You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Adversity and Testing’ category.
The Bible speaks of the, “men of Zebulun, experienced soldiers prepared for battle with every type of weapon, to help David with undivided loyalty.” (1 Chr. 12:33).
You may have been wondering why Christians, God’s very own children, go through so many difficulties in life. You would think there would be some level of immunity some perks for the Christian. While there are many advantages in being a child of God we are not free from trials and dangers. I think that is why the Bible has so many battle scenes within its pages. In a way it is a comfort knowing that life has battles, so as Peter says to, “not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.” (1 Peter 4:12). God’s plan for your life is still on track despite your problems, this is nothing extraordinary or odd.
All these things are taking place to make you an experienced soldier. You have gained skill through practice. Do not think because you have scratches, bruises or wounds that you somehow have failed as a solider. This only is proof that you have been in some battles and you are prepared. We are at war and you are one of God’s seasoned fighters, “an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.” (2 Tim. 2:21).
Christ your General deploys you in his gospel campaigns because you are prepared for battle. All of your trials have been monitored by God (1 Cor 10:13) and are part of a special process to make you more like Christ (Rom. 8:28-30). How can you lose, when Jesus is walking by your side through the mud and grime of the battle field? You are a well armed, intelligent, trained soldier. You are a solider in the army of the Lord God who owns the grid iron of the universe (Ps. 24:1-2). God always has home field advantage and only uses the best on his team, “his called, chosen and faithful followers.” (Rev. 17:14).
You are a royal soldier and God has raised you up for his special purposes. That is why the Christian has at his disposal a heavenly arsenal with every type of weapon (Eph. 6:10-18). God gives you his strength to fight, Christ’s mind for strategy, and the Spirit’s illumination to detect your enemies. William Gurnall said, “Humble souls are fearful of their own strength.” When you know the Lord you cringe from your abilities because they are flesh and have no advantage at all (John 6:63). It is not our human tactics, carnal abilities and worldly talents that win the day! It is humble dependence on the strength of Jesus Christ that overcomes the world system of evil. Oh that we would open the Bible and treat it as a cache of weaponry designed to foil the enemy at every turn.
You have an undivided loyalty to the royalty of Christ. Here is where you great strength lies! You do not have an allegiance to this world system and to God’s ways. It is your love for God and more than that his love for you. Your power and ability is in the covenant Christ has made with you and part of that covenant is giving you the desire and power to do his will (Phil 2:12-13). We love him because he loved us first (1 John 4:19) AND he directs our hearts into His love (2 Thess. 3:5) AND He pours his love into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). Christ is our covenant (Isa. 42:6; 49:8) and he is our strength and power and makes our way perfect (Psa. 18:32) because his way was perfect (Heb. 5:9). We have a spirit inspired undivided loyalty through the power of the blood of Jesus, the authority of his spoken Word on our lips and the ability of His Spirit burning in our hearts.
© 2012 Soul Health Care Ministries, If you share this article just let them know about us and where it came from.
“O LORD, I say to you, “You are my God.” Hear, O LORD, my cry for mercy. O Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, who shields my head in the day of battle— do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD; do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud.” (Ps 140:6-8).
Cry out to God today in the midst of the fierce battle you fight and and he will answer with his mercy. You and I are the objects of God’s undeserved, unearned mercy. He delights to rescue because you he delights in you (Psa. 18:19). He loves and He likes you enough to save you and position you for victory in this battle (see 1 Chr. 28:4AV).
There is no doubt that there is a battle for the hearts and minds of men. In fact, this war is within the heart and inside the mind against spiritual and sinful desires and we are never free from this battle until Jesus comes and rescues us from the presence of sin (Gal 5:17). It is a war of emotion and thought. That is where the bloodiest most vicious attacks of Satan take place. Here the armies of Faith and the reserves of Mercy battle with the massive hordes of hell with their Generals Anxiety, Fear and Doubt.
Yahweh is seen here as literally the God of deliverance or salvation who covers the warriors head. The battle referred to here is actually the day of armor. There is no doubt that this Psalm refers to the piece of armor called “the helmet of salvation.” (Eph. 6:17; 1 Thess. 5:8). It is this salvation “around the head” that gives us our focus on God’s ability to save and gives calm to a once troubled mind. You have an armored brain. Your head is covered and no weapon formed against you will prosper. Praise God for that! When the mind of the child of God begins to reason and evaluate adverse circumstances with God’s salvation in view- that is when God gives them perfect peace of mind (Isa 26:3). Attempting to work things out in our own strength leads to anxiety, frustration and anger (Ps. 37:1, 8).
Salvation here is the child of God’s soul security despite adverse circumstances. The first thing the devil attacks is that you are loved by God and then he attacks your identity making you doubt that you are a child of God loved by God when things go wrong. The devil is a master deceiver and liar and he hates anyone God likes.
In this passage we also see how important for the child of God to see victory in their life because people who do not know Christ as Savior must see their need of God or they will become proud. The proud person is one who is so conceited they mock God, and arrogantly make fun of people who have faith in Christ (Prov 21:24). In a world of countless political, social, economic agendas there are winners and losers. There are people in this Psalm that MUST LOSE so that they do not become proud and so that they see their need of God and are converted to Christ! The Christian MUST WIN and cannot accept anything less than victory and when God blesses his children with victory, “Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the LORD.” (Psa. 40:3NLT).
© 2012 Soul Health Care Ministries, If you share this article just let them know about us and where it came from.
Recently two men were stuck at a height of 122 feet in a construction bucket which stopped working and lodged against a New Jersey church steeple for hours before they were rescued. These men were working on a restoration project, according to the church’s pastor. Not even the fire department could help them. As surreal as it seems, the New Jersey State Police dispatched two helicopters to assist those men! After about three hours, the men were taken down by a basket hooked to a crane. The Pastor was thankful and even prayed with those that helped.
I wonder what it would be like to listen to these men tell the story to their friends and family about the day they were stuck on the steeple.
