A Moment of Clarity

I've been sick this week and all my routines have been disrupted. I haven't been getting enough sleep though I've been sleeping most of the day. I haven't gotten much work done since Tuesday though I've sat staring at the screen. I haven't been hungry but I have tried to eat to maintain my strength. I haven't done my daily devotionals though I've prayed for healing. But this morning, I awoke earlier than usual after a reasonable full night's sleep and my head was crystal clear. I don't mean my sinuses were cleared up but the fog of my waking mind had lifted. And I was HUNGRY. Not for biscuits and eggs as breakfast but for God's Word to break my fast.

As I raced through my normal morning routines I had one goal in mind and that was to sit down, read God's word and from it, draw the sustenance and healing that I truly need; spiritual sustenance and soul healing.

God had apparently been waiting for this moment, not to imply that He waits on me but rather He had prepared just what I needed, in advance of my needing it. Today, I read from...

Zephaniah 2:3
Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger.

Though I am still sick, the fever is reminding me even now, my mind is yet clear enough to know the gravity of my depravity. Each day when I sit down to spend time with God, (okay most days, alright some days) I remember and recall the life of slavery and bondage to sin from which God has delivered me. Those memories motivate me to stay in constant pursuit of God lest I be snatched back into the clutches of Satan. Recently, while I was on vacation staring at the waves pounding against the beach, I had this thought of my relationship with God.

Pursuing God is like swimming against the ocean's waves. So long as you are diligent to swim, so long as you dive down deep against the waves you will be successful. Eventually, you will reach the deep parts of the ocean. But as soon as you stop actively swimming, as soon as you become complacent the waves will sweep you back towards the shore there to be smashed relentlessly into the sand.

Since I don't want to be dashed to pieces on the rocks of worldly living, I must swim against the tide of the ways of this world. I must dive deep into the waves of God's grace out into the depths of his mercy and love into the tides of eternity. And to what do I swim? A distant shore that can only be reached by an active faith in the atoning blood of Christ Jesus.

So I seek the Lord as a man afraid of drowning; desperately and relentlessly. Keenly aware of my own shortcomings and profoundly aware of God's mercy, I must daily humble myself before Him and before others. I must purposefully and intentionally study his word that I may do what he has commanded that I may be prosperous and successful; spiritually. (Joshua 1:8) Though I cannot attain it apart from His grace, I must seek and pursue righteousness by living as a child of God. I must seek His glory and not my own. Then I will know that when the day comes, I will be counted as sheep and reserved for his kingdom. On that day, the cloak of Christ's righteousness will shelter me from the Lord's anger.

Shalom,
Carl