When in his mercy God leads a soul in the higher path of sanctification, he begins by stripping it of all self-confidence, and to this end he allows our own schemes to fail, our judgment to mislead us. We grope and totter and make countless mistakes until we learn wholly to mistrust ourselves and to put all our confidence in him.
~Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803)
Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought him salvation, and His righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, so will He repay, wrath to His adversaries, repayment to His enemies; to the coastlands He will render repayment. So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; for He will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.
~ from Isaiah 59
Oh beloved, it is true. There is within us a fear that G_d is still angry with us. And have no doubt. There is anger within Him. But it is no longer directed at us. All the wrath Had had in this world against people was poured out on His Son. All of it. All. Of. It. Still though, we can feel its white-hot action going on in our lives.
We come to know Him, and the excitement of the moment fills us with a joy which is beyond our capability to express. And in this joy, we find strength and wholeness and purpose in ways wholly other than before our regeneration.
Yet, in finding this strength, we often go and misappropriate the newfound power we have for living. We, like little children, run out in front of our Papa in energetic bursts. And it is here where we first really see Him go to work.
Sometimes, situations and problems yield before us in astounding ways. We are toddling forward, simply confident in our newly-found G_d. And in this confidence, we sense the overwhelming and consuming strength of who He is decimating the things or circumstances which might stand in the way of our progress down the path He has set before us (even if we are mistakenly walking on it). There is a stunning ferocity to His Providence. It slaughters the enemies of our soul.
Sometimes though, the situations and problems do not yield to us. And it is here that we can make an enormous mistake. We can mistake the past for the present, and assume that G_d is simply always clearing the way for us – any direction we want to go. And so, when things are not cleared away, we still tend to go barreling into a situation, even when it is clear that things are not clearing up. And when they don’t, we revert to more infantile (read fleshly) approaches to the problems.
Enter the vengeance of G_d again. But this time, we can feel the heat of His wrath.
“No child. Don’t do that. Stop.”
But we say, “It’s OK Papa! I can do it!”
And suddenly He is silent as we move forward into a situation we were never equipped to handle. We know we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, but we mistake our own wants for His plans, and go into something completely unprepared. And the only result possible is a failure of epic proportions.
And this is very good news.
This same G_d who bursts down resistance before us, will also work to break anything in us that gives us any confidence in anything other than His very self. He will zealously and vengefully protect His investments. For we have been purchased and made new by the shedding of the most precious currency to have been rendered as payment to the slave market of sin. And that vengeance includes killing our old, flesh-driven man, so thoroughly that we become entirely new.
Can we see it? It is here where the vengeance of G_d plays now. It is against anything that keeps us from Him and His Love – including parts of ourselves that need to go away. He is not angry at who we now are, but He is exceedingly assertive at removing the distractions in our relationship with Him.
And it is in this process, where look directly to Him and feel what is often called the “fear” of the L_RD. It is not that we afraid of Him in some cowering way (as though He were going to punish us), it is a fearful reverence of the fearsome Love He brings to the whole relationship.
So, are you feeling Him knock things out of the way before you? Great. Are you feeling Him knock things out of you that need to go? Even better. Let Him work beloved. Tonight is your night to begin appreciating His vengeance at work in your life.
