The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"The Faithful God"
"He is thy life… To live is Christ" (Deuteronomy 30:20; Philippians 1:21).
From the moment we trust the Lord Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father begins a progressive work of revealing how much He saturates our lives and existence. "In Him, we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Our awareness of such grace ebbs and flows, based on our response of faith and submission to our Lord's all-encompassing reality. He works nonetheless, with no ebb and flow concerning His fulfillment of the promise…
"He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:21).
Such encouraging truth also sometimes comes as a splash of cold water in our spiritual faces. We may feel as if we have been asleep regarding our perception of God and His working as the complexities of life tempt us to distraction and diversion. "Surely the Lord is in this place" acknowledged Jacob at Bethel. "And I knew it not!" he mournfully confessed (Genesis 28:16). The recognition of our Lord's faithful working amid our limited and faulty response rightly humbles us, even as it amazes us by His perfect devotion that so contrasts with our need for a clearer vision and more consistent response. "If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself" (II Timothy 2:13).
Whatever our perception and awareness may be in this moment, the great fact of our existence remains completely secure. The Lord is indeed "in this place," whatever it may hold and how much or little we may perceive of His presence and working. Our hearts teem with His presence, our blessings with His kindness, our challenges with His promise, our circumstances with His providence, and our lives with His life. Even the best and brightest among us see so very little in comparison to the saturation by God of our being and existence. The truth may trouble us in the realization of how much we unnecessarily miss. Doubtless, however, our Father would most want us to be encouraged and strengthened by the remembrance of His eternally - and in this moment - abiding faithfulness. Wonderfully, the remembrance may and should result in our own response of greater devotion to the One so perfectly devoted to us. "Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18).
Long ago, Moses called Israel to the same realization with which the Spirit of God doubtless beckons us in this moment, and which both humbles and invigorates...
"Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God."
(Deuteronomy 7:9)
Weekly Memory Verse
Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
(Philippians 1:6)
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