“O LORD Who is like you– majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Exodus 15:11)
Reflection: Our vision of God defines our lives.
We can ignore Him, treat Him casually – by paying Him lip-service or turning to Him only when we need help – or we can take Him seriously – to the extent that He becomes our life.
His revelation of Himself through creation, through His history, through His great acts and ultimately through His Son Jesus Christ, is stunning. It is a revelation of awesome power and might, of unbelievable compassion and mercy, of immaculate justice and righteousness, and of breath-taking beauty and love.
If our vision slips then our faith, hope, love and integrity begin to go as well.
In times such as these there is a great need for those whom He has called to Himself to renew their vision, re-establish their foundations and glory in the wonder of our marvellous God. One of our greatest gifts and weapons is our heart-felt love and worship of this God who is at once Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Response:
“Immortal, Invisible, God only wise, In light inaccessible hid from our eyes, Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days, Almighty, victorious, Thy great name we praise.”
Prayer:
Lord God Almighty, keep me conscious of Your glory, honour and power – and of Your great beauty and love. In Jesus Name, Amen.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.” (Psalm 19:1-2)
Reflection: I walked outside one night and looked up. It was a cloudless night and, even in our suburb, enough of the sky was visible to make me pause in awe and wonder. The stars shone out from the dark depths of space like diamonds on the deep blue cloak of God. I stood in stillness and let His glory touch me for those precious moments. How great is our God indeed,
“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” (Psalm 33:6)
It is a mighty and marvellous act of creation – by an almighty, beautiful and loving God. They sing His praises in sounds and words that we cannot hear and reduce us at last to the silence of true worship and adoration. I found myself longing for less of me in my life and more of God – more than I knew I could handle but not more than I could desire. I have a longing sometime to just disappear into His love and glory – like a wave on the beach slips back into the vast and all-embracing ocean.
“As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.” (Psalm 42:1-2)
How much more precious were those moments and the thoughts and feelings that they prompted, than everything that the world has to offer in terms of pleasure, wisdom and achievement. How much more to hold onto in the times of pain, sin and sorrow.
God speaks to us in so many ways, not least in and through our everyday exposure to His creation. It is a message worth perceiving, believing and receiving. It is worth our deepest response.
“O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the works Thy hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.”
Response: Look, Listen, Worship
Prayer:
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)
Reflection: Humans have over the years composed many songs, not a few of which have been to glorify themselves. However, as our eyes are opened to the wonderful truth of the Lord, and our hearts and spirits respond to the revelation of His love and salvation, we may discover that one song rises joyfully above all the others.
The worship of God is the sweetest of all, and often it is enough just to sing out the name of Jesus. For me true worship must rise like a soaring eagle up into the heavens, and then descend into complete and holy silence – where it is enough just to whisper again and again the one precious ‘name above all names’ – and then to be completely silent and silently complete in the stillness of the Spirit.
Also, and whenever I can, I love to ‘sing out’ in speech the wonders of this God of Love and of the love of God. He is truly ‘beautiful beyond description’ and, when I let Him, ‘my all in all.’ I have many stories to tell of God’s relationship with me, over all the ups and downs of my journey – of His love, presence, help, forgiveness and sharing of Himself. They all form a part of ‘my song.’
Response: Recall and record some of the ways in which God has blessed you. Thank and praise Him for them. There are some wonderful songs and hymns that can be downloaded from ITunes – and the lyrics will be on the Internet. Use them if you wish as an aid.
Prayer:
Touch my spirit Lord with Your beauty and Your love. Help me to respond as You lead me into worship and the wonder of Your presence. Amen.
“Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” (Luke 17:17-18)
Reflection: Whenever I read this account I am convicted of how very much I take for granted.
Jesus has just healed 10 lepers. He sent them off to show themselves to the priest to be declared healed and able to take their place in society again. As they went, the record tells us, ‘they were cleansed.” The effect on them must have been remarkable – for they were healed not only physically but of their being social outcasts, having only other diseased people as there companions and friends.
