“Let this be the one, true barometer of my religion,” says the Christian. “Though the mountains fall into the sea and the fig tree refuse to produce any fruit, though there are no cattle in the stalls and the fields produce no food, yet I will praise the Lord.”
“What?!” says doubt, with evident disdain. “Don’t you see how at risk we are all?”
“Indeed I do,” says the Christian. “And better than that…. God sees too.”
A long time ago, in a barren spot out in the desert, a forsaken single mom, clutching her crying and hungry baby boy, even while out of food and water referred to God as the “…God who sees. Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?” (Gen. 16:13, NASB).
She learned what we all must, all we who profess to know God. That not only is our God the God who ordains deprivation, but He is also the God who provides Himself. He not only ordains all that comes to pass, He ordains that the knowledge of Himself covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.
And what is it like to know Him? To rest happy in the truth that all He ordains
is the very, very best. That all sufferings and blessings are subsumed under
divine heading: God is good. That He is
so good that all that is in your life is the very best you could ever, ever
wish for, if you knew what God knows. That anything He does in life that
directs the longing heart to Himself is an extension of His intimate kindness
the ancients yearned for but did not attain: “Kings will shut their mouths on account
of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not
heard they will understand” (Isa. 52:15).
All grace to you, beloved saints of God, on this strange Lord’s Day where we
cannot gather as one to praise the Lord. But let’s not let that stop us, or
else the rocks themselves will cry it out!
Sent out by the Pastoral Staff (Ted Bigelow, Pastor of Preaching and Development and Steve Ridge, Executive Pastor) of Grace Bible Church of Colorado Springs.
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Sent out by the Pastoral Staff (Ted Bigelow, Pastor of Preaching and Development and Steve Ridge, Executive Pastor) of Grace Bible Church of Colorado Springs.
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