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Thursday, July 30, 2015

Pastoral Pings ~ The Morning the Mourners are Comforted


          Sometimes when God convicts me of some sin I did not know was in my life, or a way that I am dragging my feet in doing his will, or some sarky[1] thought or habit that is holding me back from fully embracing his will, I’m just about to get all set to feel the deep mourning for whatever it is that is wrong, when suddenly a wave of joy comes over me at the wonderful gift of God’s grace to someone who is just like he is revealing.
          At times it is the awareness of the Beatitudes.[2] They tell me that it is a blessing of God’s grace to feel poverty of spirit. It is a blessing when we feel such mournfulness over our sin that we are sick and tired of being the way we are. It is a blessing from God’s gracious throne-room when we find ourselves feeling the meekness that knows it could never fix what is broken and messed up within us. And, it is God’s blessing on his children when they feel such a hunger and thirst for the righteousness that they do not have, that God is sure to satisfy them with the righteousness that he expresses and gives so freely in his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
          Other times I am comforted by the way God works through the Highers and Deepers as expressed in his ministry to the Samaritan woman.[3] When I consider how gently and graciously he spoke to her, moving from one Higher thought about him, to a Deeper thought about herself, I appreciate the gentle way he ministers to me so that I can accept each next Deeper as just as precious to my growth in Christ as the most amazing Highers I experience along the way.
          Sometimes I find comfort from knowing that God will not fail to carry on to completion what he has started in me.[4] He set out to have a people in his own image and likeness;[5] his Son secured our salvation so we can be restored to his image and likeness;[6]he is constantly working to conform us to the image and likeness of his Son “from one degree of glory to another”;[7] and one day we shall be just like Jesus when we see him face to face.[8] I have no doubt God will do that. I sometimes wonder if it could happen more quickly than I have experienced, but I humbly understand that there are far too many factors for me to dissect such wisdom and knowledge of God.
          There are so many other Scriptures that give me comfort that God is just as “okay” with me at my worst moments of immaturity as he was when I received Christ, and as he will be when I am with him in his image. The way he worked so powerfully through David as a man after his own heart, even though David sinned so grievously; and the way he worked through Peter even after Peter denied him three times; and the way he worked through Paul even though Paul (then Saul) relentlessly persecuted the church, all encourage me with the grace of God that glorifies God’s strength in our weakness.
          Knowing that all is always well with my soul because of the finished work of Jesus Christ does not make me satisfied to be as different from Jesus as I am. However, I am satisfied that God is working in me both to will and to work for his good pleasure, and so I give myself to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling.[9] What he does for his good pleasure is also for my complete joy,[10] and so it is imperative that I press on in my growth in Christ, painfully hopeful as that may be.
         
© 2015 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] “Sarx” is a transliteration of the Greek word translated “flesh” in the Bible. We use the words “sark” and “sarky” to refer to “the flesh” and its disposition to do things independent of God, trusting in self instead of the Holy Spirit.
[2] Matthew 5:1-12
[3] John 4:1-42
[4] Philippians 1:6
[5] Genesis 1:26-27
[6] Romans 8:28-30
[7] II Corinthians 3:18
[8] I John 3:1-2
[9] Philippians 2:12-13
[10] I John 1:4

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