One of them returned to Jesus ‘praising God in a loud voice’ and ‘threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked Him.’ Looking at him, a Samaritan, Jesus asked the question – “Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” By implication most, if not all, of the others had been Israelites. The sadness was that as much as they may have rejoiced in their healing they ignored the One who had healed them and given them back the gift of life and living.
Every day is a day of the wonder and grace of God. Each one is an occasion when we may look for Him and find Him in new ways. Each moment offers us the opportunity to return our thoughts to Him and to speak to Him of our lives and His love. And there is so much for which to thank Him – from the wonder of our minds and bodies to the awesome extent, detail and beauty of His creation, from the ongoing blessing of His forgiveness, cleansing and healing of our spirits to the people who have been and are a blessing in our lives.
Response: Take a moment now to thank God for something or someone who has blessed you – and maybe to thank them as well.
Prayer:
Thank You Father for the life You have given me, for my new life in Jesus Christ, and for the countless ways in which You have reached out to me in love and blessing. Thank You so very much. Amen
“But as for me, through the greatness of Your mercy, I will come into Your house; I will bow down towards Your holy temple in awe of You” (Psalm 5:7)
Reflection: Every now and then I am struck anew by the amazing privilege of God in my life. This verse did it again for me this morning.
Who am I that I should be so privileged as to know of God and to know Him in my life? I am aware of Him in the day and in the night-time. I see His hand and His love in the glory of creation – the majestic display of the setting sun, the soft splendour of its rising, and the silent, stately beauty of the moon. I hear His love and praise in the liquid songs of the early morning birds, the haunting cry of the fish eagle and the gentle whisper of the wind amongst the leaves. I see His joy in the laughter of a child and the song of a mother – and I feel His pain in their rejection and abuse.
And, although I am surrounded by people who deny Him, reject Him or take Him for granted, I know that He listens when I speak, talks to me when I listen and answers my prayers – some times with quiet, ‘little’ miracles of grace and glory.
And then when I read that He chose me before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight, and that in love He predestined me to be adopted as His son so that I might be for the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1: 4, 5, 12) it is beyond anything I can understand. I shake my head in wonder and amazement – and feel tears of gratitude well up within me.
I know where my journey is going and where it will end. In some strange and mysterious way I am already there. In my spirit I enter freely and unashamedly into the house of the Lord – where I belong. And I kneel before Him in humble gratitude, love and worship.
Response: Wherever you are, and however you are, today let Him remind you that as His beloved child He is with you now and forever.
Prayer:
Thank you Lord God, my Holy Father, for Your great love, mercy and grace towards me. Thank You for reaching out to touch me, love me and draw me to Yourself. Help me please to believe in and know Your love, and to trust Your love forever. Amen.
“Sing for joy to God our strength; shout aloud to the God of Jacob!” (Psalm 81:1)
Reflection: Many years ago God led me to the first verse of Psalm 18,
“I love you, O LORD, my strength.” (Psalm 18:1)
In doing so He showed me so clearly that any strength, ability, gift, knowledge or understanding that I had came from Him. I became deeply aware that I had nothing of value to offer the world or the people around me except that which was of Him. It was a humbling and rewarding moment.
Over the years He has also shown me that quite apart from the things that He has given me, and the fruit that He has allowed to blossom in and through my life, I have not the ability in my own strength to live the life to which He has called me. I cannot love Him, or all the others, on my own. I cannot ‘be holy’ in my own strength. I cannot overcome sin and temptation by myself. And, like Paul, I know what it is to bemoan the difference between the life of my vision and the life of reality.
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15)
Paul goes on, as He searches out the solution, and cries out in an agony of joy,
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
As the Psalmist tells us on a number of occasions, ‘God is our strength’ and it is
“in him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)
Our life is not all about us. It is, in fact, all about God and the part that He plays in it. We will be tempted and distracted from the truth wherever possible, and may fall and fail on numerous occasions, but the salvation will never be in us, it will always be with God – in and through the wonderful sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It is through Him as well that God the Holy Spirit comes to live within us, and to be our strength and guide. Without Him our life is like a deflated balloon. With Him it becomes lighter, more attractive and filled with possibility.
