Nothing lasts here. Storms come, people die, hearts break and sin abounds. And two weeks (or two years) is not enough to kill the pain. Nothing is able to meet our heart’s most desperate desire for pleasure. And even if it did, we do not (yet) have the capacity to comprehend and enjoy it with any lasting effect. However, there is coming a Day when He will lead us down the crystal beaches filled with unspeakable treasure, into the ocean of unending pleasure. And on that Day, our greatest satisfaction will not be in the relaxation of a two-week (or two-millenium) vacation, but in the relationship with the One who will fill our hearts with eternal joy.
~ Greg Lucas
But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in My eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
~ The Almighty Steadfast Love, speaking in Isaiah 43
Oh beloved, it is true for me. And it is probably true for you. We can so easily enter into the very thing that G_d has told us not to do. We fear. We doubt. We massage our anxiety. We stoke our unbelief to life. And in doing all of this we forget the truth.
We are the very particular focus of the very G_d of the universe. He absolutely adores us. And, this fool of a writer says this as carefully as he knows how to say it: He worships us. Oh please, may i never be accused of getting this wrong, and creating some sort of heretical twist of the Gospel!
No, what i am saying, is that because of who G_d is, and what He has done, we have now become worthy of His attention. He has made us like Himself. For while They created us in the Their image, we (all of us fallen from this image) have been restored by the work of The Lord Christ Jesus. And any work that G_d has done is both infinitely perfect and infinitely powerful.
So, it is not that we are worthy of His attention. It is that He has deemed us worthy through the infinite value added to the equation by His own Love-let blood. And beloved, this changes:
Everything.
In Psalm 130, the writer speaks of the copious redemption we have received through His steadfast Love. And this psalm also gives us one of the clearest pictures of why we should actually be afraid of one thing in this universe: Him. We are blown away, quite literally, by the torrent of His Grace and goodness and kindness and forgiveness towards us.
This is such an astounding truth. It is bewildering that He would enter into our fetid nest of hatred and mistrust. And in entering into the mess, He did not just come to observe or to judge. No, He came to take all of the foul mess and take it upon Himself, that He would gain mastery over all things – even sin and death.
Can we see it? This is why we are not to be afraid of anything. Our faith has not been activated by some sort of choice to believe that we have to change and leave our old life behind. Rather, our faith has been activated by a Love so real and so powerful, that it has literally slaughtered our ability to withstand it. It is a Love so fearsome as to leave us wide-eyed and panting as we merely begin to comprehend it.
Then it gets better.
We finally get it. As we simply come to this dead stop and simply believe its true, we look up from the spittle and jabbering coming out of our mouth, and understand what this is all about. We are adored not that we might become some sort of trophy of His goodness. No, we are adored that we might be nursed and coached and loved and helped and disciplined into knowing – being convinced actually – that we are the very friend of G_d.
Paul gets it right in Galatians 5. Faith does not work through anything but Love. And beloved, we are Loved beyond measure. So, why do we ever worry? Why are we ever concerned about what people think about us? Why are we ever distraught by the disapproval of others? Why do we doubt when circumstances roil around us?
Yeah, there is no good reason.
So perhaps you could join this fool and abandon the foolish quest of trying to find hope in our fears and doubts and anxieties. Perhaps you would join me in accepting the adoration He has and does pour out on anyone who will simply change their minds and receive it.
Tonight is your night beloved. Time to know you are adored by Him!
