To the Weary Heart

The word "wait" is a term scattered all throughout Scripture. In Psalm 37, the Hebrew word "chuwl" is translated as "wait patiently". Yet, when I studied this word deeper, the definition confused me.

Chuwl- to dance, writhe in pain or fear, tremble, travail, hope, be in anguish, rest, fall grievously, trust, be wounded

"Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him." Psalm 37:7a

How could one word have such differing definitions? Dance and tremble? Writhe and hope? Trust and fall grievously? They seemed a contradiction. 

As I sought the Lord on this though, a beautiful picture came to mind. How many times is waiting an easy thing to do? How many times does that patient rest come as a result of surrender, even a tear-filled, heart-wrenching surrender? The Lord allows suffering in the life of His child to conform us into His image. As Charles Spurgeon once said, "Our Master's experience teaches us that suffering is necessary, and the true-born child of God must not, would not, escape it if he might. The jewels of a Christian are his afflictions. The regalia of the kings whom God hath anointed are their troubles, their sorrows, and their griefs. Let us not, therefore, shun being honoured."

O weary believer, would you glorify the Lord during this season of trouble, confusion, or pain? Then, wait patiently for Him. Hope, despite your trembling soul. Dance, in spite of your grievous fall. Trust, regardless of your anguished, wounded heart. For when our hearts are broken and we do not understand the Lord's ways, it is then He is able to teach us to cling to Him in a way we had never known before. 

This has been the path that the Lord has been leading me on these past four months: a season of waiting on Him, even when the road ahead is unclear or painful. The following quote has been a precious encouragement of late.

"Thou, Lord, bruisest me; but I am abundantly satisfied, since it is from Thy hand.” John Calvin

Oh, to be abundantly satisfied with His ways, even when they do not align with my own! I long for His will to be mine, that I would never doubt His goodness! And oh friends, how truly good He is! He has shown Himself so faithful over the past couple months, always near to still my restless soul. Troubled heart, your God will not forsake you! His ways are best; know that they are far greater than you could ever imagine! Even when the pain is overwhelming and your heart is left aching and bruised, trust Him. He is sovereign over all and will lead you through. 

"When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path." Psalm 142:3a

Dear reader, He knows your path. Whatever you're struggling through right now, He knows...and His almighty arms are upholding you through it all. Turn to Him, trust in Him, and find rest in His unchanging promises. Has He ever failed you before? He will not start now. 

How Great Is Our God

"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,

 and marked off the heavens by the span,

and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
  

 
and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales?

Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has informed Him?

To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

 

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,

and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars,

The One who leads forth their host by number,

He calls them all by name;

Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power,

not one of them is missing.

Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth;

For I am God, and there is no other. 

I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness and will not turn back,

that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance."

Isaiah 40:12-13,18, 21-22, 26; 45:22-23

The Lord Reigns

 

Today, while reading through different Psalms in prayer, I came across a favorite of mine: Psalm 93. It starts out like this:

"The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength; indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved."

That's verse 1. There's quite a bit of truth packed into that one verse, isn't there? This afternoon, as I started reading it, the first three words jumped out to me.

The Lord reigns.

Yes. I understand that most of you reading this already know that God Almighty reigns. So then, why is this important?

As I re-read that little phrase this afternoon, a question flashed across my mind.

What significance does this phrase have on my life?

I picked up a pen and my notebook and began jotting down some notes. (I find that my thoughts come much better when I'm writing them down.) I found that this simple phrase holds much more weight than I first imagined. The following are my notes from this afternoon's study.

According to Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary, the word "reign" means:

• to possess or excercise sovereign power or authority
• to rule
• to hold the supreme power

The Lord reigns. He holds supreme power and authority over everyone and everything.

But how does this affect us? There are two categories....

Because the Lord reigns, we don't need to and shouldn't:

• fear or worry about anything. If He is in control, what do we have to be fearful of?
• complain or grumble in any situation. What does complaining do? It shows dislike of our circumstances. But who caused or allowed those circumstances? Yes, the Lord...the One who reigns over all.
• doubt the Lord. When we doubt His power or love for us, we are undermining who He is.
• be angry with anyone or anything. Yes, I understand there is such thing as holy anger, but that's not what I'm referring to. Again, our anger shows our dislike of a person or situation. But doesn't the Lord rule over your life? Doesn't He work all things to the good of those who love Him?
• follow anyone else. As King of Kings, the Lord deserves our complete allegiance. Would the president be pleased if he found out you were a traitor to your country? No, of course not. That's an incredibly serious crime. And yet, we continue to show disloyalty to our Lord and King by disobeying Him and following our fleshly desires. We need to see our King for who He is and our sin for what it is.