I am not here to blame the pastor for that nightmare, and the breakdown of equipment. I am not against church repairs. But for the sake of illustration, I wonder about pastors who are more like religious business owners and whose focus is on how tall the “steeple” of the church more than the souls of their people. There is a sermon here in fact, it is very possible churches and church goers are stuck on the steeple. I am prompted to advise pastors with the scripture,
“Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and look well to your herds.” (Prov 27:23)
This passage encourages the pastor to know the faces or the state of his sheep, to put his heart into the condition of those that God has entrusted to his care. The pastor has a job to know the condition of the souls of the people he pastors, nothing else is more important. Soul work is hard work and all the work done in a church should flow the condition of people’s hearts.
Pastors today feel the lure of the new models of religious marketing and church growth. That shining serpent beckons to them and promises them freedom from “old religious ways” and to attract more crowds to church in the name of love and healing. I am concerned that they may have forgotten their true call, to care for their sheep. I have seen pastors and churches advertise and market programs and go light on preaching. When they do preach, they are sloppy on the gospel.
There is a possibility of involving people so much in “God’s Work” that they get end up in a dangerous situation. In seemingly thriving churches I have seen adultery, drug abuse and financial controversy. How could this happen? They are stuck on the steeple. Pastors may be putting people in danger, because their agenda has become their gospel. We shuld love helping the poor, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry we should do it without a second thought but these things are NOT the gospel. Man cannot live on bread alone. Full stomachs can result in anorexic souls.
I have been part of churches where Sunday after Sunday they push small groups, leadership programs, denominational conferences so much that it becomes forced. It is like an arranged marriage to an ugly partner. The religious peer pressure kicks in and you either get left out or singled out.
The bottom line is not the project it is the condition of people souls! Their souls are more important than any agenda you may have. Is what you are doing, contributing to a dangerous situation for them spiritually?
Many of these pastors seem promote membership and Churchianity. They preach with passion the importance of attendance and faithful tithing. If only they would preach the cross and exposit scripture with such fire! They quote Hebrews 10:25 and have the nerve to shake their finger at people for neglecting the fellowship. But I wonder, what is the sense of going to church when they nauseatingly preach a man centered message to a gospel hardened people?
I have heard messages that were not messages at all. I have heard pastors talking about sex until it bordered on soft porn. I have hjerad them use vulgarity when preaching. I have heard them preach on finances until you felt like you were going to work and they were about to sell you a new 401k plan. They act like stand up comedians who use the Bible as a punchline. Many look like slobs and act like slobs. They will show movies, plays and concerts in place of what used to be Sunday morning worship. This is a bad dream and “Ouch!” that pinch hurts when you realise you are wide awake. It breaks my heart. When you confront these things all you hear from these same people is that you are “religious” “judgmental” or pharasaical! That gets old fast mainly because it is so unoriginal.
How many more churches and preachers must be exposed for their malpractice until they repent! Some men see people problem and clear themselves of the blame saying it is this or that person’s fault. But they say that are praying for them. Oh you will pray for them? Ah, to little too late.
Recently, the Michael Jackson wrongful death case was blazed in the media. Dr. Conrad Murray was found guilty. He gave drugs to this troubled man who was depressed, full of anxiety and despite all his success and charity was empty inside. The man that should have helped him heal, created the perfect storm in his body and killed him. We do not know all the wherewithal about this case still, but we know that a Doctor who was supposed to keep an oath to care for the welfare of his patient literally gave him the drip of death. We are aghast at this! Yet how much more those who give the drip of death to the soul.
You are being charged with malpractice by the Surgeon General of Souls! If you continue to go against the scripture or only use scripture as a garnish for the toxic candy you serve people God will remove your license to practice. The salt is in danger of losing its savor. Repent now, help those people stuck on the steeple you have made!
Imagine your people stranded to the point where the world has to come in and “rescue” them. We surrender our problematic people and flock to the programs of men, their philosophy, their psychology and counsel. We exalt the counsel of the wicked to help them and because we have laid aside God’s Word, his true grace, true love and true forgiveness. The repair of their souls cannot be found in the hands of those like Absalom who kiss them and steal their hearts from the Lord. People who call themselves Christians live dangerously close to the world and not for the gospel. I watch them dabble in all sorts of witchcraft, violence, idolatry of all kinds and I wonder what are they hearing in church? Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you?
Stop using the pulpit for idiocy! You are endangering the souls of your people! Stop being an activities director, a marriage counselor or financial guru and start looking at the faces of your flock. Look at them burned out on the steeple, forced to work in man-made vineyard and yet neglecting their own spiritual vintage. Start preaching and ministering to their hearts. Look at your people, they are miserable, on the verge of spiritual collapse stuck on the steeple you sent them to repair. They trusted you as their pastor and you are more like a taskmaster. Repent now, your candlestick is in danger of being removed! Look to God’s Word for your guidance. He will show you the path and he will make it clear how to minister to your people. He loves them. He will rescue them. Let God’s glory and their spiritual welfare be your goal. Let God speak to them through you by his Word, and he will rescue them from being stuck on the steeple.
God is sending help to rescue these people from these taskmasters and their steeples. Just like in the Garden of Eden he will expose these lies for what they are and all your fig leaf suits and hiding behind your Bible won’t stop his presence from exposing it!
(c) 2011 Soul Health Care Ministries, If you share this article just let them know about us and where it came from.
“I went out full and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? ” (Ruth 1:21).
FEW of us have had to suffer such loss and trial like that of our friend Naomi. These are the words of an afflicted soul, a soul who like Job has suffered and has nothing left. She went out a wife and a mother and she comes home a widow and childless. She went out pleasant and came back bitter. The trials came in waves and billows and just would not give her a chance to stop and breathe. What is worse are all the questions. You are a child of God, you love Christ, but where is the favor of God? Where is His mercy? Where are the tokens of his love?
It is not the trial, so much, it is over. It is time to pick up the collateral damage and pieces of a broken life. As she does it, she finds unsatiable emptiness. She is empty. There are some even now, where you feel just like her, there is nothing left that brings a sense of relief. There is no spark of joy and your body is sickly and weak. She has reached the point where life has lost it’s meaning. She feels like a failure. All she knows to do is go home.
