The Faithfulness of God

2 Corinthians 4:7: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

In Biblical times, clay jars were common household items. They were used for holding dry goods such as flour or seed or liquids like oil and wine. They were also fragile, easily broken and discarded.

These jars were definitely not used to store precious items. Yet Paul uses this analogy to point out how God stores His precious treasure in weak human vessels. If the vessel isn’t broken, the light can’t be seen streaming forth from it. 2 Cor 4:6: “For God…. made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory…”

In a world where the strife to perfection is an all-consuming past time for many, and social media confronts us with the perception of perfect people enjoying their flawlessly happy lives – it is comforting to know that God’s beauty is reflected by our brokenness. The light of His glory is displayed by the most commonplace, ordinary and plain item.

You might feel broken and worthless, but the Great Potter made you to be clay, to be mouldable in His hands. Even David in Psalms 31:12 declares: “I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.” 

God knows that we are fragile and prone to break in pieces. Yet it is this very quality that He relies on so that through our brokenness, His light can reach the darkness. People who are hurt and in need of hope aren’t looking for perfect people to help them. They are looking for the ones who have walked the same road of suffering. Instead of being dismayed or ashamed by it, we should embrace the glory that God can bring forth from it.

In Mark 14 and John 12 we read of Mary breaking an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume and pouring it on Jesus’ feet. John 12:3: “… And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

Secondly, through our brokenness, the fragrance of Christ is spread for the world to experience. The sweet aroma could not be released until the jar was broken. 

As we place more and more pressure on ourselves to be strong, perfect and flawless, God is calling us to accept the opposite. He is saying today that He knows our imperfections, He knows that we are cracked and weak, nonetheless He will allow for His treasure to shine through all our deficiencies.

And when we feel like it is the end and all is lost, it is actually only the beginning, for the Potter is busy forming something new:

Jeremiah 18:4: “But the pot he was shaping from clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him”.

Psalms 57:2: “I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfil his purpose for me.”

During the lockdown, the quietness and the evolving world around me often forced me to be still and think. And I mean really think and question many things. What I am I doing? Am I living a purposeful life? Am I still on the right path? Is God still pleased with me? I even considered quitting my job and doing full-time volunteer work.

My prayers often revolve around asking God to lead me into His purpose for me and to keep me on the right path. When I pondered on this verse in Psalms though, I realized it’s not up to me to fulfil my purpose. That’s great news, since one of my biggest fears in life is to miss His purposes for me. Yet David is saying that the one responsible to ensure your purpose is fulfilled, is God Himself.

I found this beautiful quote by Jefferson Bethke: “I mean what if you knew that you are God’s poetry. You were created, because someone else was creative. See, long ago he picked up his eternal paint brush, dipped in his glory, placed you in his story and said, they will live for me.”

It’s been a relief to realize I don’t have to do much except to ensure that I am obeying God and following his Word and His voice, and that I am living for Him. He will do the rest!

He is the ultimate creative genius and He continues to mould your story, revealing purpose little by little like a seed growing slowly from obscurity to the full glory of a shady tree.

Since you are moulded in His image there is creativity flowing in your veins. God wants to unleash that creativity and remove any obstacles that is blocking the flow of those channels within your heart and soul. As the ways of the world changed over the course of this year and new ideas had to flow from adversity, God wants to open up the flow of divine creative life through us so that we can be a blessing to those in need around us.

So I realized I don’t have to quit my job to make an impact on people’s lives. Even if I often feel frustrated by the daily irritations, God has placed me there for a reason and as I open up my life to let Him flow through me, His purposes will be revealed. I just have to be patient and trust His timing.

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New Wine

Luke 5:36-38: “He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.  And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.”

New wine is made from grapes that have recently been crushed. Many of us are experiencing crushing and overwhelming times at the moment. Many of us are frustrated and lonely and desperate to find hope and meaning for the difficulties that we are facing while adapting to new ways of life during this period of uncertainty. Some are a lot more hard-pressed than others. Yet I am sure that few have been able to escape the heaviness that leaks slowly into our hearts and sometimes threaten to flood our minds with dark thoughts and threats of hopelessness.

Yet it is exactly in these pressing times that God is doing a new thing. Hillsong Worship beautifully illustrates this in their song: “New Wine”:

“In the crushing, In the pressing, You are making New wine. In the soil, I Now surrender You are breaking New ground.

So I yield to you and to Your careful hand When I trust you I don’t need to understand….

Jesus, bring new wine out of me”

I believe God is using these times of adversity, to create new wineskins into which He will be pouring out His Spirit like never before.