God is our strength and our eternal salvation. The new life to which we are called can only be lived in His strength. Our response in times of inadequacy, fear, darkness, sadness or despair is to turn to Him and to ask Him for His help. When we sin our response should not be to hide but to run to Him for the forgiveness and help that we need – even if it is again and again. There may be times when we think that our Christian life is a fraud and a hopeless endeavour – we must to turn to Him for the comfort, assurance and help that we require. He is our strength.
And so the Psalmist encourages us to ‘sing for joy to God our strength’ because His strength has and will carry us through, on the foundation of His great and unconquerable love. God is your salvation and your strength. Always.
Response: Speak aloud to God your thanks and praise and enjoyment of His love and creation
Prayer:
Father forgive me for the times that I become miserably self-absorbed. Lift my eyes to Your face, my heart with Your heart, and my spirit with Your Spirit. Amen.
“Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (Genesis 22:7)
Reflection: In response to God’s command Abraham was on his way to Moriah to sacrifice his son Isaac. One cannot imagine his feelings both with regard to the sacrifice of his only son as well as the fact that it was through this son that God had promised to fulfil His covenant promise to Abraham. Nevertheless his response to Isaac was the response of faith in his God. “God Himself will provide the lamb.”
As it turned out God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and provided a ram for sacrifice instead. Now both Isaac and Abraham speak of a lamb – which is quite different from the ram that appeared. It was not that a ram was as good a sacrifice as a lamb but that God had something else planned. This becomes clear years later when John the Baptist looking up and seeing Jesus said to his disciples
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
(John 1:29)
Here was the lamb provided by God – the one who would suffer death as the sacrifice for the sins of the world. In this way the prophetic incident with Abraham and Isaac is linked to the real event involving God and His Son. The great difference of course is that there was no one to stop the hand of this Son’s executioners.
It is also believed by many commentators that this mountain of Moriah is in fact the same mountain on which Jerusalem is built (New Bible Dictionary). And it was there that Jesus was crucified.
God’s purpose and plan was not in response to the fall and sin of man. It pre-dated creation itself. There is one purpose and plan of God that remains unchanged and that He is working out and will bring to fulfilment. Again and again what we see in the New Testament has its beginnings in the Old. And what God started before Jesus appeared has its fulfilment and explanation in His life, death, resurrection and ascension.
Response: ‘Your will be done on earth as in heaven’’
Prayer:
Lord God thank You so much for the scale and detail of Your purpose and plan – which are being worked out in ways that we can see and at which we marvel and rejoice. What a mighty God we serve!
“Where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy” (Psalm 65:8)
Reflection: I have loved and still love God’s great gifts of morning and evening, sunrise and sunset, dawn and dusk. And I understand fully the translation which proclaims,
“The gates of the morning and evening
sing Your praise.”
I have been fortunate enough to know times when I could sleep next to the ocean with curtains wide. And, as the sun began to show its golden rim above the distant horizon, I have sprung from my bed and gone out to greet the dawn. There with the surging and whispering sea I have welcomed the morning with wonder and praise. Every part of me has thrilled to the sense of God as He has ushered in another opportunity to know and enjoy His love and life.
At other times I have stood knee-deep in the swirling surf and watched in awe as the sun went down in a sky-wide blaze of glorious colour. And as I gazed in speechless and almost tearful wonder the Artist produced another range of colours from His palette. With gentle hand and loving touch He painted the silent clouds again and again with ever-softening hues – turning often to watch my face and smile.
Eugene Peterson translates it like this.
‘Dawn and dusk take turns calling ‘come and worship’
It is a message for all to see and hear – if only we will. For a glorious moment it lifts our eyes and our spirits from the obsessions, the pain and the burdens of the moment. It offers us an injection of cleansing beauty, of enlightening truth and of blessed hope. It’s a space in which to pause and say’, ‘Of course; Thank You,’ and to be still. For silence also is praise to You, our great God of love.
