Isaiah 55:8-9 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
(NLT)
Blessings on your day! Enjoy this video revealing the God of Wonders by Mac Powell of Third Day with Caedman's Call
Subscribers please click here to view this video on my blog site. Thank you!
Have you seen those ads where a climber reaches the peak
of a great precipice and stands with arms outstretched as the camera pans
around them? While I don’t harbor a fear of heights, if I were exhausted from
climbing to the top of that mountain, I don’t think I would balance
precariously on a jagged peak. Just sayin’.
The mountaintop experiences I savor are those I share with
God, and I needn’t climb to places of thin oxygen to find Him. Mountaintop
experiences can happen anywhere, and have more to do with my heart’s proximity
to God’s than with where I am.
These intense feelings of joy and peace saturate my spirit,
and I can’t help but smile and sometimes weep at the beauty of the moment.
Feeling so connected to my Creator, in oneness of thought and pure joy, is
exhilarating and peaceful all at the same time.
But I’ve come to realize I couldn’t enjoy these peak
experiences if I hadn’t first walked through the deepest valleys. Because it is
through the valleys of pain and sorrow where I met my Savior, or rather where
He met me.
There have been times when I’ve been at my lowest, when my
spirit was dark and my outlook on life even darker, and I couldn’t find any
hope to start my day. It was from
this deep valley of darkness that I was saved from my situation and from my own
dark thoughts by the only One who could save me.
I cried out to God and He whispered into my darkness that I
was not alone. That comfort helped me begin to find my way out of the pit of
darkness. In my deepest sorrow, a voice spoke softly to my
spirit “I am with you.” This ray of Hope shined like a beacon of Light leading the way out of the darkness. “Follow Me.”
I savor my mountaintop experiences with God, in pure joy and
oneness of Spirit. Though these may be ephemeral moments, I treasure them
knowing how far I have come to know this joy in my life through my relationship
with God. I would not have reached these peaks had I not first walked the
valleys. And through them I learned that I never walk alone.
"Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me." Psalm 23:4 (NLT)
Music speaks to my soul, and Mac Powell of Third Day shares my thoughts beautifully through this song, "Mountain of God." Subscribers please enjoy this video by clicking here.
While living in Texas years ago, I attended a Bible study in the home of a dear
friend from church. My friend had a old, dirty,
cracked flower pot on her table, and she shared that this can be how we feel about
ourselves in our unworthiness before our Lord and Savior. Then she brought forth from the
inside of the filthy pot a beautiful shining crystal vase, and told us all "this is
how God sees you". It took everything within me to not run crying from the room
and never come back.
I thought all God saw of me was my stains, my mistakes and
my failures. I felt I was a fake to be putting on this façade of a strong
Christian woman when inside I was so terribly broken. Perhaps some of you have
felt this way, too.
This video, with footage from the movie “The Story” makes me
weep. The lyrics tell the reason Jesus came; for us to live our story with all
of our failures and brokenness. We come before our Lord and He sees only our
possibilities. He sees our greatness and our potential. With lovingkindness and
forgiveness, our Savior releases us from the bondage of our past. We are born
again, made new in His sight. Our sins are forgotten; they are gone with the
wind. And even if we make more mistakes, and we will, because we are human after
all, we can come to our Lord and ask for forgiveness, and He will set our feet
on the pathway to righteousness once again.
Mac Powell of the band "Third Day" sings these words of truth: "Tell me your story, show me your wounds; and I'll show you what love sees, when love looks at you. Hand me the pieces, broken and bruised, and I'll show you what love sees, when love sees you."
No longer am I ashamed of what once defined me from my past. I am born again in the Spirit. I know Jesus as my Savior and my Lord. I am the daughter of a King! I am blessed. My friend, this is my Christmas wish for you, that you will come to know our Lord personally, and truly believe that you can made new.
If you are struggling with inner demons, He is the one who can save you. You deserve to live a life free from shame. Jesus came for you to live your story. And His great love can help you live your life with gratitude and peace. Do not believe the lie that this promise is not for you. It will be yours when you ask Jesus to come into your life. You can share with him all of your failures and successes. You can learn about His life through reading the New Testament of the Bible, and you can come to know Him personally by coming to Him in prayer. Ask Him for the direction your life should lead. This relationship can be the guiding force of your life. And it can begin with a simple prayer asking Jesus to come into your life.
We all need more than the simple existence of living life on this earth. Our lives are filled with challenges and sorrows, sufferings and joys. God can help us turn our challenges into triumphs, and our sorrows and suffering can help us grow into a closer relationship with Him. Our joys will be filled with gratitude and our rough places made smooth through knowing that God is always with us. Emmanuel, God with us. That is why He came.