Do not be too harsh upon our sister Naomi. Pain is a language all its own and sometimes we should learn to be fluent in it. Doctors would give pain killers to anyone who was in extreme physical pain, but what numbs the pain of the heart, the agony of the soul and mind? We should be patient with those who are going through difficult times and are at the point of giving up.
What a crushing blow this was but it is THE LORD that brought her home empty. God is in charge. She can deal with that, but now she is empty. Empty! Oh my friends have you felt this recently? Has everything exploded and then imploded. The tears won’t stop. You are around people, but you feel isolated. You are angry that no one helps. When you are alone, you wonder where everyone has gone? The joy has gone out of life. I grieve with you! Everything reads “E” -whether it is your job, family, church and health and you are empty.
“Naomi heard that, “the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.” (Ruth 1:6). She was hungry. She was not just hungry but starving. When this happens there is sense of powerlessness to control circumstances and we desperately try to put a lid on Pandora’s box. This may annoy and even anger some of you: but the emptiness has been placed there by THE LORD! It is that hunger that drives you even now back to Christ. This does not mean that you have backslid, but everyday we must be reminded that Christ is our sole resource and so need drives us to him! You are empty for a reason. It is in your makeup, after you are born again that you become a person that only God can satisfy! This explains this disappointment, heartbreak and misery! You soul is parched and dry and your stomach is full of pain for God alone!
You think this trial will never end? The old Puritan Richard Sibbes says, “Is it not an unreasonable speech for a man at midnight to say, “It will never be day?” So it is an unreasonable thing for a man that is in trouble to say, “O Lord, I shall never get free of this; it will always be thus with me.” Glory follows afflictions, not as the day follows the night but as the spring follows the winter; for the winter prepares the earth for the spring, so do afflictions sanctified prepare the soul for glory.” No afflicton is without purpose and trusting that God has “sanctifed to us our deepest distress” meaning that once the trial is over and it will end, the song you will sing is,
Naomi began to move in the direction of the city of Bethlehem or Beyth Lechem which is called “the house of bread or food.” Is not your heart deeply touched by this idea? Naomi who calls herself Mara or “bitter” and feels the chastisement of the Lord has come home empty and yet He already has provided a way to secure her future and family by learning that she can be fed in the house of bread! Ah yes, dear Christian there is a place where God feeds his own precious people, even when there is famine all around us, God says, “there will I nourish thee.” (Gen. 45:11).
I am sure you realize that Elimelech and Naomi had no business living in a pagan country and allowing her sons to marry pagan wives. Let me say for the record: those who have failed and those who see those that have failed returning to the Lord and the church: let the past go! Tragedy is not as bad as the bad advice and criticism of fellow Christians. We should see others and be warned and merciful for as Paul said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” (1 Cor 15: 10).
It was written that, “…All the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?” And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” (Ruth 1:19-20). As strange as this may sound there is nothing more precious than a person who has returned fresh from God’s chastising hand. Call her pleasant, she feels bitter right now but call her pleasant. Weep with them, mourn with them as if it were your own sins and trouble for you shall see them restored for God’s glory and all our benefits! While it is true that she and her family at one time, “despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word.” (Ps. 106:24). She will be full once again and her sweetness will return! She will see her lines fall in pleasant places (Ps 16: 6).
I beg you, treat these wandering sheep as if they never left, for in God’s heart he has placed a hook in their jaw (Ezek. 38:4) and hedged up their way with thorns (Hosea 2:6) and he has detoured them from the troughs of the pigs (Luke 15:5) back home to be treated sons and daughters! God promises that in “returning and rest shall ye be saved” (Isa. 30:15) meaning they show evidence that they belong to God in coming back. They have had it with trusting the world and now they rest at home where they belong in God’s care. Let us with God give them the ring of honor and robe of fellowship and receive them as Christ has to the glory of God.
Hear his promise today! “I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.” (Jer. 31:25). That is good news to some reading today and yes, God does speak through his written Word in our time! Let your emptiness drive you home to your Father who awaits and will rush to your rescue and help, as a Father who loves his most precious child. He who made you empty, will fill you with fulness of joy.
© 2011 Stephen S. Gibney Soul Health Care
All material may be reproduced and distributed for edification, just leave a note that it was our article, please.
This is an old hymn By Charles Wesley. I have never read lyrics like this-SG
Come, O thou Traveler unknown, whom still I hold, but cannot see! My company before is gone, and I am left alone with Thee; With Thee all night I mean to stay, and wrestle till the break of day. I need not tell Thee who I am, My misery and sin declare; Thyself hast called me by my name, Look on Thy hands, and read it there; But who, I ask Thee, who art Thou? Tell me Thy name, and tell me now. In vain Thou strugglest to get free; I never will unloose my hold! Art Thou the Man that died for me? The secret of Thy love unfold; Wrestling, I will not let Thee go, Till I Thy name, Thy nature know.
Wilt Thou not yet to me reveal Thy new, unutterable Name? Tell me, I still beseech Thee, tell; To know it now resolved I am; Wrestling, I will not let Thee go, Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know. ’Tis all in vain to hold Thy tongue Or touch the hollow of my thigh; Though every sinew be unstrung, Out of my arms Thou shalt not fly; Wrestling I will not let Thee go Till I Thy name, Thy nature know. What though my shrinking flesh complain, And murmur to contend so long? I rise superior to my pain, When I am weak, then I am strong and when my all of strength shall fail, I shall with the God-man prevail.
My strength is gone, my nature dies, I sink beneath Thy weighty hand, Faint to revive, and fall to rise; I fall, and yet by faith I stand ;I stand and will not let Thee go Till I Thy Name, Thy nature know. Yield to me now, for I am weak, But confident in self-despair; Speak to my heart, in blessings speak, be conquered by my instant prayer; Speak, or Thou never hence shalt move, And tell me if Thy Name is Love. Tis Love! ’tis Love! Thou diedst for me! I hear Thy whisper in my heart; The morning breaks, the shadows flee, Pure, universal love Thou art; To me, to all, Thy bowels move; Thy nature and Thy Name is Love. My prayer hath power with God; the grace Unspeakable I now receive; Through faith I see Thee face to face, I see Thee face to face, and live! In vain I have not wept and strove; Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.
