| |
Broken at the Mountain
[return
to devotional list]
"The
LORD is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit." (Psalm
34:18)
We started
our walk with the Lord idealistically full of
promises and excitement. We thought we’d do
whatever He asked of us or go wherever He wanted
us to go. Then He started testing us and
refining us. He starting burning off the dross that weigh
us down and pruning the branches don't reflect Him.
This
refinement takes years. He strips us naked on
our daily cross as He had been, but He starts
clothing us in His righteousness with His
armor. But we with our finite minds cannot and
do not comprehend what the Lord is doing during
those painful and exposing times. For His ways
are higher than our ways (Isa.55:9). He tells us
to wait, do not leave until the Holy Spirit
comes upon you and empowers us (Acts 1:5).
But the waiting and the pruning are almost
too difficult to bear at times. There are so
many things that we feel we could and we should
be doing for the Lord.
In the meantime, God has asked us to
mindful of what is right in front us, that which
is immediately before us. Before He trusts us
with the bigger things, He asks us to obey
all His commands. We may think we are
loving the Lord God with all our hearts, all
ours souls and all our minds (Deut.5:6), but yet
we keep going around the same mountain over and
over again. Not realizing that we still have our
plans and desires in mind, our own thoughts and
ways. It isn’t until we get to the place at the
base of the mountain and stand in complete
brokenness, realizing to the core of our being
that we cannot do what He asks of us or be the
person He wants us to be. And just how selfish
our desires to serve Him have actually been, we
weren’t really doing it for Him, so that He may
get all the glory, honor and praise. It isn’t
until we finally come to the end of ourselves,
our desires, our plans, our ways of thinking. It
isn't until we have finally been poured out and
stripped naked of ourselves, when we have been
so completely emptied.
Then and only then does He fill us and put us
back together. So now, instead of going around
the mountain again, we are now clothed in Him to
walk in His fullness to be His witness
and testify to all the ends of the earth.
(Acts 1:8).
Are we ready to die for Him?
When we are, He will take us from the base of
the mountain into the Promised Land... wearing
all His riches in glory, doing all
that He had done and more.
Only when we’re clothed in
Him.
- Ms. Amy Landau, Class of 2009
Did you like this devotion? Send
it to a friend.
|
|
Feb.
18
|
|
