I have words for days, but today my heart aches.
Evil has been in the world God created since Adam & Eve did their thing. Not a day goes by that I wish they hadn’t have done it. But let’s face it, you and I would have probably done the same thing. As much as I’d like to be, none of us are immune to the human condition. We are, however, called to be more.
I have a devotional that I read and sometimes share on my Facebook page. It’s called “My Utmost For His Highest.” It takes a verse or two everyday and turns it into a lesson that my heart needs to hear. It is always relevant. I’m not a theologian, just a child of God that believes the Bible is a living word when we allow God to speak Life into it. When I feel my living God speaking through His word I can’t help but share it.
The last couple of days have been about mountain top experiences.
Do you know about those?
They are the times where we are on the mountain top with God like Peter, James, and John were in Mark 9. Times when we are so close to God that we see His glory and are filled with joy and faith. Those are experiences we never want to come down from.
Yesterday's devotional said this and it just struck a cord:
“The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain.”
On the mountain we are experiencing God. We are getting rest, basking in His glory. Coming down from the mountain is hard. We long to be nearer to God, but in the valley is where we battle for God. It is where we take our experience and spread the joy we obtained. In the trenches is where we learn lessons and share them with those who have never experienced time on the mountaintop. If you read on in Mark 9 you will see God's lesson to Peter, James, and John. He shows them why we need the valley through the man and his son who had an evil spirit. We must come down from our mountain top to fight the evil that lurks where we live.
Life is a series of mountain tops and valleys. We have good times and bad times.
I can't help but relate today's (October 2) devotional to the tragedies in the news.
It is also based out of Mark 9. I'll just leave it here:
I'm going to tell you my thoughts from this morning as I woke to the Vegas tragedy. I prayed:
"God I am so sorry that your creation has fallen so far. I am so embarrassed that we, as humans, are capable of this amount of evil and hate. I know that people question your existence and intentions when these kind of things happen and sometimes my faith waivers. Help me to hold my faith firm and share it with those around me. We have seen natural disasters lately that have brought us together as a human race. We have seen you in everyday generosity and now we are distracted from you by the hate in one man's heart. I am so sorry for the human race. Please forgive us. Please help me to overcome my anger and show love."
Then as I read my devotional, I realized that today my humiliation comes from the amount of evil we have allowed into our world. The thought occurred to me that we spend so much time focused on the evil that we fail to see the good things. We are overlooking the hundreds of people who where praying. We are turning a blind eye to the people that covered others with their bodies and the responders that ran INTO the gunfire to save people.
*John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
In our face is a lot of evil, and it is unfathomable, but also in our face is the epitome of what God intended for us. To love our neighbor. To lay down our life for our friends. To trust in Him when we feel like there is no where to go.
One girl on GMA this morning told of her friend who was praying over the dead bodies. That thought, that gesture, moves my soul and gives me hope.
There is good. There is good. There is good in this evil world.
*John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid."
*John 16:33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace in the world you will have tribulation' but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
I serve a mighty God. A God that was hated and overcame. A God that was killed, yet lives. A God that is faithful even when I am not.
We have mountain top experiences so that we can take them into the valley where there is trouble and tribulation, where we have to come face with it. Thankfully we don't have to face it alone.
This world is full of problems, but make no mistake, those problems stem from evil, from hate, and from a self-loathing that is only created away from a God that has already won, a God of hope.
If you don't know that God you have no idea what you are missing.
If you are looking for joy, for peace, for love, for acceptance, or to fill a void that you can't seem to fill with anything this world offers, I have an answer. It has nothing to do with a pyramid scheme and it doesn't cost you a dime. My God offers hope and love and faithfulness. He gives peace and calms the storms. The wind and the waves know him. I wish for you to know Him as well.
God bless y'all. Hug your people. Tell them that you love them. Prepare them. It is a heartbreaking place, this world, but if we can share our joy from the mountain top, this valley becomes full of God.
*John 1:5 "And the light sines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it."
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