(I write this blog from our first night of our elders retreat…where the theme comes from Zeph 3:17. Please, if you like my thoughts – press like either here on on FB or G+ Or engage the concept in discussion below… I love to know I am doing this for someone besides myself)
17 Your GOD is present among you, a strong Warrior there to save you. Happy to have you back, he’ll calm you with his love and delight you with his songs.
If God is our God, if Jesus reigns over us, the question is whether we will walk with Him, within a intimate relationship, while still letting Him maintain the responsibility in our lives. It is a interesting balance, but my recent devotions and readings, and even this retreat, seem to be focusing not on our responsibility as His servants, but rather, on His responsibility to us – what He commits Himself to accomplish in and for us.
This verse, like those we love to hear – Psalm 46:10 and Psalm 23 – are incredible intimate looks at God’s determination to be our Lord, our Master, to reign over our lives, as He cares for us. I love the power exhibited in this verse, the force that God commits to have our back, to calm us, and even beyond – to bring us delight – to create within us great joy.
The question is, can we free ourselves from the idols that would distract us from His calming influence, would we focus on Him rather than that which controls us with fear, or tempts us with thoughts of temporary escapes into pleasure. And that struggle to free us brings us to the point. Will we let God be God?
Can we realize that He has already broke the chains that our idols ensnared us?
He has… we are freed – to walk with Him, our Lord, our Savior, the One who comes to us,
Be calmed – find delight in His celebration of His rescuing you…