He is making you into a new being amidst the crushing you are experiencing from all sides. I believe there will come a time, that we will never want to go back to the old wine. A time when we will be able to look back on everything and realize that God was working throughout it all, even if we didn’t see it at the time.

God has a new anointing and new blessings to give us, but He can’t deposit it into old vessels, as it will destroy the vessel. So He is using this time to create new vessels, but we have to surrender ourselves and our hearts to Him for Him to “break new ground”. We have to be willing to leave behind old ways and old habits and embrace the new that God has for us. It may be a painful process, but in the end, it will be worth it, for the joy it will bring forth:

Psalms 40:3: “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.”

The pain and hardships that we are facing in this time, need not be for nothing. I pray that we will use it as a catalyst to draw nearer to God and let Him use this time to shape us into vessels that will carry the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit into a world desperate for the love and healing only to be found in our God.

As I write this, I am expectantly waiting on God for a miracle in my personal life. Circumstances have made certain things impossible, but I am holding on to the hope that nothing is impossible with God.

As days and months and even years go by without my miracle transpiring, I find myself contemplating the meaning of faith. And questioning whether I have enough.

Hebrews 11:1 states that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”. Yet I can’t help but wonder, when will I see? How long must I have faith? Is God testing my faith during this waiting period? How do I know that my faith will be rewarded?

The questions keep popping up in my mind and I am not sure when or if ever I will have an answer. I do know what God expects of me though: Hebrews 10:38: “But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” As hard is it is to swallow, even if I don’t get my miracle, I know I should still have faith that God knows everything and is in control of everything.

My definition of faith is summarized in this short phrase: If you believe before you see, you will see what you believe. I know that God is a rewarder of faith and I know that; “Without faith it is impossible to please God…” (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is of utmost importance in our walk with Him.

So I pray for grace to be able to grow my faith and trust in His faithfulness. While there is still hope and if God has not said no, hold on to His promises, because He will reward your faith.

He shows this to us in Hebrews 11 as the writer celebrates the heroes of Faith. Noah had never seen rain, but he was warned about the coming destruction and he had faith that what God said would come to pass… Abraham had not yet seen any descendants expect for Isaac, and yet was told by God to go offer him as a sacrifice, his one and only son.

You too may have not yet seen your miracle either, but trust Him to give you faith in the waiting and hope in His promises – He will never fail you.

So, a small virus has managed to put entire countries in a state of disarray and chaos. Our relatively small country at the tip of Southern Africa has not managed to escape its trial of anarchy. Twenty plenty has turned into twenty catastrophe, for the entire world.

So here we are in lock-down for 3 weeks, shut between four walls in the so called safety of our homes, and today is day 9. It sounds like I’m keeping a log book while I’m counting down the days to the end of the world. A world which, no-one is sure will ever look the same again.

And it’s true; physically a lot of things might change after we emerge from this trial, but what about the spiritual landscape?

What is God doing in this time, when prophesies of end times are rampant and talk of revival fills the air? I do hope that we will see an amazing revival of His Bride, the Church when we are able to meet again in His House. I am almost sure that God is using this time to work in the hearts of His beloved ones to make them ready to ignite a flame of His glory which will spread rapidly across the nations at His appointed time. We can only pray and turn our hearts to Him as we make use of this time and quiet around us to reflect on His purposes.

Despite despair and hopelessness and the sense of loss we all carry during this time, God still has a perfect plan and will bring it to fruition because He already has the Victory. Not only is He victorious and He reigns high above all that we are seeing taking place now, but us, His children, are also victorious. And it’s time that we show the world the hope and the victory that He has given us. It’s time that we turn our eyes away from the things we see to the unseen, where He has already won the battle and defeated our Enemy. And if we live in this place of victory, we can surely echo it to the lost around us.

During these times, many turn to the Book of Revelation to find a map of the spiritual and physical state of events that will enfold during the last days, and with good reason. There is only one book in the Bible that specifically promises a blessing for those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it (Rev 1:3).

The Book of Revelation can be daunting and the imagery even disturbing, but it also reveals the majesty of God on His throne, and describes the Son of Man in all His glory. Revelation should reveal to us the reality of the coming King and the promise of a new Earth and a New Jerusalem where God will make His home among His children. Despite all the disasters that will befall the earth and humankind, there is a promise of hope for all those who are His.