I know Thee, Savior, who Thou art. Jesus, the feeble sinner’s friend; Nor wilt Thou with the night depart. But stay and love me to the end, Thy mercies never shall remove; Thy nature and Thy Name is Love. The Sun of righteousness on me Hath rose with healing in His wings, Withered my nature’s strength; from Thee My soul its life and succor brings; my help is all laid up above; Thy nature and Thy Name is Love. Contented now upon my thigh I halt, till life’s short journey end; All helplessness, all weakness I On Thee alone for strength depend; Nor have I power from Thee to move: Thy nature, and Thy name is Love. Lame as I am, I take the prey, Hell, earth, and sin, with ease o’ercome; I leap for joy, pursue my way, and as a bounding hart fly home, through all eternity to prove Thy nature and Thy Name is Love.
“Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” (James 5:10-11). God is calling us to endure, to be patient, to believe him when there are no explanations and no resources to save ourselves from our trials. To trust him in the times of affliction, loneliness and pain. When our bodies are in weakness, our reputation is attacked and we suffer personal losses-this is when we learn to walk with Him in the dark. Isaiah asks, “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.” (Isa. 50: 10). Who will be faithful to God, lean upon God alone for support and walk with him in the dark?
Where are those who will acclimate their “eyes of faith” while in the dark? Remember God’s friend Abraham? He walked with God in the dark. He had no light at all for many years in his life. He was as good as dead (Heb. 11:12) and his wife was childless (Rom 4:19). In himself he could produce nothing, only failure at best and futility at worst. In the midnight of his life, it was THEN that God spoke, ”Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, ‘So shall thy seed be.’ “ (Gen 15:5). These are the stars of God’s promises to him. He could not see them unless he was in the dark. The more he was in the dark, the more he stared at heaven, the more stars he could see! It was when a horror of darkness (Gen. 15:12) gripped him he saw God’s faithfulness, pledge and oath and covenant in Christ! Do not despise the eye-opening chastening of the Lord! The eyes of your hearts will see and understand the promises of the scriptures like, ”a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” (see Eph 1:17-18; 1 Pet 1:19-20).
Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and learned what it was to, ”sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron; darkness of the pit.” (Psa. 107: 10). The Bible says, “whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron. Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him.” (Psa. 105: 18-19). Ah how so many hear God’s promises and acknowledge they are true but do not want the word of the Lord to test and refine them. But when we bottom out in some crater of betrayal or we feel shackled and unable to move in our circumstances-it is then, like Joseph, our eyes become more accustomed, more sensitive to light as we are in the dark. The longer the period of darkness, the more stars one can see. The promises of God that seemed dim and distant now take on a brighter magnitude and become “exceeding great and precious!” (2 Peter 1:4). Do not worry night will not last forever. Richard Sibbes asks, “Is it not an unreasonable speech for a man at midnight to say, “It will never be day?” So it is an unreasonable thing for a man that is in trouble to say, “O Lord, I shall never get free of this; it will always be thus with me.”
In the dark our desire steadily becomes focused on Christ rather than deliverance. What was blurred becomes plain as day as we embrace Christ our light and our salvation (Psa. 27:1-2). This is where we must be like Moses for “he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.” (Heb 11: 27). Moses for so many years was unseen by men, and known only to God. Is this such a grievous thing to you dear child of God, to be unknown, or even despised by men? The Bible says, “He made darkness his secret place.” (Psa. 18:11). Do you understand this? The dark can be better, and to him that ears to hear, we learn much in the darkness of obscurity as God hides us in the thick cloud of his presence. God is in the darkness and he obscures the godly whom he has set apart for himself (Psa. 4:3). What is the temporary pleasures of the sinful world and its short lived fame to the child of God who would rather, “suffer affliction with the people of God…esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches?” (Heb. 11:25-26). Even if a thick darkness rests upon the entire earth, God’s glorious light will be seen upon us (Isa 60:2). We walk in the light of God’s fellowship always, despite our dark trials (1 John 1:5-7). Scripture testifies, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (Ps 84:11).
Job described his trials in terms like, “he hath set darkness in my paths.” (19:8). Paraphrasing Job 17 he was just resolved to die. That is real pain my friends, where death is preferable to life even in the heart of an elect child of God. Everything went wrong, “When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.” (30:26). Darkness! He had lost all hope, his plans were smashed and his heart was broken. His only comfort was a well-built coffin so at least when he dies he could have a family reunion with the children he has lost. The picture of his friendship with God was like the old negatives of photos that when developed in the darkroom the result is the beautiful color pictures. It seemed like all was darkness around him, so many trials, it seemed so negative and yet we see in the end the picture developed into bright colors of God’s mercy and tenderness the whole time. Job’s help was only coming from God. He must learn what God had to teach him in the darkroom of the soul. He walked with God in the dark. Now there are times, when for some unexplained reasons we will look for Christ and find he has withdrawn himself and the sense of his presence is not there. You call to him in prayer and he does not seem like he is there (Song 5:6). We begin to seek him in the dark times, not relying on feelings, circumstance, opinion or any resource of the flesh and will we will not rest and until we have found him and restrain him (Song 3:1-5). We must apprehend him who has apprehended us! (Phil. 3:12).
