This
morning began with the feeling that my heart had been stripped bare, and all I could
think of was how God would ever get through to me so I could know him in such a
state of distress. Or, despond. It is mornings like this that I am so thankful
God placed in his inspired word such a cry as, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within
me?” The fact he included it three times in such a small handful of verses
has become quite the treasure to my soul.[1]
After
considerable crying out to God about my state of being (perhaps ‘bellyaching’
would be a more apt description), I considered what the next passage in
Revelation could give me to transform me through the renewal of my mind.[2]
The statement that stood out to me was concerning “…a great multitude
that no one could number, from
every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages…”[3]
There is a consistent work of God in me to lead me to
change my focus from earthly things to heavenly things. It is as though my
Father comes to me via his Holy Spirit, puts his two hands on my stubbornly
preoccupied little face, and lifts my chin upwards so that I see the things
that are above, rather than the things that are below.
What is so significant right now is that, at the moment
that I feel my Father lifting my gaze upwards, I do not change my starting
place in this day, or this season of life, or this moment of encounter with
God. I am just as needy after this hand-on-my-chin experience as before. The
only difference is that the upward look into the face of my Father changes
which way my heart, soul, and mind will travel through the rest of the day.
I believe that the book of Revelation is God’s great and wonderful
gift to the church, graciously enabling us to do something that none of us seem
to do very well, and that is to look up. I don’t mean the “stiff upper lip” thing, or the advice of “keep your chin up”. Both of these imply a dependence on
self-reliance to handle emotions, rather than looking up to heaven for help
with whatever unruly and debilitating feelings we are facing, in whatever
impossible and hopeless circumstances we are enduring.
The Book of Revelation is one way that God ministers to us
so we can do his will. There is no way we can look at all the letters to the
churches, or the descriptive pictures of the book of Revelation, and imagine
that God demands more of us than we can give. It is quite the opposite. He is
the Father taking care of his weak and helpless children.[4] He is the Shepherd who knows what it is like to
watch his sheep scatter because the Shepherd was struck down.[5] He did not leave us with a book to follow on our
own strength. He did not leave us alone, to handle the army of the red dragon
as sheep without a shepherd. He said, “I
will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you,”[6] and that is exactly what he has done.
Jesus did not only come to us in the person of the Holy Spirit
who came as promised on the Day of Pentecost.[7] Jesus has also come to us through his word. He
tells us that our faith comes from hearing (not seeing), and our hearing comes
from the words of Christ, now gloriously recorded in the sacred and wonderful
Scriptures of the New Testament.[8]
And so, he gives us words to hear over and over again. The
Spirit speaks to us through the letters to the seven churches so that he can
say to every Christian, every generation of the church, every situation we are
going through, “He who has an ear, let
him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”[9] Every such declaration from God’s word tells us,
God is with us![10] He will never leave us nor forsake us![11]
And so, Father takes our chin in his hands and lifts our
gaze upward where we can look to Jesus,[12] and consider him.[13] He does not leave us to find the strength within
ourselves to look above, but turns our gaze upwards with his own words, the very
words that will build up our faith, and enable us to find his strength working
in us, causing us to see what he wants us to see.
When God’s word exhorts us to, “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right
hand of God,”[14] and to, “Set
your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,”[15] it is the personal presence of God ministering to
our hearts through his words, and by his Spirit, so that we can feel his hand
leading us, and helping us, to do the very thing he wants us to experience.
Now, here is the really big discovery from this morning. As
I felt what I equate as Father lifting my chin up so I would look into the
throne room of heaven,[16] it was not so that I would stop feeling the things
I was feeling, but so that I would pour out these feelings to him instead of
wallowing in them with my eyes looking down at my mud-stuck feet.
In other words, as soon as I realized what Father was
doing, and that he was making me look up at him, the feelings I was struggling
with did not immediately go away; they became more intense! They did not
dissipate in the light of God’s glorious grace, but the glory of his grace drew
me to know that I could be a little child telling my Father all about what I was
thinking, and feeling, and wondering.
My Father WANTED me to pour out my heart to him![17] He wanted me to feel my pain, and heartache, and
sorrow, and grief, and confusion, and hopelessness; but with HIM! He wasn’t
turning my face towards his face so that I could be brave, and be strong, and do
the right thing, and be better behaved, or to set a good example (at least in
the sense I imagined). He was turning my face towards his face so I could SEE
the face of my Shepherd, and Father, and Comforter.
The result of all this was that I came to experience this
particular revelation of Scripture better than I had ever appreciated it
before: “For God, who said, ‘Let light
shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”[18]
So, God shone into my heart THE WAY MY HEART WAS, to give
me the experience of looking into “the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” However,
he did not do this as some divine magician who suddenly made everything in my
heart go away. Rather, it was so that I could see the face of the one person to
whom I could safely pour out everything that was in my heart.
And, I have to say, that was exactly what I needed. I
wouldn’t say that I immediately felt all better, as though the condition of our
souls changes in an instant. Rather, I would say that I felt hopeful. The dark,
worthless, hopeless, feelings that surrounded my heartaches and sorrows were
replaced by light-filled, beloved child, feelings of hope.
The fact is that my Father is not going to stop shining
down on me with “the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God,”[19] so I might as well keep looking up at him and his
throne room of heaven, where we can, “with
confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help in time of need.”[20]
This morning I approached that throne of grace with such
darkness around my soul that I wasn’t sure what my Father would do to change me
in the least.[21] After he lifted my dirty little face towards his
heavenly countenance, I can honestly say that he showered me with mercy, and
gave me the grace to help me in my time of need, almost like he was already waiting
for me when my first despondent thought brought me to him this morning.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
Psalm 42:5,11; 43:5
[2]
As Romans 12:2 promises.
[3]
Revelation 7:9
[4]
Psalm 103:13-14
[5]
Matthew 26:31; Mark 14:27
[6]
John 14:18
[7]
See Acts 2
[8]
Romans 10:17
[9]
Revelation 2:7 (repeated in all the other six letters)
[10]
Matthew 1:23
[11]
Hebrews 13:5
[12]
Hebrews 12:2
[13]
Hebrews 12:3
[14]
Colossians 3:1
[15]
Colossians 3:2
[16]
This summarizes my whole journey through the book of Revelation thus far.
[17]
His word says so! Psalm 62:8; Lamentations 2:19
[18]
II Corinthians 4:6
[19]
II Corinthians 4:4
[20]
Hebrews 4:16
[21]
I didn’t doubt that he could, only that I couldn’t see any sign of how he
would.
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