Because the Lord reigns, we need to and should:

• serve Him with complete devotion. As was already addressed above, this should be our natural and immediate reaction to Him.
• love and adore Him as the just and merciful King that He is. What other King is like our Lord? Has any other king died for you, purchased you from the enemy with his life's blood, and has now adopted you (a former traitor to his kingdom) into the royal family as his son/daughter? What God is like our God? Love and adoration should pour from our lives, when we realize how much He has given and what we deserve. 
• obey His commands with joy. If you loved your gracious King because He had saved you from death, wouldn't your natural response be to obey His commands...and not only to obey them, but to do them wholeheartedly?
• rejoice in all circumstances. Again, if all situations come from His hand and are a part of His great plan, why would we do anything but rejoice? 
• stand victoriously against the powers of hell. Our King not only reigns over everything, but has proved Himself victorious over the powers of hell. If we are "in Him" as Scripture says, then we can stand against any temptation or attack in His strength, knowing that our Lord already defeated the enemy 2,000 years ago.
• place all of our trust in Him. There is no one like our great King. Why would we want to trust in anyone else?
• worship and praise Him for who He is. He deserves our every word, every thought, and every action. Let us praise Him and give Him the glory that He alone is worthy of.
• rely on Him for our every need. Our King will supply our every need, but we must ask Him according to His will. And when we do, He will be faithful to provide.

The Lord reigns.

3 words with a weighty calling. Doesn't it leave you a bit speechless?

The following quote is an eloquent reminder of what the response of our hearts should be. May it be yours today, dear reader.
 
 “Come, Lord, and abide with me. Come, and occupy alone the throne of my heart; reign there without a rival, and consecrate me entirely to thy service.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

Our Sun and Shield

This morning, I was reading Psalm 84 and came across a verse I had read hundreds of times before.

"For the Lord God is a sun and shield..." Psalm 84:11a

Even though I had read that little phrase in the past, I had never truly stopped to ponder what that meant. God is a sun? and a shield?

So, I broke them up and did a little word study.

Sun: The sun is radiant, awe-inspiring, and beyond our physical comprehension. The sun gives light, just as God gives light to His children, revealing His ways, and exposing the darkness within us. The Lord grants to us the warmth and comfort of His presence, just as the sun gives us the heat we need to survive. But here is my main point. The sun is a blazing ball of pure gas, undiluted by any solid or liquid form of anything. So God, in all His splendid, blazing holiness cannot stand any spot of sin in His presence; it is simply impossible, for He would be defying His very nature of perfection.

Okay, keep that in mind.

Shield: For me at least, the Lord as our shield is a common picture that comes to mind. He rescues us from the flaming darts of the enemy and has secured a way for victory in every temptation. But today, I was reminded of another aspect for the word. It is the picture of Christ shielding us, not only from the enemy, but the very wrath of God Almighty.

Remember the picture of the sun. Before the spotless, blazing holiness of God, our sin and rebellion demand justice. The holy wrath of God was aimed at us, His disobedient, creation...until Christ stepped in as our shield.

As I was thinking about all this today, an allegory came to mind. It gave me a glimpse of Christ's sacrifice in a way I hadn't pictured before.

"There I was, face-down on the dry, sandy dirt, awaiting what I deserved. How was this happening to me? I had been so happy here, on the Road to Hell, living for myself, not once caring about God's laws. Why should I have feared God or had anything to do with Him? He only made life miserable, I had heard. Why would I have wanted to live for Him, denying myself and enslaved to some God who demanded all of me?

That day, I had arrived at the entrance to some desert, just having come out of Vanity Fair. I had had an exciting time at the fair and was reminiscing on the memories, until I saw the sign; the sign that welcomed me to the very place I should have steered far away from. It read in big black letters, "The Desert of Holiness: Sinners Shall Be Judged By Almighty God."

I joked to myself about the so-called "justice of God", flippantly daring God to strike me down, while boasting that I would be the first sinner to cross the Desert of Holiness and come out alive. Confidently, I strolled through the gate, telling myself that even if there was a God, I didn't need to worry. Those Christians had always told me He was a God of love. Surely then, He wouldn't judge me for being a sinner. Would He?

