Psalm 149:4

"For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation."

Sunday, April 3, 2011

TREASURE

The Lord oft speaks to me through song and he has been faithful to give me a song for every hard time and every good time in my life. Many songs have lasted years and some songs can make me cry in 5 chords or less...God recently gave me this one, even though I've been singing it for years...Treasure:


Your breath is like rain
Your word it sustains me


If you know me at all, you know how much I love water...in all forms...but especially the rain. It's very hard to find me downcast on a rainy day, and I dream of dancing in the rain on my wedding day, I love it so much. Rain is refreshing, joyful and a true gift from the Lord to sustain us and keep us going...but something people often over look, and specifically Christians, is the fact that the Bible is like rain in the same ways I just mentioned (joyful, true gift from God, sustaining, spurring and encouraging) and I am truly falling in love with the Word like I am with the rain...and the best part of the Word, is that I can enjoy it whenever I want! 


I am thankful for God's gift of rain at many important times in my life, and I am more grateful for a tangible thing to turn to for sustaining power, answers and encouragement. 


Lately, I have been neglecting my time with God because of illness and exhaustion, and a false belief about the Word's role in my life...but this is like a land refusing to drink the water from the rain...foolish and perilous.


I've come to this place
With intentions of finding You

But Thankfully, God does not leave me there in my despair...he nudges and knocks until I let him in and I pour myself out before his feet. My Beloved waits for me to come to him, looking for him alone...and then he rescues me...


Your truth is a lamp
Your wisdom my light

God knows what I need, always before I do, and he often waits until I seek his face before he provides. God will take care of me and God is gracious to light the way and gently guide me down the paths of life.


I'm seeking Your face
With intentions of finding You

I've learned a few things from my time with God and one is that, whenever times are hard, that's when you need to cling to the Lord even when you can't tell He's there. That's when you need to be on your knees searching for your Saviour like you would an exit in a fire...You wouldn't stop to look around, meander or slowly exit a burning building and this life is no different. We are constantly in a perilous situation and the world wants to render us ineffective for Christ, but He is faithful to remind us of this danger through not only his word, but our trials.


I would run for a thousand years
If I knew every step would be getting me closer

I hate running. But sometimes it feels SO good to just run, and I especially like it when I'm honing in on the finish line...but when I'm at the beginning of a run, I have to keep setting short term goals to endure and persevere. God knows that we will be discouraged in our race, he knows that it is hard, long and that there are many distractions along the way. He is not ignorant, or un-empathetic of this battle. Christ came, lived and died here, running the race we run...Only he did it perfectly. Even knowing the race's pain and hardships, Christ calls us to run it diligently anyway...Why? Because the place we are when we finish is better than the place we started and we will find it was all worth it.


I'd swim to the ocean floor
For my Lord is the treasure

Sometimes the world is pressing in on us and it's painful...I love this line in the song, because the pressure of the ocean would crush you before you made it to the bottom of the ocean...but it would still be worth it to see Christ. God knows the pains of this life and he knows what's waiting on the other side...and even if we had to have our lungs, and bones crushed to the point of death it would be better to continue to swim into that fate if it drew us to Christ. 

God does not call us to a pain free life, and the prosperity gospel is a load of crap. We will grow richer, stronger and closer to Christ as we swim deeper into the pressure and pain and farther from the comfort this world and ultimately Satan wants to offer us.


My Lord is the treasure

But here is where the catch comes in...we have to understand what the treasure is (i.e. the whole reason we avoid the flames and continue to swim into the crushing pain). It is not comfort on the other side of the temporary trial we are facing. We will have trials our whole life, and there's no escaping it, (no matter the depth of pain in your current trial). Our Lord Jesus Christ is the treasure, and we will have him for eternity when the race is over here on earth. This is where people lose it (and where I have bee stumbling lately). Our eyes move from the True Treasure to the temporary hope, desire, longing...thing that we replace Christ with. These things can be good intentioned, meant for God's glory, but are not Christ himself...and thusly still wrong.

Holy holy
Holy is the Lord

The Lord is Sovereign, Perfect and Set Apart. He sees all things, knows all things and He is the only right thing worth pursuing. He is trustworthy, despite our unbelief and he will never fail us. Jesus has very clearly called us to live differently and we need to examine where we are not doing so...We need to keep our eyes on Him and persevere.

Your breath is like rain
Your word it sustains me
I've come to this place
With intentions of finding You
Your truth is a lamp
Your wisdom my light
I'm seeking Your face
With intentions of finding You
I would run for a thousand years
If I knew every step would be getting me closer
I'd swim to the ocean floor
For my Lord is the treasure
My Lord is the treasure
Holy holy
Holy is the Lord


He is worth it.