In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this!
– Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening for August 31.
Today is a guest post from my wife Sandra.
In the darkness of the early morning, I was thinking about animals that spend their whole existence in the depths of the ocean or in pitch dark caves. Their anatomy is so accustomed to the dark that their eyes don’t function well, or at all. If you were to shine light in their direction, they would be unaffected and unaware of it.
Staring into our dark room, things looked very different. In the darkness it was hard to make out what was what. Things were blurred and what I thought was one thing was really something else entirely. What I thought was the hamper for a good 5 minutes turned out to be Kenny’s leg! As the minutes passed, gradually, more and more light came in through our windows and I was able to see a lot more of what was around me.
We need light to see.
Spiritually, we were once like the animals that live in darkness. We were blind to the Light, but God chose to give us new eyes that could see the Light of God.
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” — John 8:12
We must let the Holy Spirit inform our hearts of what is real. His truth is real and it is light to our souls. When we allow God to speak truth to us, it illuminates our heart, and suddenly we can see clearly what is really going on in our struggles, our relationships, our jobs, kids, school, emotions… whatever it may be that was previously shrouded in darkness.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” — 1 Peter 2:9
With our hearts in tune to what God sees, we can worship Him with a greater clarity and understanding, full of thanksgiving for what He has revealed and given to us. The light of God’s truth releases us to worship Him more freely… and we are never more satisfied when we are worshiping our God.
When I’ve no will to run
No hope in all I’ve done
When every thought leads to despair
My heart feels far from You
So hard to know what’s true
I need Your merciful embrace
You make all things new
You make all things new
You make all things new in me
My name is on Your hand
Here in Your grace I stand
You never left me on my own
Your righteousness my robe
Your dwelling place my home
My Father now, forevermore
You make all things new
You make all things new
You make all things new in me
“God’s love is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift to the repentant. God’s love is not acquired by living right and serving well. God’s love is received only through the sweet surrender of a thirsty soul.”
– Alan D. Wright
“Gather up now the fragments, so that nothing may be lost and wasted” (John 6:12)
All my worries all my cares
All the pitfalls and the snares
All my struggles all my pain
All the things that I can’t change
I bring them all to Your feet
All my history, all my past All the things that never last
All my sorrows all my sins
All my chasing earthly things
I bring them all to Your feet
I lay them down so I can meet with You
Because I long for You
Because I long for You
All my wisdom, all my plans
All that I hold in my hands
All my living, all my ways
All the moments of my days
I bring them all to Your feet
I lay them down so I can meet with You
Because I long for You
Because I long for You
Jesus, I long for You
Jesus, I long for You
Because I long for You
Because I long for You
Jesus, I long for You
Jesus, I long for You
My wife Sandra loves the hymn, “Be Thou My Vision”, so we worked out an arrangement, and I asked her to sing it. Here it is:
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
My Way, my Truth, my Life
My Way, my Truth, my Life
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
My Way, my Truth, my Life
My Way, my Truth, my Life
My Way, my Truth, my Life
A neat little story from our worship time today:
Whilst singing ‘Forever Reign’, I kept hearing the old chorus, “I have decided to follow Jesus…” in my head. It was kind of distracting – so distracting, that I followed the impulse, hoped the melody fit the tag chords we were playing, and prayed it was God. We got to the end of the section and moved onto the next song. “That was neat,” I thought.
At the end of the service, a lady told me that this morning she had been praying and listening to the Lord speak to her. All the while, she was singing, “I have decided to follow Jesus…” Then, in our service, she heard it again as we began to spontaneously sing it out. It was a confirmation to her that she was hearing the Lord.
No gold dust, lightning, or clouds of glory. Just an old song, and a heart that needed to hear from God. Worship leaders, follow those little God thoughts. He knows exactly who He wants to reach, and how to reach them. Sometimes, in those moments between the songs in our awesome setlists, God wants to speak. That urge that feels distracting may actually be God nudging you as if to say, “Hey, can I interrupt you here?”
“It is not enough to want to get rid of one’s sins. We also need to believe in the One who saves us from our sins. Not only do we need to recognize that we are sinners; we need to believe in a Savior who takes away sin. Matthew Arnold once wrote, ‘Nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread.’ Because we know we are sinners, it does not follow that we are saved.”
– C.S. Lewis, from his final interview with Sherwood Eliot Wirt