The darkness makes us concentrate on where we are going. Your focus is not on peripheral things, it is paying attention on making progress and maturing spiritually and not tripping in weakness. God has ordained both light and darkness (Gen 1:4). The darkness and light are alike to him (Ps 139:12). He employs both in his plans. In the dark we must rely on God’s Word which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Ps 119:1-5) and not be blinded by the good times when we are tempted to rely less on God. Seeking Jesus Christ must be our priority. He is the author and editor of our faith, including the affliction of trial and relief of the trial where patience has her perfect work in our hearts so that we are growing spiritually (James 1:4). In the dark we read God’s promises by the light of the Holy Spirit’s teaching and to ponder his words, set our attention upon it, let his words supply our life, health and resource! The Bible promises, “When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” (Prov 6:22-23). This sorrow you are experiencing carries a special blessing! The gift of tears comes with the promises of the God of every comfort. Our hearts become strengthened as we wait upon God alone (Ps 27:14). He who works in darkness and mystery has a given you his heart in a friendship sweeter than anyone can describe. The half has not yet been told! This is when God will bless you. In the dark times, when it does not matter if you see help or hinderance, friend nor foe, angel nor devil! All that matters is when you can see God and his promises and then walk with Him in the dark.
© 2011 Stephen S. Gibney Soul Health Care
All material may be reproduced and distributed for edification, just leave a note that it was our article, please.
Depth of mercy! Can there be Mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear, Me, the chief of sinners, spare?
I have long withstood His grace, Long provoked Him to His face, Would not hearken to His calls, Grieved Him by a thousand falls.
I have spilt His precious blood, Trampled on the Son of God, Filled with pangs unspeakable, I, who yet am not in hell!
I my Master have denied, I afresh have crucified, And profaned His hallowed Name, Put Him to an open shame.
Whence to me this waste of love? Ask my Advocate above! See the cause in Jesus’ face, Now before the throne of grace.
Jesus, answer from above, Is not all Thy nature love? Wilt Thou not the wrong forget, Permit me to kiss Thy feet?
If I rightly read Thy heart, If Thou all compassion art, Bow Thine ear, in mercy bow, Pardon and accept me now.
Jesus speaks, and pleads His blood! He disarms the wrath of God; Now my Father’s mercies move, Justice lingers into love.
Kindled His relentings are, Me He now delights to spare, Cries, “How shall I give thee up?” Lets the lifted thunder drop.
Lo! I still walk on the ground: Lo! an Advocate is found: “Hasten not to cut Him down, Let this barren soul alone.”
There for me the Savior stands, Shows His wounds and spreads His hands. God is love! I know, I feel; Jesus weeps and loves me still.
Pity from Thine eye let fall, By a look my soul recall; Now the stone to flesh convert, Cast a look, and break my heart.
Now incline me to repent, Let me now my sins lament, Now my foul revolt deplore, weep, believe, and sin no more.
Help is on the way! What a sigh of relief that gives the Christian who can bodly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” (Heb 13:6). I think this is good news-don’t you? I know these are difficult times, you look at the mess you are in and all you feel is alone, bewildered or perplexed constantly thinking, “Where did I go wrong?” There is guilt for past sins and bad decisions and you feel alone or like you are being punished. There are some reading this article that are staring at some insurmountable problem that is testing the very heart of their faith in God. Others have to deal with the perfunctory day-to-day issues eating away at their souls. But God who does not sleep or slumber will preserve your soul from evil and you go about your daily life. Your, ”help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.” (Ps 121:2).
What is worse is other people you trusted and depended on are not there. “My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away.” (Ps 38:11NIV). Some people just become cold and aloof to others who have issues. You were there for them, prayed for them and wept with them but now they are nowhere to be found. People do not know what to say, they do not know what to do for you, so they stay away.
Sometimes people become vicious toward us. “They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.” (Ps 35:12). It is pretty sick the way we human beings treat each other especially when people pay others back with evil instead of good. There are people who are just envious and miserable and they love company. They are jaded, thinking everyone has some hidden hypocrisy and when bad things happen they see it as God’s disfavor. Notice what the scripture says, “they do it to the spoiling of our souls.” They seem to rob our faith and plunder our victory, maliciously waiting to see your failure. This is not paranoia, but it seems since they can’t attack God they use you for target practice. David has people saying about him, “There is no help for him in God.” (Ps. 3:2). They look and say, “Wow they have really blown it this time, even their God will not rescue them out of this mess.” The deep dark trials that some Christians have endured have made others think God has left them. In the time of trial, weakness our brothers and sisters need help not condemnation and accusation. But help is on the way!!!
Your God has always proved to be “a very present help in time of trouble.” (Ps. 46:1). A very present help. The word “very” here means above average, out of the ordinary, exceeding and in the extreme. Trouble is a problem in the extreme. You need an extreme God and an incredible Savior. Life is no longer ordinary it has taken a dangerous turn. You profess a faith that sees God in control every day as the one by who things all things consist, who makes everything stable, everything nominal. But the speed of life can be dizzying and out of control, so this is why you need to see God as the Lord over problems no matter how extreme. You will see that your difficulty is no match for your Savior God Almighty! He is nearer than the trouble. Notice he does not just send you a letter or a check, He will come himself. He will help you, run at the first cry of distress. William Gurnall in his classic The Christian in Complete Armor writes:
“How much more will God, who is the Father of such dispositions in his creature, stir up his whole strength to defend his children? ‘He said, They are my people, so he became their Saviour,’ Isa. 63:8. As if God had said, Shall I sit still with my hand in my bosom, while my own people are thus misused before my face? I cannot bear it. The mother as she sits in her house hears one shriek, and knowing the voice, cries out, ‘O it is my child.’ Away she throws all, and runs to him. Thus God takes the alarm of his children’s cry: ‘I heard Ephraim bemoaning himself, saith the Lord;’ his cry pierced his ear, and his ear affected his bowels, and his bowels called up his power to the rescue of him.” He is more present than the difficulty, closer than the pain of a broken heart and nearer to the one who is distressed and wounded. Help is on the way!
When will God help his church? “God will help her right early.” (Ps. 46:5). He will be the early! What a promise! “Make no tarrying Oh my God.” (Ps 40:7). You may lie down with tears on your face but the sun will open your eyes with joy. He has heard your cry, “Help me LORD! I am needy, broken and hurting!” Yes, help us Lord early! We need your help! “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up! (Ps 5:3). This darkness will pass and morning will break with glorious light! Like Spurgeon says, “As soon as the first ray of light proclaims the coming day, at the turning of the morning God’s right arm shall be outstretched for his people.” Amen and amen. This is the day that the Lord has made and in a time of salvation he is helping you! Notice a time of trouble is seen as a time of salvation in the scriptures. It is trials savings time! Like the first light of the dawn rushes over the horizon may the Spirit of God help us. Help is on the way!
