Verse of the Week: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have and anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” (Isaiah 35:1-4)
Truth of the Week: Beholding and Believing…applying these two words could truly transform our lives.
Beholding the glory of God is how our souls are satisfied. This only makes sense, since His glory is what we were created for. His glory is the purpose of our lives. When the eyes of our hearts are enlightened to see God for who He really is, we experience genuine joy – not the shallow and fleeting kind that comes from the counterfeit pleasures of the world, but the deep and abiding kind that can only come from seeing and experiencing the infinite perfections of our Creator. When we learn to lift our eyes beyond our circumstances and fix them on the all-wise, all-loving, all-sovereign God who works all things for our ultimate good, we can taste the gladness we were designed to enjoy.
If joy flows from beholding who God is, strength for daily life is found in believing that God will do what He has promised to do. He will never fail to act like who He is. He will never leave us or abandon us or betray us. He will never mislead us or be unfaithful to us. He will never withhold what is good from us. We can count on him to equip us with all that we need to walk in His will. We can depend on Him to keep us from all harm – not from all hardship, as this is often the arena where we see more glory and gain greater joy, but from all harm – only allowing those things to touch the lives of His children that, in the end, will prove to be for our everlasting benefit.
Beholding and believing….it should be easy, but it’s not. Applying these two words to our everyday lives is a constant battle – but not one that we are called to enter without weapons, and not one that we are called to fight alone. God has given us His Word which, from cover to cover, reveals both His glory and His promises to us. If we want to have joy and strength we cannot neglect drinking deeply and drinking often from the Scriptures. He has also given us fellow believers to exhort us to seek our pleasure from His presence and our strength from His promises. Beholding and believing are best accomplished in a community of others who are hungering to know and enjoy God as a reality in their day-to-day living.
Beholding and believing…may we make this our all-surpassing pursuit until the day when we see Him face to face and bask in the eternal pleasures found only at His right hand.
Quote of the Week: “There is no more important issue in life than seeing Jesus for who he really is and savoring what we see above all else.” (John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ)