Seeking Shadow Not Substance

Some of us think and say a good deal about a sense of Christ’s presence—sometimes rejoicing in it, sometimes going mourning all the day long because we have it not; praying for it and not always seeming to receive what we ask; measuring our own position, and sometimes even that of others, by it; now on the heights, now in the depths about it.  And all this April-like gleam and gloom instead of steady summer glow is because we are turning our attention upon the sense of His presence instead of the changeless reality of it!

It comes practically to this:  Are you a disciple of the Lord Jesus at all?  If so, He says to you, “I am with you alway.”  That overflows all the regrets of the past and all the possibilities of the future and most certainly includes the present.  Therefore, at this very moment, as surely as your eyes rest on this page, so surely is the Lord Jesus with you.  “I am” is neither “I was” or “I will be”.  It is always abreast of our lives, always encompassing us with salvation.  It is a splendid, perpetual now.

Is it now too bad to turn round upon that gracious presence, the Lord Jesus Christ’s own personal presence here and now, and, without one note of faith or whisper of thanksgiving, say, “Yes, but I don’t realize it!”  Then it is, after all, not the presence but the realization that you are seeking—the shadow, not the substance!  Honestly, it is so!  For you have such an absolute assurance of the reality put into the very plainest words of promise that divine love could devise, that you dare not make Him a liar and say, “No!  He is not with me!”  All you can say is, “I don’t feel a sense of His presence.”  Well, then, be ashamed of doubting your beloved Master’s faithfulness, and never open your mouth anymore in His Presence about it.  What shall we say to our Lord?  He says, “I am with you always.”  Shall we not put away all our imperfect and double-fettered experience and say to Him lovingly and gratefully, “Thou art with me!”

--Francis Ridley Havergal, Seasons of the Heart

Not Always the Victorious Life

Reflecting on God's purposes for our weaknesses beyond our understanding...

"My migraines [painful trials] weren’t all about me!  God used them to accomplish His good will in many lives and in various ways.  This affliction never seemed like a good idea to me, but His perfect will had appointed otherwise.  He gradually gave me more grace to submit to His will and believe He is kinder and wiser than I could ever be.  I began to learn and believe that this was His loving will for me, not His mean or vindictive will.

"If decreasing the total number of sins that I committed were God’s primary objective, then He would have kept me out of the wilderness.  However, He led me into the wilderness to reveal my sin to me because seeing my sin is good for me and brings Him glory.  It is good for us to see our sin, because when we do, our Savior becomes dearer to us.  When we are standing tall and strong we do not tend to look at Christ—we don’t need Him.  But when we fall flat on our faces, overcome with sin and weakness, there is nowhere elseto look but to the One who has died our death and lived the life we should have lived.  God loves broken and contrite hearts, and we don’t acquire those by living the victorious Christian life.

"It is precisely within the context of all this weakness and sin that our God invites us to lean upon His mighty arm and promises to guide us with unsleeping eyes and a loving heart.  He says to us, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isa 41:10).  However, that strengthening isn’t always strength for obedience; sometimes it is the more remarkable power to survive our weakness and worship Christ more joyfully because of it.  Our God goes straight before us, and at His powerful Word, crooked things become straight and light shines into darkness.  In all our failures and sin, God’s promises to His children stand steady and true: He will be our sun, our shield, and our very great reward (Ps. 84:11)."

--excerpted from Barbara Duguid, Extravagant Grace

Praying His Names

I’ve been wanting to think more deeply about, and begin to practice, praying according to the character-revealing names of God.  Just stumbled across some really motivating discussion of this.  God intends for us to know Him better through His names; calls us to understand more of the riches and power we have in Him by using and knowing His names.  So often in Scripture, when I would think that He would refer to Himself as a Person acting or receiving glory, He seems to sidestep this to say His name:  Instead of “let us exalt Him together, it says “let us exalt His name.”  It’s not “hallowed be You, Lord, My Father” but “hallowed be thy name”.  Not “the Lord is a strong tower” but “ the name of the Lord is a strong tower.”  Not “at the sight of Jesus every knee shall bow” but “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow”. 

Yahweh is the name of worship, the name of generational faithfulness, the name to which Israel was entrusted.  Sylvia Gunter challenges our attentions: ”Does it make us want to fall down and worship Him?”  6,000 times this name in the OT calls His people to worship Him.

Elohim—“I am infinite in power, absolute in faithfulness.  I am able.  I keep covenant.  Trust me.” (S Gunter)  2,700 times in the OT God uses this name, saying over and over, “Trust Me”.

