Where do you find your heart seeking harbor?
Is it anchored in the Word or the world?
In
2 Corinthians 4:13-18 Apostle Paul calls us to not be distracted by “what is seen” as we focus on the “eternal” and “fix our eyes on what is unseen”, as he manifests the reason for any believer’s courage and resolve - even in the face of life’s
most difficult tragedies & challenges - which is biblically defined as “light and momentary challenges”. That reason is cited in vs. 14 - “because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus” – is
nothing short of the great “I AM," who first revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush in
Exodus 3:14, the very same Word who was with and was God since the beginning (John
1:1,
John 14:6), and the Advocate who is with us forever (2
Corinthians 1:21-22) teaching us all things as well as testifying (John
15:26) about and reminding us everything Jesus taught (John
14:26), the Triune Excellency (John
1:1) that is the endless fount of daily refreshment and renewal, providing rivers of living water (John
7:38), bringing forth not only courage and resolve, but true spiritual nourishment from the milk (1 Peter2:2) and the meat (Hebrews
5:14) of Scripture, that transforms us into being more Christlike by having us feeding upon Christ Himself (John
6:51)!!!
Do you, dear reader, currently find your heart seeking safe harbor of complete confidence in Father God, The Breath of Heaven, “who raised
Jesus from the dead" and who "will raise us with Jesus” and on one future day will corporately present us to Himself (2
Corinthians 4:14)? Or by chance do you find your heart on a course that is similar to the Scriptural warning left behind for us in the pillar of salt, that was once a woman, married to a righteous man, who was related to the man renamed by God as “Abraham”
meaning blessed father of many; known in human history as the man who is the father of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths?
We are of course talking about Lot’s wife, whose name wasn’t even worth recording in the pages of Scripture. She, who despite coming
from a family who God graciously established His covenant, and despite obediently fleeing the doomed city of Sodom along with her husband and daughters, willfully disobeyed the strict injunction which the angel had laid upon her by looking back towards Sodom
as she fled (Genesis
19:26), obviously due to recklessly harboring her heart in the city that was increasing in distance behind her. Do you dear “Christian”, find yourself "walking with the Lord” while your heart is setting sail for, or possibly even already anchored
elsewhere?
While we are needfully located in this world, we should take care to not be “of” this world. So during this time of our lives, let us
take care to continually thank our God for placing eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes
3:11) and take steps to guard that it stays there. For if we permit to have the world, for any reason, slip into our hearts, we run the risk to one day despairingly find our hearts to be trapped in the world, and our souls forever without excuse, to be
“not right” and eternally unforgiven in the sight God.
THE VOYAGE
A timeless 200 Year-old Puritan Prayer that is just as relevant today as the moment it was first
penned.
"O LORD OF THE OCEANS,
My little bark sails on a restless sea,
Grant that Jesus may sit at the helm and steer me safely;
Suffer no adverse currents to divert my heavenward course;
Let me to harbour with flying pennants, hull unbreached, cargo unspoiled.
I ask great things, expect great things, shall receive great things.
I venture on Thee wholly, fully, my wind, sunshine, anchor, defence.
The voyage is long, the waves high, the storms pitiless, but my helm is held steady,
Thy Word secures safe passage, thy grace wafts me onward, my haven is guaranteed.
This day will bring me nearer home, Grant me holy consistency in every transaction,
my peace flowing as a running tide, my righteousness as every chasing wave.
Help me to live circumspectly, with skill to convert every care into prayer,
Halo my path with gentleness and love, smooth every asperity of temper;
let me not forget how easy it is to occasion grief;
may I strive to bind up every wound, and pour oil on all troubled waters.
May the world this day be the Saviour's cross,
and every oncoming wave the fountain in His side.
Help me, protect me in the moving sea until I reach the shore of unceasing praise.
(The Valley of Vision, Puritan Prayers and Devotions, p. 202-03)
For more:
No comments:
Post a Comment