There was a time when I used to be very skeptical of discussions around the end-times and especially those cautioning that the end is near. I didn’t like to engage in those kinds of talks because I felt like we will never know when the end will be, and I thought that it’s pointless to speculate about the events happening in our world today… Then one night last year, I had a frightening dream. In the dream I realized that the end of time had dawned, and I was trying to convince my husband of it, even as I felt myself rising into the air and into the clouds with other people. At some point everyone was high up in a building, but I was stuck in an elevator, rapidly plunging down to the depths of the earth. I woke up with an intense feeling of urgency that I couldn’t explain.

I’ve come to realize that we do need to ask God for wisdom to understand the times that we find ourselves in, and we need to be proactive to find His lost sheep before the end arrives. I find it interesting that of all the people in the world at the time of His birth over 2000 years ago, only the wise men had acted on the sign in the sky and searched for Him based on it. Although we don’t know the exact number of wise men, it is commonly believed that there were 3 of them. Of the entire earth’s population at the time, only 3 people searched for Him of their own accord – because they had seen and understood the sign.

I would like to be in that minority too when Jesus comes again. Revelation has opened my eyes again to searching for the signs of the times and living with the sense of urgency that it requires – my prayer is that it might do the same for you too, especially during these times, as the world looks to anyone who can offer them Hope and Light.

Envision this scene: a nameless woman was just caught in the act of adultery and a group of angry, bloodthirsty men, dragged her into the Temple courts where Jesus was busy teaching on that momentous day. Exposed, embarrassed, scared and vulnerable. I can only imagine how terrified she must have felt, as she trembled in the midst of her accusers, most likely knowing with near certainty that the final moments of her life will play out here, in the midst of this furious mob. (John 8:1-11 (NIV))

Yet we find Jesus in this same disturbing scene, seemingly indifferent to the chaos around Him, as He starts to write something on the ground with His finger. In His heart he might have thought the very words He uttered later in John 8:15 (AMP): “You judge according to human standards (just by what you see). I do not judge anyone.”

He could have exposed the Pharisees’ every sin and shortcoming. He could have named every sin of the woman cowering desperately before them. He could have written all this in the dust for all to see.

Yet this is not the nature of our loving Father. Of course we don’t know with any certainty what exactly He was writing so intently that day… Using this one clue, the fact that he was writing in the ground/dust, I believe there is a possibility that He could have written the words of Psalm 103 before them in the dust that day. It is in this specific Psalm that David so tenderly points out that God “…knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14 (NIV)

Psalm 103:9-10 (NIV) in fact declares the exact words that Jesus then demonstrates in person on this day: “He will not always accuse… he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” And verse 12: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

I can see Jesus there, calmly writing in the dust, recalling the Psalm of David, and ensuring this woman that indeed, He remembers that we are just dust. In that moment He might have been meditating on the woman’s earthly frailty and He decides to have compassion on her, as a father has compassion on his children (Psalm 103:13(NIV)).

After all, of all the Biblical figures, David would have been the most familiar with the immense sorrow that the sin of adultery causes in one’s life. Who could have been more qualified to write about the Lord’s love and forgiveness as David did in Psalm 103? What joy it would have bought this woman, and can it still bring to each one of His children today to know that each of our sins, no matter what they are, has been removed as far as the east is from the west.

Jesus is our Redeemer and not our accuser. Just like this nameless woman, we can find comfort and rest in the knowledge that He never condemns us, and by His Grace neither should we ever condemn ourselves.

 

As I write this, we’ve been blessed with a few wonderful days of rain quenching the dry land. As the rain falls softly but continually, I am sure that some relief will be provided of the drought ravaging South Africa.

Hosea 6:3 states: “Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”

How beautifully does the writer proclaim the faithfulness of God, the promise of His coming to us as sure as the rain falls. The promise of His presence falling all around us like rain, filling the dry places of our hearts again.

But at the beginning of the verse Hosea urges us to acknowledge Him, pressing on to acknowledge Him. As much as we all love His presence, are we really willing to press on and acknowledge Him?

God fills the earth with the wonder of His nature, for us to acknowledge Him…

Joel 2:23: “…for He has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.”

God showers us with blessings; both on a physical plain and spiritually. It is out of His Hand that every good thing comes. We should ensure that we take the time to acknowledge Him before He takes it away….

Hosea 2:8-9: “She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil…Therefore I will take away my grain before it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready…”

Will it take a drought for us to acknowledge that God is the one who sends the rain? Out of His Hand we are fed and provided for. He wants us to acknowledge Him for every little thing in our lives. The sun rose this morning as a promise that He will appear. We only need to see the works of His Hands to honour Him and give Him glory for the majesty of His works and His continual provision for us.

Psalms 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

If we take the time to acknowledge Him there is this this wonderful promise:

Prov. 3:5-6: “Trust the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”