My wife and I were in a large church in New Jersey looking at a giant mural of Peter and Christ in the famous walking on the water story. In fact, the caption under the picture said, “Come and walk on the water with me.” But both my wife and I saw it differently. We remembered what the scripture said of Peter said, at that moment when he yelled, “Lord save me!” Oh dear christian although he invites you to walk on the water, it is safe to say, you may not do it perfectly. There are times you will feel the water coming upon you up to your face and all you can do is cry for help! Yes you must have faith that His help can uphold you, but on the other hand if you falter you shall not drown either. THIS IS THE LORD WE ARE TALKING ABOUT! The mighty Savior, the God of the armies of the heavens. This is the One who, “gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment…” (Prov 8:29). He will help! You will not drown. You have one of his exceeding great and precious promises: Thus says the Lord in Isaiah 43:2: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee…” Help is on the way!
Don’t be afraid, I know your anxiety beats your heart like a drum in your ears, your brow is furrowed with confusion and your body trembles with fear, but can you even at this moment feel the strength of the nail scarred hand of Christ grab your hand and as you “look and live” you will see the most tender loving eyes of Jesus ask you, “Wherefore didst thou doubt?” Don’t feel condemned. He must ask this question. Your doubts will melt away as he shows you how ridiculous your fears were as the Lord Jesus escorts you through the raging sea of trouble. See how big, how wonderful, how powerful Jesus our Master really is! He is not bringing you back to safety for HE is your safety as much on the water as in the boat or on the shore. The sinewy arm of the carpenter of Nazareth is no other than the Lord who has made bare his arm in the sight of all the nations and he will save. Your help in his righteousness not your own! “Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.” (Ps 69: 14). Help is on the way!
He saves you as though you and he were on dry ground. The water, “under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone.” (Ex 24:10). What once almost drowned you becomes a place that you walk on. People will be amazed and some even ashamed because of the invisible power of Christ upholds you.
It becomes like a precious jewel. The time of trial is like refining gold in fire (1 Pet 1:7) and becomes a priceless time of learning and sparkles with God’s glory and presence. Heavenly Jerusalem’s streets are, “pure gold, as it were transparent glass.” (Rev 21:21). What should have made you sink now is a firm foundation beneath your feet.
It should also be noted that it is “paved with love.” (Song 3:10). You will find that what you thought were bitter steps was actually God was leading you in his love closer to him! Every step you took in the trial was ordered by the Lord and lined with his affection for you. What people saw as God’s abandonment has now made a major turn around. Do not doubt. Do not be afraid! Help is on the way!
We must note finally that man was in extreme sin, radically depraved. “How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water.” (Job 15:16). Men and women are described as the wicked who are like “the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. ” (Isa 57:20). All people are ”without strength” (Rom. 5:6) and the sinner is helpless to save himself. The Bible says, “God was in Christ” and he became his people’s very present, extreme help! There he stepped out in front of Pilate’s “ judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.” (John 19:13). Before Golgotha there was Gabbatha. There in the ocean of man’s criminal acts and God’s wrath against sinners, he stepped out on the waters and walked God’s justice like no other could all the way to Calvary. There his steps were paved with an everlasting love and there on the Cross with a superhuman strength he stretched out those same arms that saved Peter and gathered his elect people in salvation to himself. Through the gospel he calls them from death to life. There he says I will “uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee!” (Isa. 41:10, 13). Only God by his grace can help us. He is he only One who can rescue us from the danger of dying in our sins.
I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more. But the Master of the sea, heard my despairing cry, from the waters lifted me, now safe am I…Souls in danger look above, Jesus completely saves, He will lift you by His love, out of the angry waves. He’s the Master of the sea, billows His will obey, He your Savior wants to be, be saved today. Love lifted me! Love lifted me! When nothing else could help Love lifted me!
Help is on the way!
“Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.” (Song 1:7-8).
I realize you have been wandering, dear one. The many buildings or places that are called churches are places where you can lose your way. I know you are looking for Jesus, so I hope you will pay attention for a few brief moments. Previously in this chapter, the Shulamite woman is awakened, convinced and longs in her heart for her beloved to, “kiss her with the kisses of his mouth for thy love is better than wine.” She has never experienced this before and she desires his affectionate kiss. She insists in so many words if anything is going to happen in their relationship he must kiss her first. In her eyes, the first act of love must be his right from the beginning because not every girl can kiss the King.
Is this not true of Christ and his bride? God has loved us as he loves Christ and that love was before the foundation of the world (John 17:23-24). That is the love of God that chooses us to be his own. His foreknowledge is not his omniscience alone, it is not based on what he sees is going to happen and bases his choice on the choices people make. He did not see us choosing him, we could not and would not (Rom 3:10-12)! Sin made us slaves without strength to reach out to the only one who could save us (Rom. 5:6). But Jesus saw us, he took pity on us! He loved us first! He fore-loved his people in Christ. “We love him, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19). It also is reminiscent of the cry of Augustine who said, “My whole hope is in thy exceeding great mercy and that alone. Give what thou commandest and command what thou wilt.” (Confessions, Book 10, Ch. 24:40). How we must pray, “Lord, you must start the work in my heart or I will be lost, wandering forever in a far more confusing place than the world, but religion which has no power or truth!”
Like Israel who he found abandoned in the wilderness, he desires to take us from being infants in peril and nurture and clothe us with security and then develop us into “exceeding beautiful” womanhood so we are ready to mature ”into the time of love.” (Ezekiel 16:1-13). There is a certain turning point in a persons life after regeneration where we begin to understand the Sovereignty of God in our lives as far as our sanctification is concerned. I am not speaking of another class of Christian but one who is growing in Christ. The scripture teaches this is a point of maturity that develops in the life of a Christian where the milk of the Word is not enough, they must have meat, solid food (Heb 5:12-14). They also put away childish things because they are growing up. They become stable. Everything changes from babyhoodto adulthood (1 Cor 13:11). This woman is ready to know Christ as the lover of her soul and Christ hears her cry and will show her great and mighty things that she has not known! (Jer. 33:3).