“When we pray the names of God, we pray toward Him who is the answer, not towards the problem…When we pray God’s name, He comes:  ”Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you, and I will bless you( Ex 20:24) When we pray His name, we pray toward His glory….When we pray the names of God, we make declarations of His covenant relationship with us…(S Gunter)

Our Defender…our Deliverer,… Jehovah-Jireh our provider…Jehovah Rapha our healer…Jehovah-Nissi our banner of victory…Jehovah Shammah the God Who is there…

I am looking forward to incorporating this into my prayers and thoughts these coming months, and uncovering more of the riches of Who He is.

(Sylvia Gunter has a number of pages on this in her valuable prayer guide Living In His Presence.)

Befriend Faithfulness

Yes, a lot has filled the days.  Much has happened.  I wasn’t sure about continuing here if other things lie undone.   But if the Lord permits the time, I do love to share that which I am reading and sometimes a few thoughts besides.  So we’ll see how this new year shapes up, dear “sharer of the journey”.  I would love to hear from you in "comments" if you have found my ramblings helpful in  the past and would like to see them continue...

A couple wonderful pieces on how to think about one another:

"It is a duty incumbent on the children of God to reprove, animate each other on their journey to the upper world.  Every Christian has difficulties to overcome, temptations to encounter, and warfare to accomplish which the world is a stranger to.  If pilgrims in the same country can in the least console each other and sweeten the thorny journey by familiar interaction, they ought not to neglect it.  Our home is professedly in heaven; we have temptations, difficulties, trials and doubts which, if we are believers, are in unison.  I feel that I need the prayers and advice of all the followers of the Lamb... If the Friend of sinners will lend a listening ear to our feeble cries, we shall be strengthened and blessed…" (Harriet Newell)

"Oh, if we loved Christ and one another for his sake as we ought, there would not be an affliction that would touch a child of God in the world, but we should bear a part of it as soon as it came to our knowledge!  And how great that part would be, I cannot say.  Doubtless if our hearts were full of love, we should be full of sympathy.  Our souls would run into one another; we should have, as it were, but one soul.  All our burdens would be but one, and all our strength one to bear it.  Oh how easy is a heavy burden to many shoulders that would press only one to the ground!  If we love Christ then and love one another, let us run under each other’s burdens, bear our part, and help away with the load." (Anne Dutton)

Trust in the Lord and do good…befriend faithfulness… Psalm 37:3

By My Side the King is Walking

I LOVED this and I’m eager to share it with you, from In the Secret Place:

The Lord working with them.  Mark 16:20

He had gone away.  The heavens had received Him. He was on the right hand of God.  Yet He was as near His servants and friends as he had ever been.  The Lord worked with them; and they healed the sick, and turned to flight the armies of the aliens, and founded the empire of truth and righteousness and peace.

It is a word for me, when I complain that I cannot encounter wisely and successfully the opposition of the enemy, or rouse the careless from their apathetic sleep, or take the young and faltering by the hand and lead them on.  It ought to banish my accidie (a state of listlessness or torpor; depression, distraction or despair leading to spiritual paralysis.)

The Lord works with  me, to associate His interests with mine.  They are His tasks on which I am engaged.  It is His cause which, with many frailties and many mistakes, I am seeking to advance.  He knows it, and my prayers and efforts are dear to Him.  He identifies Himself with them.  He attains His mighty and eternal purpose through them.  He and I are on one pilgrimage towards one end.  My Master cannot dispense with me.

The Lord works with me, to teach me His temper and mind as I prosecute His enterprises.  It is hard to be long-suffering with the adversaries, Hard to be loving and patient with the backward and heedless, hard to be brave when my own heart faints and fails.  But I turn to Him who is never so far off as even to be near.   I have a fresh glimpse of His illimitable compassion,  His persevering tenderness, the fire of His zeal.  And I embrace my task again, and lift my cross, in something of His spirit.

The Lord works for me, and success is sure.  My failure would be His failure, and He cannot desert the soldier who is engaged in His crusade; He must see that ultimately I prevail.  My arm may be feeble but He will nerve it to strike the strenuous and decisive blow.  My feet may tire quickly, but He will make my shoes iron and brass for the roughness of the road and the delays of the campaign.  My speech may be slow and stammering; but He will be my mouth and wisdom.  They always win with whom God sides. 

When William Burns died the Chinese converts round his bed looked for his property, that they might gather it together.  They found a Chinese and English Bible, a worn and much-used writing case, a lantern, a single Christian dress, and a blue flag of his gospel boat.  That was everything which the burning-hearted missionary owned.  “He must have been very poor”, a child whispered in the stillness of the room.  He was very poor; but he made many very rich: for his Lord kept company with him, and he led multitudes into the way of peace, and the pleasure of Jesus Christ prospered in his hands.  Can I ask a life sublime, happier, more opulent, more enduring?

--from Alexander Smellie (pronounced "smiley")