Today I spent a long and precious morning with Jesus, and the beauty of Him astounds me. How often have you had what you would call a ‘breakthrough’ or the process of being unstuck? I know it well. Gloriously delivered and given the gift of seeing and feeling His presence with you. Remembering how important to stop, surrender and offer it all back up over and over again. It’s crucial really. We have to figure out how to really see these times of feeling stuck. Lord, give us new eyes. How it secures our understanding of intense need for Him, and certainly validates the futility and limitations of our own desires, hopes and plans. The beauty of seeing our entire reality change from one moment of feeling stuck, to letting a truth in scripture wash over us.
”Because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Psalm 16:10-11 “Eternal pleasures” paints a good distinction in my heart, from all I see here, surrounding me, and the contrast and pull of us settling for the temporary rather than the eternal. Limping rather than running. Wanting resolve and continuing to have questions. Today I see that it all flows from the truth of Him making known to us the path of life. Real life. Not the life we try to create, but the one we seek only in Him, and learn to walk through. It’s so simple and yet so completely impossible without the Spirit of God doing it all in You. In us.
For us, in times of closeness to the Lord, hearing his voice and subsequent decisions and steps that follow Him into the next thing, there’s a tendency at times for something very different to follow. It’s an all familiar void that begins to wrap us up. Passion seems to fade as feelings of inadequacy race through our minds, and through seeing how big the cliff is before us. We keep walking, praying, knowing the rescue will come; that He is faithful, and that there’s a lesson even in the void. It doesn’t always feel dark, just void. It’s a valley where no big decision need be made, but where prayer resides, truth you once felt, and confidence of a Deliverer that will prove trustworthy. Every time.
You pray. You wait. And the beauty in the moment he lifts the fog is yet another testimony for His glory, and another experience that makes us captive to nothing. He again reminds us that He is our stronghold, our greatest love, our prayer answerer, our sovereign deliverer and nothing will ever cause him to depart.
“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.” Psalm 18:16
So as gratitude flows, I’m reminded that moments like this bring us to a reality that looks more like Psalm 19: 8-13 than the American “dream.” “The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. “ and it goes on to say in verse 11, “By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.” By valley or mountain, His residence is with me; and mine with Him.
I pray the beauty of His light fill our hearts and not just cause us to slow down, but to stop and kneel in awe of his Power and complete authority in our lives. He reigns in all things. While we live forever in a tension between our short time here, and our longing to be with Him there, these Psalms seems like words that can shape our life, reminding us that the Kingdom has already come, that there’s work to do, and all honor, praise and glory are His. Now and Forever.