She calls him, “O thou whom my soul loveth…” This is where wandering screeches to a halt. This kind of love is is so beyond any human love because it is birthed by the Spirit of God. It is a love where any rival or competition to Christ begins to be put down by the increase of his government that is conquering the heart (Isaiah 9:6-7). Christ is loved by the Christian with their very heart, soul, mind and strength (Deut 6:4-5) but like the conquering of Cannan sanctification takes time. The child of God wants to love God more as they mature and this love must come from the deepest part of us. It is God who loves us first, and in turn we love him and that love makes us want to be near him and we learn to love him with the love he loves us with in some small measure.
She asks him, “where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.” She looks for the place where her soul can rest and she can eat ”the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” (1 Cor. 10:3-4). God requires us to have faith in his provision and not wandering around attempting to find other secondary or tertiary sources rather than from Christ himself. Sadly, this is a common practice among people who profess to be Christians. “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (Jer 2:13). Christ offers them the children’s bread and to eat from the food off of the Masters table. He calls us to come and dine! Christ is a good shepherd (John 10:11) who feeds his sheep and those who love him are only satisfied with him and the authentic spiritual food he offers! That is the whole mystery of John chapter 6. Christ offers himself as food for the soul, only he can satisfy.
Mature believers recognize how much they need the guidance and protection of God because they are more aware of the dangers around them, wandering is not an option. Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8) and he feasts on wanderers. While Jesus is the tender shepherd that carries his little lambs in his arms (Isaiah 40:11) the person who desires the meat of the Word needs more. The Bible says, “And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.” (Micah 5:4). God allows the soul to go through greater trials and snares-sometimes we are at our wits end. So the greater the test, the greater the care and power God places at our disposal. His great Sovereign power is shown by his provison for his people. He never grows faint or weary in doing this!
When a believer matures they stop their wandering in the emptiness of performing mere external service to God they will begin to seek out a place where the LORD feeds his flock and gives “a rest for the people of God.” (Hebrews 4:9). This woman labored under the harsh rules of her mothers brethren and almost withered under the blistering hot sun and their constant anger farming their fields and neglecting her own vineyard. She left them behind for love of her King and now she does not want to be seen as one wandering aimlessly.
“For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?” This is where the idea of protection from evil comes into play. Maturity results in the senses being able to discern between both good and evil. This scripture shows how much she hates the idea of being seen as a wandering woman. We should also hate the idea of being carried away by our own desires. Like her we should say “Why?” It makes no sense when I belong to the King and I am supposed to be under his care. Why should we substitute that relationship by looking even to his close companions when we can say “I am my beloved’s and he is mine!” I have the One himself? Why? WHY?
These companions of the Lord could fall into two classes: they could be true men of God who people look to rather than directly to Christ. Like the Corinthians they divide into parties that say, “I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.” (1 Cor. 1:12). People have their preferences and their tastes and each on of these men preached the gospel but people separated and created division in the churches based on these men’s distinct ministries. They may have loved the down home values of Peter, the writing abilities of Paul had or the eloquent speaking ability of Apollos. These is a subtle idolatry. But people became distracted from Christ and were on their way back to the house of their mothers brethren because man centered religion is a cruel taskmaster.In these days we will hear many different religious authors, churches, movements, ministries, saying, ”Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not.” (Mk 13:21). He is in that church, that revival, or this movement. No, he is always where he has been- in his Word.
“For thy love is better than wine.”I wanted to complete the verse we started with. She loves her beloved with all her soul because his love is makes earth’s sweetest substance inferior to his love. It is actually plural or loves. He constantly lavishes and demonstrates his love for his own. Paul speaks of the mercies of God (Rom. 12:1) or his many mercies (Psalm 51:1). His compassions never fail (Lam 3:22). Jesus is all you need and he satisfies you souls need for rest and refreshment. How sweet is the love of Christ for his people. It is like wine. The bread of his body and the wine of his blood are real food for the soul (John 6:35-63). The spiritual presence of Christ that we celebrate in the Lord’s supper is where we can lift up our hearts to the Lord and seek those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). Do not waste your time, money and energy on religious products that attempt to sell you a better, deeper relationship with God but enslave you to condemnation and guilt. God offers you the free wine and milk that is offered to those who are thirsting for Christ (Isa. 55:1). All Christ offers us for free is also better than those who sell us religion. He has found you dear soul, desring to feed and care for you and your heart cannot rest until it rests in him
Your wandering is over.
It is no comfort to know that everyone goes through trials (1 Cor 10:13; 1 Peter 5:8-9) unless you see that those trials melt us together to become one golden masterpiece. I love those who have melted in him, with me. The fellowship of his sufferings bring us together as Jesus prayed, “that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:21-23).
You will be at your very worst and very best in trial. But when the futility of my own works is clearly seen I begin to feel after these trials as Job, “my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.” (Job 7:15KJV). I have grown weary with the ineffectiveness of my ministry. But I realize that God is doing a very deep work of humiliation and holiness in me. I hate these times. I do repent that I have despised the chastening of the Lord because if I despise it I deem him unjust and He is not. It is just everything is fire, smoke and I can hardly breathe.
I realize that the three Hebrew boys thrown into the furnace came out with no smoke, but they did have a flavor in them that they did not before. I cough, gasp, struggle for breath and cry for help. I am like a burning piece of wood, when will I be plucked from the flames (Amos 4:11)? All my pride is worthless, my heart naked, the varnish of my reputation stripped. All I hear and feel is a spiritual burning! My soul, mind and body melt in the crucible of God!
