Visions Becoming Reality
7/6/15
The parched ground shall become a pool… —Isaiah 35:7
We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say that there is no point in even trying to continue. Instead of the vision becoming real to us, we have entered into a valley of humiliation.
Life is not as idle ore,
But iron dug from central gloom,
And battered by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.
But iron dug from central gloom,
And battered by the shocks of doom
To shape and use.
God gives us a vision, and then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of that vision. It is in the valley that so many of us give up and faint. Every God-given vision will become real if we will only have patience. Just think of the enormous amount of free time God has! He is never in a hurry. Yet we are always in such a frantic hurry. While still in the light of the glory of the vision, we go right out to do things, but the vision is not yet real in us. God has to take us into the valley and put us through fires and floods to batter us into shape, until we get to the point where He can trust us with the reality of the vision. Ever since God gave us the vision, He has been at work. He is getting us into the shape of the goal He has for us, and yet over and over again we try to escape from the Sculptor’s hand in an effort to batter ourselves into the shape of our own goal.
The vision that God gives is not some unattainable castle in the sky, but a vision of what God wants you to be down here. Allow the Potter to put you on His wheel and whirl you around as He desires. Then as surely as God is God, and you are you, you will turn out as an exact likeness of the vision. But don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had a vision from God, you may try as you will to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never allow it.
~ My Utmost for is Highest - Oswald Chambers
The Love of Christ for us, –– and us for Him –– provides an Oasis in the Desert that is earthly life. The Great Mystery of All Time lies in why most people, apparently, would prefer to die of thirst writhing in agony while casting aspersions at one another, when all they need to do for relief is to REACH OUT and TAKE the CUP of SALVATION freely offered by Our Lord, a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief –– a God who became a Man to show them He truly understands their needs.
ReplyDelete"To have your life, first you must (be willing to) lose it."
I suppose that's the Answer to the Riddle. We cling to our misery, because it's all we've ever known, and reject freeing ourselves from it for fear of losing our identity.
It's like clinging to a hot potato scorching and blistering our fingertips, because we're afraid we might starve to death if we let go of it.
"Come all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."
"His yoke is easy and His burthen is light."
Why mankind has had such difficulty believing that is The Central Question of Existence.