pure-joy-abounds
Endless Treasures
Eph. 3:7-8
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Your love, O Lord
Reaches to the heavens.
Your faithfulness
Stretches to the skies.
Your righteousness
Is like the mighty mountains.
Your justice flows
Like the ocean tides.
- Third Day
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“ ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.’ ”
- John 10:10 (NIV)
“ ‘The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).’ ”
- John 10:10 (AMPC)
The thief works tirelessly to mask his true identity, so that we attribute his stealing, his killing and his destroying to someone or something else.
He’s not only a thief of things like joy, peace, gratitude and such... he is out to steal God’s identity in our eyes. And in messing with our view of who God really is, he robs us from our own identity too.
Lies of the thief are pretty familiar, but they work all too often: If God were really such a loving or powerful God, why has _______ happened? If God really cared about me, why am I still in ____________ circumstance?
God is COMPLETELY GOOD. But just as satan led Eve to question God’s motives in the garden, so he often attempts to lead us to question God’s motives today, in our lives.
Take care to consider with me -- has the thief crept in the back door through some thought of fear or doubt in the goodness of God? Has he used our problems to paint misrepresentations of who God really is? Though we would never say out loud that God is the thief, have we approached His Word at all with a fear that it will rob, kill or destroy our lives if we live it out?
GOD IS NOT THE THIEF. But is there any possibility that we unconsciously treat Him like one?
God calls us to give up things sometimes, but ONLY and ALWAYS with the purpose of EXCHANGING it for something of GREATER and ETERNAL value. To ADD to our lives spiritually first, and THEN in every other way afterwards. God does not get some kind of sick pleasure in ripping away the delights of our heart. He WANTS to bless us. We MUST believe that, because it is the truth of Scripture. But He has an order to things, and the spiritual always comes before the physical.
The thief, on the other hand, comes to rip away EVERYTHING, first the spiritual life, THEN the rest. Then turn around and blame it on God.
God’s greatest priority (our spiritual relationship with Him, our character being made like Christ’s) is satan’s greatest threat.
Let us consider how our view of God may have been marred or misconceived. Have we bought the lies satan readily offers us about God’s character when circumstances look bleak? Or do we find the real, living depiction of the Lord through the living truth of the Scriptures?
Let the thief be identified and exposed for who he is; let the Lord be glorified and revealed for who HE is! And let the light of the Word of God lead the way to show us the difference.
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“The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country and your people. Leave your father’s family and go to the country that I will show you.’”
…
“Then he moved on toward the Negev, stopping for a time at several places on the way.”
- Gen. 12:1, 9 (ERV)
Roots go down deeper than we think. Our familiarity with life, our routines, the things we have learned to expect and take as a given – take one of these out of the mix, and we can see how quickly we can be thrown off.
I recently gave up coffee for three weeks. I didn’t think it was that big or that spiritual of a sacrifice, and yet I sensed God’s call to give it up. Coffee has been something I depended on when I needed it – not something I drank every day, just when I wasn’t at my peak energy level. I thought taking it away and living without it would have been a piece of cake.
Turns out I was wrong. I was far more dependent on it than I realized.
Week One. Cue the indifferent, don’t-talk-to-me morning moods and the withdrawal headaches. Though they challenged me, I had kind of expected them, and so I managed to push through reasonably well. Then comes Week Two. Two weeks in to my caffeine-free life and work life seems to go down the tubes. Pipes actually. Frozen pipes that melted water and flooded our office. And dishwashers that wouldn’t work. And coffee machines that stopped running, leaving many of my coworkers uncaffeinated as well. Unexpected mandatory training sessions. Soon, I came face-to-face with my instant desire for a coffee to get me through the day, instead of an instant desire for the strength of God’s Word to give me what I needed.
How fast I was to long for something familiar! To seek out strength from a familiar source, in a familiar way. Our roots grow down deeper than we think.
It is no simple matter when God tells us to get up and leave something familiar.
Lifestyle or mindset, habit or addiction; people, place or thing. We have roots that need to be yanked up, bags to be packed, goodbye notes to write.
Even if you feel like it’s impossible to leave behind what God is calling you to leave behind, make the first step. Abram didn’t get a whole map of the entire journey, he was just called to leave. God calls us to do the same. Abram wasn’t the only one meant to live a life of faith. He serves as the template, we are the ones who can make the journey of faith our OWN today, if we choose to.
God is calling. New lands are beckoning and inviting us. Take the first steps towards obedience. Trust Him.
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It requires far less effort to tell someone what to do than to show them who to be. But I'm willing to bet the latter is far more impactful than words alone. Life uses a bigger megaphone than lips do. Let us each consider for ourselves if their messages speak the same thing or if they differ. And if they are the messages we really, truly want to convey to the world.
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"But blessed is the man who trusts me, God, the woman who sticks with God. 8 They're like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers - Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, Serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season. 9 "The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. 10 But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be."
- Jeremiah 17:7-10 (MSG)
Oh, the richness of a life that knows this truth in personal experience! To be replanted from an old way of life, and planted into a new way of life is no small thing. It’s full of challenge and transition. Getting used to pulling up the roots from what we used to depend on; seeking to grow those roots deep in GOD instead. It is no small thing. It takes time. It takes heart. But God invites us on a journey with Him, asks us to have the courage to examine our hearts and get to the root of things -- to find out what we REALLY draw strength and joy from every day.
Where do we draw most of our strength from?
It can be easy to assume we can live without things and that we are deeply rooted in God, but when we are plucked up from the old ground, how easy or difficult is it to start depending on God’s Word to give us strength, in place of that person or thing that we used to draw strength from?
Roots take time to grow deep. But the roots that we make a point of tending and using, those are the ones that grow deepest.
God invites us to take the challenges and needs we’re facing right now, and let Him use them to reveal our roots. With courage and trust in His loving mercy, to sit with Him, to pore over His Word, and let the Holy Spirit reveal the great mystery of the roots of our hearts. How shallow or how deep do they go? To what source do they really go? He says, “Don’t be afraid of the answers. Don’t be afraid of what we uncover together. I want you to grow and to be made strong. But first you must dig with Me, into my My Word, to know the condition of your roots. To know who you really are, and not the person you pretend to be.”
He’s waiting for you to take the next step of faith, my friend. Take courage; don’t be afraid. Abundant life awaits you.
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❤ Love this Scripture! So grateful to God for the example of great faith I have in the leader He placed over me. God set before us examples of great faith in the Word that lived long ago. But He helps bridge the gap by setting before us leaders that we know personally, as living and breathing examples of what faith looks like, talks like and LIVES like.
Why?
He's got yesterday and today covered with examples of great faith. But He wants you and I to imitate that great faith so we can be His examples of great faith TOMORROW!! 😁
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