My soul is in prison and one can deliver me from his hands (Psalm 142:7). I am incarcerated, sentenced to these flames-he pours the liquor of heaven on me and set me afire so that somehow the taste of the brazen altar and its savor is in me! No one can remove me from this inferno, this purgatory! He looks the other way as I give my prayer performance in order to cause a diversion in his heart from being in this fire!
He has no regard to my Bible reading in hopes, reminding him of his promises and profession of faith in order to escape. I must go through the molten sanctification. The time has come that, “I must think of my sufferings as a weaning from that old sinful habit of always expecting to get my own way. Then I’ll be able to live out my days free to pursue what God wants instead of being tyrannized by what I want.” (1 Peter 4:1-2 MSG).
“Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?” (Isaiah 43:13NASB). All the prayers of my friends leave me untouched, I am invulnerable to my enemies I am in the fearful place, in the hands of the Sovereign God-the all consuming fire. He has swallowed me up in the belly of his fire, to separate the useless things from me. The thing I cannot use, should not use and will not use. Because they are burned! Useless, worthless, there is so much in me that desecrates the temple, defiling pollution!
Before I am transfigured it seems I must be disfigured. Or have I always been disfigured? All the comeliness, the perfect beauty God bestows upon me (Ezekiel 16:14) is removed. “For my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.” (Daniel 10:8). It is a deathly pallor, or a face pale with death to self weakness, cowardice! There is only burning instead of beauty (Isaiah 3:24).
God is not an irresponsible parent. He beats me with his rod to deliver my soul from hell (Prov 23:14). Obedience is for my spiritual health and operating in wisdom to his intention and design in creating us and all around us we must use those things in the context he gave. If God sees an area in my life that refuses to respond in obedience and there are many he will resort to other measures that will cause “a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.” (Heb. 12:11NLT).
God will not fight for me (Psalm 44:9) while he is fighting with me (Acts 5:39)! I try to fight him but he has beaten my resolve, my ability to fight as he turns my swords in to shovels, my spears into hoes-gardening tools (Isaiah 2:4). He uses that fight in me against me to accomplish his work of husbandry and farming! My life pours out of me like blood that he holds in his hands and absorbs like a cup. I am like a sacrifice, a burnt offering on his burning altar (Rom. 12:1). Flesh and blood cannot inherit his kingdom! My flesh, my blood cannot do what his spirit and life can do! (John 6:63).
He does the deliberate work of sanctification exterminating the compound uselessness from my soul and unscrambling the useless wasteful abilities of my life-the ore of my life; refining, producing purity a nearly uncontaminated and a state suitable for his use. My filth pours out of me by this spirit of judgment and burning (Isaiah 4:4).
I cannot stand it any longer. “But who can endure the day of His coming and who can stand when He appears? For, He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness.” (Malachi 3:2-3NKJV). Don’t sing to me of this fire! There is nothing quixotic or romantic about it! “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.” (Prov. 17:3).
The crucible is not just the furnace-but the bottom of the furnace! It is why he must lift me up out of the scum and excrement of self will, rebellion for it is ugly and vile. It is the only way I can have hope of being a vessel useful for God. It is all dross. That archaic word means Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer. (Prov 25:4KJV). In another version it says, “Remove impurities from the silver and the silversmith can craft a fine chalice.” (Prov 25:4). A chalice, an extraordinary vessel in my Lord’s eyes, a cup of communion! Oh I long to be lifted to the Lord’s lips as such! He communed with his Father and I was a horrible prospect (Rev 17:4). In a state where I desire not purity and embrace this fire he would rightly says over and over again, “Father let this cup pass from me!” (Mk 14: 36-39). But instead the Crucified one drinks from this weary cup as part of his Father’s will, the wrath of God against sinners, for my sake and drains it of all its impurity for he himself took on my diseased nature, sin sick nature and gave me his righteousness (Isaiah 53:4-5).
Now let him lift me to his lips as a chalice-a cup that the glorified Christ would drink from! He took the cup and if not mans eyes! Don’t preach to me theology about me difference between salvation and sanctification because if I am not cleansed eventually I would be lost-if I am his, really his I will bear fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” (Romans 6:22). Do not interfere with my beloved and I (Song 2:7; 8:4)
I must be holy in all I am and do! A life energetic and blazing with holiness! (1 Peter 1:15). He must make me holy even if he must teach me to resist sin with the surrender of my own life (Heb 12:4). To live is Christ to die is gain (Phil 1:21)! I cannot love my life, family, friends and dreams more than him or I will lose my life to sin and self’s destructive grasp (Mt 10:39)!
I know of his grace of his imputed righteousness but forgiveness is not enough I must find my fulfillment in doing the will of God, after that I have done the will of God I might receive the promise (Heb 10:36). Oh God strengthen me complete and perfect me and make me what I ought to be and equip me with everything good that I may carry out Your will while You Yourself work in me and accomplishes that which is pleasing in Your sight, through Jesus Christ! (Heb 13:21).
I can only rest in the Crucified One and somehow believe that, “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (Song 2:6). It is amazing. After a long study on the Song of Solomon and in the first chapter the Shulamite says, “I am weathered but still elegant, oh, dear sisters in Jerusalem, Weather–darkened like Kedar desert tents, time-softened like Solomon’s Temple hangings.” (Song 1:5MESSAGE).
Weathered- that is it! Weather beaten is more like it. How the trials of life can make us elegant is hard to comprehend. I feel ugly and useless. God erodes all our substances and our beauty (what we think is our beauty or righteousness) and softens us. It is when your heart is bruised, sore when you feel the stitches-God attempts to heal us after these spiritual surgeries. But like anything you have to be careful in your movements, if you do not rest or let it heal it bleeds all over again.
If you find another way than by all means take it, though it I say that with much reservation. We all have a love hate relationship with the pressures of life and the squeezing of GOD’s hand to bring forth the juice of the fruit of the Spirit in us. When Paul visited Lystra, Iconium and Antioch he was “putting muscle and sinew in the lives of the disciples, urging them to stick with what they had begun to believe and not quit, making it clear to them that it wouldn’t be easy: “Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times.” (Acts 14:22Message).
