"The Ocean of God"

"The Ocean of God"

  

Walking with God involves waking up to the fact of God.  

"From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God… Thou art God alone" (Psalm 90:2; 86:10).

   All conscious beings, both angelic and human, drive their existence from the Lord of the whom the Apostle John declared, "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3).  Moreover, "by Him all things consist," and "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Colossians 1:17; Acts 17:28).   We depend upon Him for our next breath if our earthly life is to continue - "He giveth to all life and breath" - and if ever He stopped upholding our existence by "the word of His power," we would cease to be (Hebrews 1:3). 

    Such truth directs us to remember and affirm the God-saturation, as it were, of our life and being.  It doesn't seem this way, however.  Much of our life appears to be natural rather than supernatural.  "We see through a glass darkly" in our present existence (I Corinthians 13:12).  Thus, we are as fish that swim in the ocean that is God who often fail to realize and remember the depths in which "we live and move and have our being."  If we could find the most godly and devout believer on the planet, he or she would confess to profound ignorance and failure to fully apprehend the glory of life in the ocean that is God.

   Such truth is both disturbing and wondrous.  First, we could all realize so much more than of our Lord's presence and involvement.  Much of our spiritual slumber results from failure to avail ourselves of His promised and fulfilled reality in our lives.  Sometimes a simple remembrance is all we require to elicit the faith that affirms to our Lord Jesus Christ, "You are here" in response to His assurance, "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20).  At other times, we must "fight the good fight of faith" as our spiritual enemies seek to enshroud us with overwhelming darkness (I Timothy 6:12).  No believer can easily remain awake to the fact of God during our journey through a world that constantly tempts us to slumber.  "Awake to righteousness!" commanded the Apostle Paul, a mandate that would be superfluous if we easily maintained spiritual alertness (I Corinthians 15:34).

    Wonder also accounts for our missing much of the Ocean, the wonder of God Himself.  There's simply too much to take in.  "The heaven and Heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee!" declared Solomon when faced with the seeming impossibility of constructing an earthly temple for an eternal Deity (I Kings 8:27).  Nor can our hearts and minds fathom little more than a glimpse of God in relation to the infinite measure of His life and being.  Of such glory, the Psalmist cried out in bewilderment, "Too wonderful for me!" (Psalm 139:6).  Certainly we all feel the same in those moments when viewing the Ocean most clearly, we realize how little we actually behold.

   We can see more, and we should.  As we do, we also identify with the fascination of the ancient poet who recognized the vast expanse that lay before him, even as he rejoiced in the moment of glory that led to exultation…

Shoreless Ocean, who can sound Thee?

Thine own eternity is round Thee,

Majesty Divine!

(From "Majesty Divine" - William Frederick Faber)

"Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not."

(Jeremiah 33:3)

"O the depths both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"

(Romans 11:33)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever.  Amen.

(Philippians 4:20)