A Radiant Face

I've taken to analyzing the worship music we sing at church - not criticizing, but thinking through the meaning of the words I'm singing. It makes for a much more engaging experience of praising my Lord.

A theme I've noticed in several songs written in the last five years or so is inviting God's presence by calling down fire from heaven. "Fire fall down," "All-consuming fire, fall, fall down," and the like. And while it is so important to invite God's presence to a worship gathering, I've never stopped to think before what a dangerous thing we are singing.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our "God is a consuming fire."
Hebrews 12:28-29

Our God is holy, completely set apart and on a different plain from us in His glory and perfection. He will not tolerate sin, and that is why Christ shed His righteous blood on our behalf, so when the Father looks at us, He sees the holiness of Jesus.

Yet He is still a consuming fire.

When we invite God's holy, jealous fire to enter our sanctuary (or living room, or car, or wherever we're singing), are we doing so with clean hands and pure hearts? Do we recognize that as we sing these songs, we invite the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to convict our hearts of sin and pierce our souls with truth?

In our modern Gospel-telling, we focus so much on God's grace and mercy that we can forget that He is not only worthy of our perfect obedience, but demands our holiness. Otherwise why would Jesus have had to die?

God is good, but the reason God is so good is because He is holy and because He has made a way for us to enter His presence without being consumed. Thank You, Jesus!

Let us remember as we talk to God and sing to God and live for God that it is only by salvation through Jesus that we are no longer afraid of His wrath, and let us worship Him with awe and reverence because He is so different from us and so truly awesome!

Photo by Sam Goodgame on Unsplash

Not sure if I've mentioned this here yet, but we're expecting baby #2! It's been almost 4 months since I found out, and I have to say, as thrilled as I am to have another precious little one to love, I have been struggling with a lot of doubts this whole time as to how much I can manage at one time.

I'm so grateful to say that we have a lot of really good things happening in our lives right now - things to rejoice over and get excited about, but even good things come with uncertainty and a whole lot of work.

A couple weeks ago I was sitting down to pray about some of these things on my heart, and I just didn't know where to begin. I would start telling my Father about one area of life and suddenly another concern would pop up. Then I would try to focus on that and another problem or fear I had would jump in and take over my brain. I couldn't even pray without anxiety creeping - or rather, storming - in.

All I could say was, "Lord, I'm so overwhelmed." And I just began to cry.

**side note** Sometimes in such moments I feel bad for getting upset or anxious over my seemingly trivial problems in life when I know friends dealing with cancer, chronic unemployment, infertility, or family problems. But we all have our own journey with the Lord, and He knows our frame and empathizes with our weakness, whatever that may be. What a kind, gracious God we serve. **end side note**

As I was fighting my stressed out brain in an effort to lay my burdens at His feet, the Holy Spirit brought the lyrics of a worship song to mind that matched my thoughts exactly. He turned my "I'm overwhelmed" into "I'm overwhelmed by You."

Maybe you know the song by Big Daddy Weave? It talks about being overwhelmed by God's greatness and grace and taking delight in His overwhelming presence. Such a beautiful, perfect thought to switch my mind from the fullness of circumstances to the fullness of my great God who is over all, above all and in all!

I want to make a practice of turning my "I'm overwhelmed" thoughts into "I'm overwhelmed by You" praises. It is so good and so necessary for our hearts to bring our concerns before the throne of grace, but when we can't do it without our minds reeling or our hearts racing, it must be time to worship.

Our God is overwhelmingly huge and able and mighty to save. He is a Healer, Redeemer, Provider and Friend. When we are overwhelmed by Him, we leave no room in our hearts to be overwhelmed by less.

I encourage you to listen to this song when you are alone if you can. Close your eyes and sing along, dance to the rhythm, or stand and sway with your arms raised high. God created our voices, bodies and movement to bring Him glory and help us forget ourselves and worship Him with all of us. It is truly therapeutic, just the way He meant it to be!

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

For so many years now, I've been telling myself that I need to get my act together when it comes to time management, organization and cleaning my home because God is a God of order and it pleases Him when we bring order out of chaos. While I know that God doesn't love me more or less based on my performance, I have convinced myself that I can't be all He made me to be unless I can keep my house and self and child presentable and present at all times.

Excuse me a moment while I remind myself that I am not God. I am not God.

Okay, now that we've established that, let me remind each of us a little bit more about who God is.

God created the world out of nothing. He made a good, good world of beauty, order and structure. This displays His characteristic of orderliness.

I think it's also safe to say He's pretty darn organized, too, given He knows the number of hairs on my head, and yours, and your cousins' and your neighbors'.

God is omnipresent. He is everywhere all the time. He also knows all things. That makes Him the ultimate listener, winning the award for "Most In the Moment". Yeah, I'm never going to even be nominated for that one. God also never forgets to respond to voicemails, texts or messages, or call His grandma (well, mainly because He doesn't have one, given He is eternally self-existent, but you get my point).

So there's my case for God being orderly, and taking pleasure in order.

But humans are not orderly. There was this time when a couple of humans decided to take matters into their own hands instead of trusting their loving Creator and walked away from order and peace and quite frankly, all things good. And in that moment, chaos entered that perfect world God had created. It has never been the same.

Our world, and our very souls, are characterized by chaos and disorder. Our bodies decay, our minds grow sick from the pressures and twists and turns of this life. Our homes get messy and our clothes get stained.

And yet, into this very chaos, our Savior was born. The King of the world was not born into a pristine palace, but into a dirty stable and a family with a messy past. God chose to become human, to enter into our mess, instead of expecting humans to become God before we could reach out to Him. Because we never could bring order out of chaos. But He can.

In fact, His very nature is imprinted on our hearts. That's why we ache for stillness, for quiet, the solitude of a mountain stream, the peace of low-maintenance relationships. That's why I long to purge and organize and deep clean my house and my schedule, to have some semblance of order in a life that sometimes feels like a hamster wheel inside a cage that's slowly filling with water.

Good news time.

Our Redeemer is the God of order, yes, but He remains God in the chaos. He calls to us just as we are - mess and all, whether it's our own doing or just due to the fact that we live in a broken world. Just as we are, messy houses, messy relationships, messy hearts. We don't have to wait for the quiet moments to feel the Spirit's presence because He's with us when the poopy diaper leaks and the doctor calls with test results and Monday comes before you had a chance to breathe.

God delights in order, but He delights in us. *cue tears of awe and joy* Isn't that amazing?

And He is making all things new. As we live in His presence, we can live with peaceful hearts in the midst of a peace-less world, relishing His love for us in these everyday moments. All the while, we look forward to the day when no more tears will be shed over death or pain or the seeming meaningless redundancy we fight against as we daily strive to follow His footsteps in bringing order out of chaos.

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

Latest Posts

Translate

Search This Blog

Labels