As I continued along the way, the sweat from the intense heat poured down my face. On the side of the path stood another sign, smaller yet in the same bold lettering: "Repent! Only the blood of Christ can save you!"

The blood of Christ?! I scoffed to myself. "I don't need Christ!" I shouted to the heavens, "I can save myself!" My voice echoed through the sandy mountains and taunted me as it rang out, "I can save myself! I can save myself!"

Suddenly, a Voice shook the heavens. "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, not even one."

For a moment the Voice paused, allowing the sound of my throbbing heart to drum in my ears. He began again.

"You have turned aside from Me, My little creation. I formed you with My hands, wrought you in the deep, but all you have done is rebelled and sinned against Me, your holy God. I am a Righteous Judge, and your innumerable sins demand complete and total justice. You deserve My wrath, My absolute, perfect wrath; you deserve no love, no goodness from Me."

There I was, face-down on the dry, sandy dirt, awaiting what I deserved. How was this happening to me? As questions raced through my mind, I shielded my eyes from the blinding light that penetrated my very core, exposing all the evil deeds of darkness that I had willfully allowed and participated in. He was right. I deserved every bit of His wrath; I had done nothing but spite Him every day of my life. I was a filthy wretch and didn't deserve to live. Knowing the verdict, I prepared to die under the weight of the wrath of God.

But then, it happened. Instead of feeling the wrath of God, I felt the weight of Someone kneeling over me, His arms surrounding me, encompassing me with His soothing Presence. I felt a warm breath on my ear, as another Voice, similar to the first, whispered to me, "No, you don't deserve My love or goodness, but My Father has chosen you. I have come so that you may have life. You will be Mine."

My mind was pulsing. Who was this? Was this Jesus Christ, the very One I had disdained and scoffed at? If so, what was He doing? Without a moment's warning, the sky turned black. The ground shook and I buried my face back into my hands. The first Voice shook again from heaven declaring, "You, like a sheep, have gone astray, you have turned to your own way; but I, the Lord, will cause your iniquity to fall on Him."

I turned my head, as much as I could with the weight of Christ still leaning over me. But as I saw the sky out of the corner of my eyes, I was horrified. The heavens had completely changed; they were now opened, looking like mighty curtains. Giant arrows entitled "the wrath of God" were poised in my direction. Weapons of metal, they dripped with burning poison and were tipped with balls of fire. My heart stopped at the sight of them.

The whir of the arrows sounded, as they were released from the mighty bows of heaven. I paused, expecting the pain, but instead only hearing a loud groan behind me. Christ's last words pounded in my mind, "You will be Mine."

Something wet and sticky ran down my face. I struggled to wipe it off with my hand. It was then that I realized what it was.

Blood. His blood.

The gravity of everything overwhelmed me. The words of that second sign, which had lined the desert's path, flashed across my mind. "Only the blood of Christ can save you."

I was a wretched sinner before God Almighty, deserving His full wrath and justice. Yet, at the moment of my punishment, Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, had wrapped His arms around me and became my shield, taking the complete wrath of God upon Himself...

...for me. He had given His perfect, sinless life for my wretched, vile one? Questions flooded my mind, but a victorious cry slashed through the silence.

"It is finished!"

The debt had been paid?! My sin was gone?! The wrath of God had been removed?! Tears filled my eyes as the blood continued seeping down my face. And as it did, I knew I was being changed. A new life was entering my body and my old heart and mind were dying underneath the flow of that precious life.

My Savior stood, strong and mighty, joyful and glorious. Sitting up, I turned around and for the first time, beheld my majestic Lord.

I was overwhelmed. How could I do anything but fall face down in His holy presence? "O Lord," I cried, "forgive me! I have lived a life of sin and rebellion against You. I only deserve Your wrath..."

"My little child," He called as He extended His hand, "Rise and come near. My blood has washed you clean. Here," at this, He held out a resplendent robe of the purest white, "this is the robe of My righteousness. I have purchased you; you are Mine. No longer are you a slave to sin, but an adopted child of the King of Kings."

As He covered me in His robe, He stepped back to admire me.

"Yes, you are ready," He beamed, taking my hand.

"Come, let me introduce you to your Father...."

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."
~Ephesians 2:1-5, 10