But may all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness in you. May those who love your salvation repeatedly shout, "God is great!" But as for me, I am poor and needy; please hurry to my aide, O God. You are my helper and my savior; O LORD, do not delay. Psalm 70:4-5
This is a deep ache in me. It's a whiff of something wonderful my spiritual nose has smelled. I want my life to make God's beauty and goodness be clearly seen. Not that I try to doll God up and make Him beautiful, but that my life will act like a magnifying glass, bringing into greatness and clear focus that which may seem far off or hard to understand to those around me. I want my God to see an Imago Dei one again in me.
Once I was broken and I distorted the truth about my good God. And He looked twisted and convoluted and crooked and wrong to people. But then Christ came. Christ, THE Image of the invisible God. He did not distort the truth about God at all. Perfectly clear. Perfectly accurate. God in the flesh. He took all my brokenness to the grave and rose so he could work in me 2000 years later to make me a new creation, conformed to the image of the Son.
Do I want others to see the truth about God in me? Then I'll let the Potter mold me to be like His Son. Because the Son is how God wants to be seen. The Son is the truth about His goodness and the exactness of His beauty.
Oh let the Son be seen in me! Oh that people would see Christ in me and see a glimpse of the truth of how beautiful You are and how over-the-top is Your love for us, that you would not discard us but give us a Way to be made new.
Nothing is more beautiful than to be made like the Son! Nothing is more wonderful! Oh for the day when You are clearly seen as good. No more lies about You. No more creating entire systems and theories and lifestyles just to avoid You. No more hiding from You. No more denying You. No more being uncomfortable at the mention of Your name. No more feeling like you are some stuffy, religious old-man in the sky. No more feeling like you are a nameless, faceless, force of destruction. No more imagining you to be a great magic genie. No more abuse in your name. No more! Oh for the day when You make all things new. Even now, come, and make me new. This side of the reckoning make me a reflector of Your goodness, of Your glory!
But help me Lord! I want all this from the safety of my living room and laptop. But out there I fear man's looks too easily. Out there I suddenly don't know what to say. Out there I get to easily caught up with the day to day stuff and forget I'm YOURS! I am poor and needy! Please hurry to my aid, O God! You are my helper and my savior! Don't delay O Lord!
These revived me this week.
Watch how Gianna says, "... but I know in the age we live in, it is not at all politically correct to say the name of Jesus Christ in places like this; to bring him into these sorts of meetings because his name can make people so terribly uncomfortable. {Purposeful pause} Well I didn't survive so I could make everyone comfortable. I survived so I could stir things up a bit."
I want that kind of humble, happy, confident boldness.
Listen to the words. These grab me: Mighty God how I fear You and how I long to be near You...
Quieted,
Sheila
