A Lovely View

Psalm 39:8 “5 Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my age is as nothing before You;
Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah


I want to offer an assignment; I want us to write the screenplay of our lives with the intention of revealing all that has happened to make you the person you are today. This task will be far more difficult than you even imagine, because all those moments would take literally thousands of pages to reveal the true you.

Abraham is one of the central human figures in the entire Bible. His life is written in about 25 chapters in the Bible. Though there are many details about his travel and adventures in faith, there’s really more we don’t know about him and how his days were filled. Abraham lived 179 years, so the Bible is really giving a brief summary of his life, giving the most important details about his relationship with God.

My point is that many days of my life I feel despondent over my day to day living; it isn’t good enough to reflect the kind of Savior that loved me and redeemed the way Jesus did. Too many hours of my day just don’t reveal the character of a God who loves me and lives within me. But if I had to write my life down in 50 pages revealing the major points that God has impacted me, I might look pretty good on paper.

1 Peter 2: 5 “you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

It takes many moments to build these lively stones.

Jeremiah 18:4 “ And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!

A pastor who actually was a potter said that clay sometimes has to be treated before it can be molded into an object. He said some must age so it is put on a shelf; some has manure added to it to make it more pliable, and some is buried back in the ground until it’s consistency is ready. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness tending sheep before God had him in the wilderness 40 years tending God’s herd of Israelites. It took a lot of manure in Jacobs life to turn him from the usurper (meaning of Jacob’s name) into his new name, Israel, which means Prince (or champion) of God. Joseph was buried in the dungeon of a palace for years to become a type or representation of Christ that delivers the chosen people from utter destruction! God has a plan unfolding in our lives, though that plan, at times, may seem contrary to God's ultimate will.

When we read the Bible these heroes of faith, in their recorded lives, look much better than our lives. Their struggles are often a few lines and then deliverance. Consider the last ten years of your life and write them as a single paragraph. God suddenly appears to be more in command of your life, doesn’t He?

Seeing ourselves through God’s eyes will give us peace as the ship of our lives is tossed around this tumultuous ride on the planet earth. He asks us to abide and to love Him and each other, just for this one moment in time. If you can do that for this one moment, then your story has a happy ending, moment by moment.

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