmes, referring this time to the mythical character from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's imagination, Sherlock Holmes, "Elementary my dear Watson, you see, but you do not observe." Or as our Lord states, using another sensory organ, "Those who have ears to hear, let them hear." That is, our physical hearing is fine when it comes to knowledge concerning the nature and attributes of the Almighty, but we are not spiritually receptive, not actively listening for the voice of the Shepherd of our soul.
By way of illustration, every second you are being bombarded by a multitude of radio and television waves. All manner of frequencies, channels, and signals are being beamed your way. But, you can't feel them, you can't see them, and you can't hear them, even though they are all around you. How then, if you can't feel, see, or hear them, do you know that they exist? Simple. Just turn on your radio or television set. We "prove" the existence of those waves of high frequency energy by possessing a corresponding receiver, and by having it tuned to the proper frequency. That is, what seems to be nonexistent to our naked senses, becomes very real if we have the capacity to receive the signal and the willingness to tune it in. In similar fashion, we are able to "pick up" the presence of God by means of faith - the God-given capacity to receive him and tune in to his love for us.
Tozer says,
"The Bible assumes as a self-evident fact that men can know God with at least the same degree of immediacy as they know any another person or thing that comes within the field of their experience. The same terms are used to express the knowledge of God as are used to express knowledge of physical things. ‘O taste and see that the Lord is good' (Psalm 34:8), emphasis added). ‘All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces' (Psalm 45:8, emphasis added). ‘My sheep hear my voice' (John 10:27, emphasis added). ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God' (Matthew 5:8, emphasis added)."
When God redeemed us, he quickened our spiritual nature, bringing it to life. What we were once incapable of receiving due to a spirit that was dead in trespasses and sin, we are now freely able to pick up on. So that, just as we apprehend the physical world by means of our five natural senses, we are also able to apprehend the spiritual world by means of our supernatural senses. God has re-created our hearts in such a way that they can function as a spiritual receiver with the capacity to apprehend the reality of the divine realm. Now we are both able to see creation with the eyes of our body as well as observe the Creator with the eyes of faith, able to hear the sounds of life with the ears of our body as well as listen to the voice of the Father of life.
BEING IMPRESSED BY GOD
Father God, I rejoice in the truth that You have chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and have chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong. I acknowledge that You have the power to use me in remarkable ways in spite of my inadequacies and weaknesses. You are not impressed with the things that impress people, but You deign to use those who, through humility, are willing to depend entirely on You and not on their position or power. I see that the things that are highly esteemed among people are detestable in Your sight, and that it is foolish to be impressed by the things that impress people. I ask for the grace to live and serve others out of my weakness and thus out of Your strength. Let me be impressed by the things that are truly pleasing to You.
