From Strength to Strength
There will never be a more peaceful place than when your heart, mind, and soul are one with the One who made your heart, mind, and soul
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin...Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world...No one is to appear before me empty-handed...Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God."
Exodus 34:6-7, 10, 12, 14, 16-17, 19-20, 26, 29
The covenant that God makes with us is to be our God and we are to be His people. We are to be one. One beautiful aspect of the covenant is that it is authentic. It is made between a perfect God and imperfect people. Why is does God have to be compassionate and gracious and slow to anger? Because He knows we need compassion, grace and patience for all the times we fall short.
The enemy of your life wants to separate the oneness you have with God. He wants you to run and hide when rather than turn to God when we live out the imperfections of our humanity. One of the ways to fight back against separation is through trust. Nothing will demonstrate your trust in God like generosity. It is an outward expression of the trust you have on the inside. What will you offer to God as a statement of trust and reflection of your desire to be one with Him?
“How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord...Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere...no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.”
Psalms 84:1-2, 4-5, 7, 10-11
Compare and contrast the action words that David uses with how you are approaching today. Are you walking out your salvation from a place of victory? Do you feel the strength of the Lord as you move a day further the pilgrimage that is your life on this planet? David encourages the people to keep moving towards the heavenly prize of eternal dwelling with God.
What does weakness make you want to do? It makes you want to stop. Stay. Quit. God calls us higher, deeper, and further. David says blessed are those whose strength is in the Lord for they will never stop pursuing a life connected to God.
“And what does pleasure accomplish?”...I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil."
Ecclesiastes 2:2, 4, 9-11, 13, 22, 24-26
If nothing else, Solomon was a pursuer. He wanted to know what was best way to spend the days of his life. He pursued pleasure and probably had a lot of fun doing it. The problem is pleasures of life are like dining on sugar. There is no substance to temporary treats. How often do we fall into the temptation trap? How often do we spend our precious time pursuing the pleasures that will never please our soul?
Solomon pursued purpose. He built, created, and accomplished. What did he find? Anything that is built for this world holds only worldly value. Deeper purpose comes from living out one's kingdom identity and finding satisfaction in becoming who you are made to be. Have you asked the Lord what would bring the most meaning to your life? Have you reflected on what brings you satisfaction?
“Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message...So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.”
Jeremiah 18:1-4
God is the potter and we are the clay. In Romans, Paul says God makes all things work for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. Translation, God does not cause all things you experience, but He uses everything you go through to mold you into the image of His Son. He never wastes a hurt or a heroic moment.
How would it change how you feel about the most difficult thing you face or your greatest fear if you embraced the truth that you are held in the palm of the Potter's hand and He will make all that you experience work for your good?
“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed...Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one...My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you...I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
John 17:1-2, 11, 13, 17, 20-21, 26
What does Jesus pray and what does He not pray? He does not pray that God would make life easy and allow people to just have fun doing their own thing. He does not pray for just the Jewish people. He does not pray that everyone would be perfect in all their actions, thoughts, and deeds like He is.
What does Jesus pray? He prays for oneness. Intimacy and abiding. He prays for all people, all hearts who have the humility to respond to His invitation to believe in Him. He prays that the covenant that was made with the chosen people would be strengthened through the God who gives strength to all people to love and trust Him with whatever we are willing to offer. You are meant to stand on the truth that you are loved and walk from a place of victory, from strength to strength, as you follow your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the pilgrimage that is this life. Better is one day in His courts than thousands elsewhere.