Disobedience, slandering, liable, blasphemies, evils, met with judgment, suffering and weeping the crying out of the people to be delivered from their bondage which is meet with merciful forgiveness. It is the theme of the people of Israel, to not obey and to turn back to their wicked ways. But it is also the theme of God to be radically forgiving in his judgment of them and his deliverance of them.
Again this is our life! Living presumptuously and disobeying the decrees of God, many times has God delivered us according to his mercies. Over and over and over again does he free us from the sins we entrap ourselves with, and yet we repeatedly turn back to the evil we’ve just been freed from!
But here is the catch, the deal, and the hook: we have a God who is ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and he will not forsake us! There will be new months and new days, there will be new years and new loves, and there will be new houses and new fathers.
So whether you’re 12 or 65 you’re still growing up and by the sheer grace of God we are told, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old is gone the new has come. (2 Cor. 5:17)”
Though our past is devastating to remember and will constantly be used to show us our failings we must, by the grace of God, preach this Gospel-truth to our hearts and apply it to our deep wounds as a doctor applies a bandage, that we have been, and are being made brand new. Though we will fail in the future the same bandage must be applied.
We’re on an adventure. One that will claim our lives in the end, but an adventure nonetheless; one where we’ve left the cool green grass of our childhood and traveled to the bone chilling heights of our youth; one that will take us through the labyrinth like forests of middle age; one where we’ll end in the desert of old age on the shores of eternity.
Though I know little of the trials of life, I know a few things. We’ll fight dragons and demons; we’ll be princes and princesses, we’ll dance knowing our lives won’t ever be the same; we’ll hold our heads high like the hero’s of old; we’ll weep at the death of companions; we’ll cry in anguish in the depths of disparity; we’ll curse God and bless his hand simultaneously. And in all of this that sovereign God will be sitting on his throne orchestrating the symphony of our lives. For! His! Glory!
It is why we exist, not for self, nor for others, but for God’s own glory. This must sink deep into our hearts and overflow into our minds and push our souls up through our mouths. Glory. Glory. Glory.
It’s where we’re going! Can you see it? You can almost taste the sweetness of its air! You can see its shimmer on the horizon of your thought. You can feel the warmth of his face on your heart. Though the valley of our failures oft covers the beauty of the sight every valley has two mountains.
Therefore let that childlike speechless wonder rise. Be again enchanted by something. Once more see your imagination take flight and feel the wonder of your childhood have life breathed anew into it.
See that the fairy tale of your life is no fiction at all. You, are the princess locked in the tall tower whose been saved by our Jesus in his shinning armor. You are the sleeping beauty awakened by the kiss of Jesus your King. You are the slave-child turned royalty by the finding of a shoe and its placement on your foot by Jesus. Royalty is what you are, though you do not feel like it (neither did the pauper).
Therefore, O child of the King, may He live forever, I beseech you to, please, take up your proper place at His side. To, by His mercy, prepare your heart to be fitting for His Lordship. That as you, O royal one, continue in the pain of this life our King, whose rule is eternal, will transform you into such a beauty that all gorgeous surfs will be merely peasants in the mud, yet you will be a child of the King. Realize your position. Take hold of your call. The dragon lies slain at your Savior’s feet. You. Are. Free.
You are free to say with all the strength and vigor that the half dead sinner can muster, “O wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
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