Month: July 2024

Bigger Than Us

Scripture

The truths that are bigger than us, don’t let them become easy to miss. Don’t doze off. Pondering is a helpful non-waste of time. Just think through the wonder of a small seed that grows into a very tall sunflower plant. According to Wikipedia, the tallest sunflower on record achieved 9.17 m (30 ft. 1 in.) in height. Think about all that had to happen from the time of planting a small sunflower seed, to the time of the plant reaching such a great height.

Psalm 89:27,33-37 says, “And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth…But I will not remove from him My steadfast love or be false to My faithfulness. I will not violate My covenant or alter the word that went forth from My lips. Once for all I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, His throne as long as the sun before Me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” Psalm 89 is a Messianic psalm. It speaks of the coming Messiah in the family line of David. It affirms God’s covenant that lasts forever and will never change. It speaks of a “faith-in-God” people group and a “forever” kingdom. A big truth!

The truth of an Infinite Creator God is one of those bigger-than-us verities. God’s character is big and is expressed in many ways, especially revealed in His redemptive plan whereby Jesus, the established King and Savior, has secured victory over sin and death for those who have faith in Him. Failure to ponder this is truly an eternal risk. Not grappling with the Word of God is tantamount to fatal – a permanent oversight that has forever ramifications…

In this psalm, God promises He will not remove His faithfulness, will not violate His covenant, will not alter His word, and will not lie. What He establishes is forever. These “will nots” are big truths. Pondering God’s unchanging character and plan is more than a fruitful pursuit, far beyond the wonder of the height of the sunflower. Just because the truth of God is so big, we should not take it for granted.

Take time. Give thought. Open your mind and heart. Look and see the height and depth of Who God is and what He says. It is big.

Heart Highways

Scripture
Photo Credit Anna Christina Fordham

"Going" is what life does. You've heard it said, "Life goes on." The journey doesn't ever stop, even if it is upended by continuous disasters, minuscule and epic.

Psalm 84:5-7 says, "Blessed are those whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion."

The possibility that the heart can move forward when the body is pulling forcefully backward is the present reality of life in Christ on a planet  that is passing away. Believers are assured the journey is toward our heavenly home, an eternity that will never stop, where heart and body finally blend forward in their highways to Zion and arrive there! And then, no more wrenching tears, no more calamitous pain, no more betrayals. No more suffering. No more Valley of Baca...

The Valley of Baca in the Bible can be translated "the valley of weeping." Baca would include any difficult or devastating place in life. Any place of hopelessness. Any place of helplessness. Zion, on the other hand, is the "City of Holiness" or "city of refuge" in the Bible.  It is the place of hope. It is the place where God dwells, where the Lord protects His people. Where suffering ends. Where relationship with God is unhampered and joyful. Where nothing keeps the heart's highways from being Godward. Where nothing prevents the worship of the One True God. Where there is no more doubt. Where there is only certainty that God has kept all His promises. Where God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Where God reigns and all is well.

So how can the springs and early rains even be found in our present "valley of weeping?" Only via hearts that are truly highways to Zion, where Zion is the place of God's presence now and in the future, full of the springs of His life-giving word, packed with the refreshing rains of His mercy and grace, abounding in pools of truth and selfless love. These highways of the heart have no detours, no construction slow-downs, no left-lane sitters. These highways flow unimpeded in one direction - toward Him.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

Let the highways of your heart point you to Zion.