Response:
Make time to look and wonder at the God of creation.
Prayer:
Lord help me to hear the voice of Your creation as it reaches out to me in love and blessing. Amen.
“He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes” (Deuteronomy 10:21)
Reflection: Any child can show us that asking is the most natural of prayers. They also often show us how saying “Thank You’ has to be learned and become a habit. It is the same in our relationship with the Lord.
Prayers of Thanks and Praise are vital in our lives for three reasons. One is because God is worthy of the acknowledgement and honour. Another is that they make us recall what He has done and is doing in our lives. The third is to bring to mind the great promises that He has given us as his people.
We are surrounded with the gifts of God. The awesome wonder and beauty of creation and all that it gives us. The marvel of modern technology, medicine and scientific research. The gift and talents that are a part of each individual. Music, art, literature and sport.
There is the wonder of God’s love, His forgiveness and redemption, and the awesome and terrible sacrifice of Jesus Christ with the breath-taking reality of His resurrection and ascension. In addition there is the life-changing and enhancing gift of the Holy Spirit as our guarantee of the life to come.
Add to these the wonder of a sunrise and sunset, the early morning song of the garden birds, the haunting cry of a distant fish-eagle in the mist, the laughter of a child, the love of a dear one, and the companionship of friends. And what about the deafening authority of a black-clouded thunderstorm with arrows of spine-chilling light flashing through the heavens to both reveal and then blind us to the surrounding view.
These are only a few examples, but is it any wonder that the scriptures, and in particular the psalms, are packed with thanksgiving to God for all that He has done and provided – and with praise to the honour of this God who has done it all out of His great love. Time and again they exhort us to follow the example of the psalmist,
“Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever” (Psalm 106:1)
“I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders” (Psalm 9:1)
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name” (Psalm 100:4)
Try and weave thanksgiving and praise into your day as you travel through it. When something strikes you tell God how much you like it and how wonderful He is for what He has done – and allowed you to notice, appreciate and enjoy. Sometimes when I wake during the early hours I allow my mind to go back over some of the people I have known throughout my life – and I thank God for them and the blessing they have been. I also pray for them wherever and however they may be.
Response: Take time to notice, to appreciate and to be grateful – there is so much.
Prayer:
Lord please open my eyes to the countless blessings that have been, are and will be a part of my life. Thank You for Your generosity and the abundance of Your love. You are so wonderful, so loving and so aware of what will bless me and I am very, very grateful to You. Amen.
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you” (Psalm 89:14 ESV)
Reflection: This is a most wonderful and encouraging affirmation of the basic qualities of the nature of our God. As we think about them we could say that they are ones we would really want Him to possess and to exercise.
His sovereign rule is built upon and expresses His incorruptible righteousness and justice. He cannot do wrong, He cannot be bribed, persuaded or drawn away from what is right and just – and it will be true for His dealings with all peoples and each and every individual. His actions are not based upon His emotions or a state of mind that changes with circumstances. He is always completely fair and true in all that He does. Therefore He could never say that sin does not matter.
We may fear that this could show Him to be distant, legalistic and uncaring. However we are then told that everything about Him is revealed through a strong, unchanging and unconditional love. With this He is absolutely faithful in all that He says and does and so can be relied upon completely. He will never falter, fail or become feeble in any commitment that He has made. And so He Himself provides a solution to the desperate problem of sin.
It is His great love that binds Him to His people. It is the source of the covenants that reveal His desire for a relationship with them. It is the reason for the great sacrifice of salvation and redemption in Jesus Christ. It is the inspiration for the place that He has prepared for us in the world to come.
This is the Lord God whom we can trust completely, who will never let us down and who will ensure that indeed all things work for the good of those who love Him.
Response: Remind myself always that God is not like me
Prayer:
Father God You are constant and true, loving and faithful. Help me to remember this at all times – especially when I fail and when others do as well. Amen.
Softly, Spoke the River 