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There came a day when I was born, and I looked into the eyes of my Maker. I saw His love and His joy that I suddenly was there, existing, able to see Him.
He told me to stand with Him and listen. He told me that I had been made to run. Then He released me into the earth.
I came to the earth and saw the multitudes. Some walked. Some sat. Some lay there. Remembering what my Maker told me, I started to run. I was joyful in my running. Then, a man came up to me and he said “We don’t do that around here. We walk.” So, I listened and slowed down to walk.
As I walked, another man came up to me and he said “We don’t walk around here. We crawl.” So, again I listened. I began to crawl. As I was crawling here and there another man came up to me and he said “We don’t crawl around here. We just lay there.”
So, I stopped crawling and laid down. Then, those who crawled, crawled over me. Those who slowly walked, walked all over me. Those who were running ran over me and pushed me into the dirt. I could not get up.
In my distress I called to my Maker and asked Him what to do. He reached down to me and pulled me from the dirt, brushed off my clothes and said “I made you able to run. Do that.”
It was then that I listened to my Maker.
I looked up and began to run, feeling His joy with each leap. I have not looked back since.
Take a look around the world today. Nation to nation, continent to continent, people are crying out for the truth of Who God is and looking for the power of His hand to bring deliverance.
There is a tremendous amount of despair out there as people are giving up hope for a wide variety of reasons. So many of us so naturally, (to our own hurt) put our hope in politics, money, our business or any number of other things.
Our lives swirl around us and threaten to drag us under the waves, leading us to give up our Hope and to think that God has forsaken us. Consider the following, though…
Psalm 17:8- “Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me under the shadow of Your wings.”
Psalm 18:2- “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my Rock in Whom I take refuge; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
And finally…
Psalm 62:6- He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken.”
The final verse is among my favorites. It makes a bold point. It is in trusting in God, and not the things of the earth, that we finally find our security and cannot be shaken. Consider the challenges that Israel faced during their long and storied history.
Israel was not immune to intense warfare and pain despite the fact that they were God’s chosen people. They had to contend with nearly annual attacks from other tribes and nations, intense natural disasters from floods to famine, not to mention dealing with the constant reality of pagans attempting to remove the worship of the one true God and replace Him with idols of stone and wood. Justice was often far removed from daily life and the power brokers in Israel often lied to advance their agendas, which, without fail, led to oppression of the people. It does not matter which age you are born into, there are always people out there willing to oppress others and tyrannically deprive fellow humans of freedom in an effort to attain power.
They lust for power and all of the trappings that it brings. They desire great names in history and are willing to alter the truth to flatter themselves and leave impressions of who they are that are not accurate. It is tragic and evil that so many people are willing to destroy so many others to get what they want.
Adding to the tragedy is the reality that nothing we acquire here will depart with us when we die. When evildoers give themselves over to evil, they show that they truly lack the sight and the heart to accomplish great things from God’s perspective. Giving your life solely to attain the things of the world is a paltry and diseased vision.
When we, daily living under the thumb of powerful people, allow ourselves to get caught up in the realities of our day we are beginning to fall victim to the wind and the waves, so to speak, around us. Just like Peter the apostle, who, when invited by the Lord to step out of the boat into the waves, lost sight of the Lord and began to sink, so we too will sink when our eyes are solely on the daily storms around us. (Matthew 14:22-31)
There is but one way that we have been given to keep our heads and hearts out of the earthly storms we encounter. We were made to be temples of God, people in whom His holy Presence dwells. If we forget to go to Him frequently and spend time in His Presence, we will, without a doubt, find hopelessness and despair in the daily cultural storms that we see. When Christ Jesus came to the earth and preached the Kingdom of God as the answer to man’s total need, He made a point of reminding the disciples that as long as we were in the world, we would have trouble. He also told us to take heart; He had overcome the world.
This article started with an allegory of someone who was created to run but listening to the voices he found on the earth, fell into the trap of laying down in the dust, not doing what he was made to do. In that allegory, it took God Almighty to restore him to what he was made to do.
So it is with us. I see Christians daily falling into hopelessness and sometimes despair due to circumstances we are all having to deal with. When I ask them if they pray, they unfailingly tell me that they do. When I ask them how they pray, they often don’t know what to say.
Prayer is not wishful thinking. It actually works. When we take the time to commit to knowing our Maker, as scripture says, in spirit and in truth, He comes to us. And when He comes to us, He lightens our load and shows us the way forward. He elevates our perspective into an eternal place, where all things are seen as they truly are. Learning to go to God daily to get His perspective and let Him bring peace to our hearts is when God functions as our fortress, our stronghold, as Someone Who protects the hearts of His people when they feel overcome by anger, distress and disappointment.
Right now, we need a higher perspective because the earthly viewpoint is not working. The truth of the matter is that we can experience God as our strong tower, a place to run to and be safe. This promise is made in the scriptures, and it applies no matter our political, cultural or family situations.
It is in going to God that we do indeed find rest. King David once wrote in the 23rd Psalm about how secure he was in God when God prepared a table before him in the presence of his enemies. Note that the enemies had not been vanquished by either David or God. They were still there. But King David was safe and provided for in the presence of those who hated him.
So, let me encourage all of us to be with God daily in prayer and in His Presence. Don’t merely go to give God a long list of what we think needs to be done. In prayer, honor Him. Praise Him. God is the most lied about Being in existence, so tell Him the truth of Who He is and honor Him with those words. Learn to feel the leading of the Holy Spirit in your heart as He directs you to pray. As these things happen, you will find that your burdens fade as He takes them on Himself.
Like the runner in the opening allegory, we are all made to function as temples of God. We struggle terribly when we don’t live in that reality. Every human being out there was made to be a temple of His holy Presence. If you are painfully aware of your loss, your hopelessness or tragedies please remember Who you belong to. He is completely faithful even in our pain and He does, in fact, delight in you. May you find His rest and encouragement that lifts you far above the wind and the waves of our lives today.
Jesus is the Way. May you walk in Him and find your rest and peace.
Original writing by REVIVALin20/20©