Prepare for Life

I hate to admit it, but I had been a Christian for years before I realized that the Jewish celebration of Passover had anything to do with my celebration of Easter. I also didn’t know that the service our church called “Holy Communion” was rooted in the Passover dinner. The intertwining of my Christian faith and this Jewish feast had totally escaped me.

The Tabernacle is a beautiful object lesson of God’s love and mercy to His people, and His protection. God gave Moses the actual pattern for this forerunner to the Temple some 1500 years before Jesus walked the earth. It is a picture of God’s desire to meet and commune with man. But there is something very dangerous lurking there.

The beauty of the Tabernacle was not in the outer structure, but in its purpose. This purpose was that God would meet with man and commune with him. This is God’s highest purpose for man, this is what you were created for. In the words of the Spirit and the bride in Revelation 22:17, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come." And let the one who is thirsty come, let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.” Come!

Have you ever felt forsaken by everyone including God? Do you know the sense of utter abandonment? Hopelessness? Do you think there is anyone who can understand how you feel? Is there a way back to finding God’s presence in your life?

The cry of our hearts is to be fully known and deeply loved. God created us this way. He built into us the capacity for relationship, first with Himself and also with others. His desire was that He would come to us and walk in the cool of the day. This was not meant to be a superficial relationship where we pretend to be someone we are not. (In fact He saw straight through when Adam and Eve tried to cover up their failings.) He knows us through and through. He knows our struggles and doubts. He knows our triumphs, compromises and defeats. In the words of Psalm 139, He is thoroughly aquatinted with all our ways. And He loves us.

We were created for intimacy. I looked this word up in my 100 year old Webster’s Dictionary. (Many of our definitions have been dumbed down over the years.) Intimacy means relating to one another on the deepest level. Honest. Authentic. Real. God created us to be in relationships that encompass the whole person. We long to be understood, accepted and loved at our very core.

If we are loved but not known we are terrified because what will happen when we are found out? To be known and not loved can bring shame and chilling rejection. But to be fully known and deeply loved brings profound acceptance and satisfaction. This is what we were created for. In the words of Tim Keller in his book, The Meaning of Marriage, “It (being known and loved) is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”

I cannot think of another place in the Bible that so eloquently explains how fully God knows us than Psalm 139. He has searched us out. He knows the pattern of our daily lives, when we lie down and get up. He understands our very thoughts from afar. He even knows what we are going to say before we say it. We move in Him, His hand is upon us. There is nowhere we can go to elude His presence. He knit us together and formed us in our mothers’ wombs. He ordained our days before we even lived one of them. His thoughts toward us are precious and innumerable. In the words of David, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.”

But there is more, not only does God know us, He loves us. Being fully known as explained in Psalm 139 means we are laid open, we become vulnerable to rejection, censure and judgment. There is risk in every authentic relationship. We could be mocked and betrayed by the One who knows all our secrets. But we are safe because of the majestic character of God. He is trustworthy. When we turn in our hearts to God, He looks upon us with compassion and love. He extends mercy to us. His love is profound. He has demonstrated His great love for us by giving us the very life force of His most precious Son. Jesus shed His blood for us so that we might have life. God values us that much.

Relationships are a two way proposition. God didn’t create us for this relationship and then force us into it. We are not robots programmed so that we must automatically choose and obey Him, this would not lead to a satisfying relationship, it would lead to serfdom. He gave us the ability to freely choose whether we want to be in relationship with Him or not. He respects our free wills. He will not force us to love Him. We have to decide.

God knows us fully and loves us deeply. We are safe in His unfathomable love. Our privilege is to respond to this love by saying yes to the intimate, satisfying relationship He offers. Choose Him this day, and keep on choosing Him.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You that You know me even better than I know myself. And thank You that You love me in spite of myself. Help me to comprehend your incomprehensible love and to respond by saying yes to You.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

In the words of Psalm 91, He will guard and rescue you. He will protect and defend you. You will be safe, and when you come to the end of your days, He will take you safely home.

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1

We all tend to look ahead and worry about the what if’s of our future. We can get obsessed and debilitated churning with anxiety as we anticipate what could happen. Into these dark thoughts shines a shaft of pure light. God promises His presence and His grace when we need it. The reality of these promises calms our soul and counters our fears with His perfect peace, a peace that passes understanding. No matter what the future holds, God will be there. His grace is sufficient.

The book of Psalms is the book of praise! It is a handbook that shows us how to view life through the lens of praise. In the Psalms we praise God not just from our heads but from our hearts. Even the psalms that describe difficult, trying experiences usually finish with a resounding chorus of praise to God. As we meditate upon the book of Psalms we will begin to make praise the default position of our hearts.

Psalm 1 opens with this exclamation, “Happy, happy, happy is the one!….” In this psalm the Holy Spirit describes how to be happy. It introduces our culture sheet. God sets forth the conditions of our heart that need to be met in order for us to thrive, to bloom wherever we are planted. He gives us the key to happiness. Remember God is not mean. He is not withholding something good from us. He is simply telling us how it is, setting forth the parameters for our happiness. Learn more in the Podcast.