Good and Severe

"Safe? Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." — Mr. Beaver (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, Ch. 8)

My life has changed so much in the last year. It seems God has led me into the "valley of the shadow of death."

Today as I sat crying out to the Lord, longing for His salvation in my situation; longing for His right ways in my life, God renewed in me a desire to continue to speak out the encouragement He's given me, and to not stop just because I'm surrounded by pain and rejection.

So here's what I wanted to share:

Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God... -Romans 11:22 NKJV

Goodness and severity. Two things that don't seem to go together in my mind. But I find a strange fascination and comfort in believing that the Creator of the Universe, my Savior, and Lover of my soul is both good and severe.

I don't appeal to just a "nice guy" when I desperately cry out to God in my messed up life. I appeal to the severe One who controls all things; who led me into the situation I'm in. For, "He guides me... even when I walk through the darkest valley." (Psalm 23:4) And "{He} prepares a feast for me in the presence of my enemies." (Psalm 23:5)

I might not want God to be severe, but when facing desperate need, the only One who can really save me is the severe One who led me to that path of desperation in the first place.

If a judge lays down a heavy judgement against me, I might turn and plead to my nice neighbor until I'm blue in the face, but he isn't the one who laid such a severe penalty on me. He might be nice, yet he can't help me get out of the situation I find myself in. However, if I appeal to the severe judge, I appeal to the only one who can really do anything about my situation. And if out of His utter goodness He chooses to pay the judgement Himself, to take it away from me, I have been saved from that judgement indeed!

I'm glad God is good and severe. I need Him to be both. I fear His severity, yet I can't complain against it because He's so purely good. I know if ever He is severe with me, He's doing it in total goodness and for my good. And if He is severe with me I also treasure His goodness all the more. I can appeal to the goodness of the only One who can do anything about my desperate life.

Psalm 130:

A Song of Ascents.

Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD; Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications. If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But [there is] forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, And in His word I do hope. My soul
[waits] for the Lord More than those who watch for the morning-- [Yes, more than] those who watch for the morning. {Oh Sheila}, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD [there is] mercy, And with Him [is] abundant redemption. And He shall redeem {Sheila} From all {her}iniquities. (personal application added by me)

"The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up. The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust [And] lifts the beggar from the ash heap, To set [them] among princes And make them inherit the throne of glory. "For the pillars of the earth [are] the LORD's, And He has set the world upon them." - 1 Samuel 2:6-8 NKJV

Oh LORD, only You have every right to be severe. Only You can truly do good without any false motives or selfishness. Only with You is there real salvation and forgiveness. Only with You is there real deliverance and life! I boldly run to You King of the Universe! Let Your goodness be known in my life!

Isaiah 51:3

On the fear of God and the sea

" 'Do you not fear Me?' says the LORD. 'Will you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.'... Behold, a people comes from the north country, and a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth. They will lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, as men of war set in array against you, O daughter of Zion." (Jeremiah 5:22, 6:22-23)

I've been reading through Jeremiah. Whoa! Or I should say Woe! Woe is me, for I am a woman who has feared man not God. The heartcry of the true and Living God in Jeremiah is:

Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a a salt land which is not inhabited.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yeilding fruit. (Jeremiah 17:5-8)

It is not some great wall I've built to keep the waves of sin and the enemy from overtaking me that keep them out... it is simply the Word of God. Just as it is not a mighty wall that man built which keeps the oceans from over taking the land, but simply the Word of God.

Think about that. Think about the beach. It's sand there. Flat, smooth, sand. There is nothing keeping the oceans back. There is nothing to keep the roaring waves from engulfing the coast except the word of the Unseen God who says to the oceans, "Stop there, at the pitiful little grains of sand. Stop there." He is also the God who says, "Flood! Rush in! Overtake! Drown the coast!"

In my life I must not make flesh my strength. If I do, God may say, "Flood!" just to remind me that it is not my strength which keeps back the terror of the enemy and the destruction of sin in my life, but it is simply His word.

This is why I must obey His word. It's His word that is holding back the enemy and sin from dominating me. It is not self-righteousness to obey God's word to me, it's fearing Him. It's trusting Him. It's believing He keeps the oceans back by His word.

The enemy is cruel and shows no mercy. His voice roars like the sea out there while God's word holds him back. I can hear his roars and I must rest in God's word which commands him to stay where he is. I can hear his roars and I must not depart from the LORD and begin to think because I'm doing some thing I think is good or strong or honorable in the eyes of men that I am keeping the ocean of sin and the cruel enemy. I must also not think just because I see nothing seperating me (the sand) from the enemy (the ocean) that I can do whatever I want. God's word is holding destruction back from me and so I must walk in the Word. His grace and mercy has covered my sins and drowned them in the sea. I died with Him (the Word made flesh) on the cross. It's not my flesh holding the enemy back... my flesh died with Christ. I can't just do what I want... I'm dead in Christ. The only life, the only strength I have is in His life.

Oh let me walk in such fear in my stay here. There is a sea of sin and an ocean of cruel enemies ready and willing to overtake me if the God who holds them back says, "Okay." He is a patient God. He is a merciful God. He is the God who laid down His life for me. So let me not test Him. Let me not trample His grace underfoot. Let me say, "You are good and You are all that is keeping destruction from me, therefore I will trust in You and in Your instructions to me. Let the enemy roar. Let him threaten, for You who died for me have held him back."

Isaiah 51:3