It’s All Too Much But So Good When We Trust in Him - Purity 1364

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a massive pine tree situated between two driveways next to a red barn in front of the view of the Skodak Creek, and it is under a blue cumulus cloud-filled sky, comes to us from yours truly as I captured this view from my backyard while burning down branches and brush back on the afternoon of April 16th of this year. Well, it's Saturday, and I share today's photo because it caught my eye, and the more I looked at it, the more I saw. As I noticed the positioning of the tree, I realized it stood perfectly between the two driveways, and I vibed on the contrast of it next to the barn and under the blue— that sky— and in front of the that creek and was taken by the simple beauty of it all. And then I looked at the tree itself and realized that with a little imagination I could see it as a person with a big bushel of green hair and its arms raised high. For a photo that may not seem like much at first glance, just a picture of my backyard, there's a lot going on there when we look at it closely. And thus is life. We may not think much of our lives as we go through the motions of another day in our status quo lives, but if we look at the details of where we are now and how all the elements relate to one another and consider their positioning and how they came about being, we can realize that God has been painting a picture of our lives that seems simple but is deep, profound, and beautiful when we recognize his divine touch provision and plan in moving all things together for good. Last night, I spent the evening watching a pair of children's plays as my niece and nephew both had parts in the drama kids' production of Musicville, and we decided to stay for the older kids' production of The Wizard of Oz. I was extremely impressed with Grace and Donald's contributions to the show, and by the overall skill and determination that it takes to to bring so many young performers together to put on a good show. While I thought it was a long night getting out at 11 PM, it was longer for those kids and those parents, as the plays were the results of months worth of practice and preparation. Each one of those kids and their families could tell their own story about the last few months, and I would imagine they would marvel over the progress that has been made and all the different things they had that may have come and gone in their lives as they readied themselves for last night's performance. And considering all those people, their stories, and all the moving parts and how they came together, I get a small idea of what it must be like for God watching all of our stories, all of our lives, and how He is directing all of the action. It is simply overwhelming when I take a big view of life like that. Considering the vast multitudes of people on the earth and how we are all playing a part in God's drama that will result in some of us being welcomed into his eternal kingdom while others are deceived and reject his lordship and will face his wrath, it all becomes too much. It's just too big for me to get a grasp on, and when I consider its immensity, I understand— I I understand why ours is not to reason why, but to trust and obey the One who put this whole thing together. It is too much for us to figure out as a whole, but we can know and relate to the One who does understand it, and when we seek Him, we can realize that He is good and worthy of our trust. There is so much going on in life all the time. But God's got a handle on it, and despite what can be a rather chaotic existence at times, we can find peace and joy in our lives when we walk through it with him. So take a rest, let your burdens down, surrender everything and everyone to the Lord. He can handle it, and he doesn't want us carrying all those burdens alone. We don't have to know everything, and we don't have to know what will happen next to understand that we will be secure when we stay with Him. So take some time this weekend to marvel over your journey thus far and how the present moment was made possible through the guidance and provision of God, who has been with us every step of the way, and from, from there to here. And while you ponder that big picture, if you like, thank him for what he has done and will do on your way from here to eternity. Today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on depression, and today's verses are from Psalm— well, yeah, today's verse, apparently just one, uh, is from Psalm 32, 5, from the New Living Translation, the word of God says, finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord, and you forgave me. All my guilt is gone. Today's verse is the first of two passages of scripture that fall under the fourth point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on depression. That fourth point is The way out of depression caused by guilt is confession and seeking God's forgiveness. Today's verse tells us what happens when we stop trying to hide our guilt and confess our sin and rebellion to the Lord. God forgives us and takes away our guilt. Before coming to Christ, we are deceived into believing what is clearly not true. That what's bad is good. Although our hearts and clear teaching from the Bible will tell us that something is wrong, we choose to rebel against the truth and selfishly indulge our sinful desires, believing that we can get away with it, which is another fallacy. God sees it all, and no matter if we escape detection and avoid those immediate negative consequences of sin, Our souls are weighed down by guilt because we have gone against the grain of what God would have us do, and we have disrupted the harmony of our relationship with Him. But that all can be cured in an instant. Our confession and turning back to God and His ways alleviates our guilt and puts us back in a harmonious union with Him. So, confess and turn from your sins, and enjoy the peace that comes from living in your freedom from sin.— and from drawing close to God. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening through the New Testament by Stephen F. Alford. In Alford's devotional, he directs us to read a chapter of scripture This— today's chapter is Romans 7, and from Romans 7 he shares a portion of verse 7 which says, I would not have known sin except through the law. And Stephen Alford writes, the law here can mean the whole counsel of God, rather— or rather, the whole word of God. For the word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for for instruction in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16. Thus, it is only as I read and study the Word of God that I shall have the knowledge of sin. As the Word of God teaches, reproves, and corrects, sin in its many forms is revealed. In this, the Law is holy and just and good. Romans 7:12. As each sin is thus made known, it must immediately be crucified, reckoned dead. Thus one's life is progressively and practically sanctified to bring forth more fruit. And Alfred ends his devotion by sharing the following prayer: O Lord, reveal sin to me in its real light, then show me my Savior Amen. Amen. Yeah, the law reveals, you know, that guilt, you know, God writes, you know, we all have a conscience, and that's God's law written on our hearts, you know, to tell us what's right or wrong. That sense of oughtness, as C.S. Lewis talked about it, where does that come from? Um, you know, it's not society or from our parents. It's something in, you know, inherent to our to our being, because God's made us with a body, soul, and spirit. And even though we might be born spiritually dead, our soul is alive. And on that, he'll write his law to, you know, to try to guide us. You know, when our souls realize that we live the life of sin, we're to despair and say, what am I supposed to do with this? And luckily, God makes a way for us to be free from our sins through forgiveness. When we confess our sin to the Lord and make Jesus our Lord and Savior, our sins are covered, they're forgiven, and we're given a new life. And the Holy Spirit comes into us to quicken our spirits, making us spiritually alive and giving us the power to overcome sin and death. We'll never die because we'll live in God's kingdom, and we can, we can actually say no to sin when we reckon ourselves dead to it, meaning we choose, you know, that that's no longer who we are anymore because we agree with the truth, because that's what actually happens. But in our experience, you know, our brains aren't cleared of all our memories and our habits are still in place when we get saved. And so we thus need to be renewed in our mind to live out our new life in Christ. Our old sinful nature is a thing of the past. You know, we still have the potential and we can choose to sin, but it's really not who we are anymore. And we can still live like it, but, you know, we're living a lie. We're— when we do that, we disagree, you know. Oh, I haven't been changed. You're disagreeing with what God says about you. That's rebellion and sin, you know. So when you say you can't, you're agreeing, you're agreeing with the enemy, um, and you're not agreeing with the Lord. And, you know, while it might be hard to repent and it might cause you to have to surrender your life completely to the Lord, it's to grow the fruit of repentance and to see sanctification happen in your life. It is possible. It has happened. And it's just a matter of living out our life by faith. You know, this is what God's Word says is true about me, so now I'm going to agree with that and try to make it, you know, manifest in my life. Wow, that guy really is changed. That's what we talked about yesterday, is, you know, I was one way and now I'm completely different. Well, my one way and completely different was significant on the day I was saved, but it became even more significant as I walked with the Lord. I wasn't instantly, you know, healed of all my bad habits and sin on the day I got saved. God gives you free will and you can still choose to do wrong. But when you realize who you are in Christ, you'll try to be consistent with that and choose to do what's right and trust the Lord and lean on him for strength to do so. And we're all a work in progress. I've been off the rails of my food— foodie— food plan lately, and I hope to I hope to make a new start with a new month that begins today. So we'll see. Um, yeah, we'll have to trust the Lord and agree, um, not to indulge the ways of the flesh and to walk in the Spirit. So pray for me and I'll pray for you. And so we'll do that. Today we, uh, today we work, uh, so we definitely need, uh, God's help as, uh You know, I had a— my employer demands that we work a Saturday like once a month on average, and my time is today and at the end of the month. So we'll see how it goes. But in the meantime, we're going to rely on him and thank him for what he's done for us. So let's do that. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all the things you're moving in our lives, how people's lives are coming in and going out, and, you know, we're walking together, and you're showing us, you know, all the things that you're doing through this magic, you know, this, this unbelievable mystery of life. And, um, it's so good, Lord. We thank you. We pray for anyone who's watching, uh, listening or reading today's message, um, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith. Um, and Lord, we pray of course for you to go before us today. Open our eyes to the things we need to see and guide us in the way we should go. Um, we're going to need all your help to represent you under— on this— on this earth, and, uh, that's all we want to do. So we're asking for you to guide us and strengthen us today, um, to find the peace, to find the joy, and to marvel over your goodness. Uh, in the midst of our regular lives, um, it's so good, Lord, and so big, so wide, and so deep, and so wonderful whenever we live our lives with you. So we thank you for that today, Lord. Well, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.