Looking upon the dawn light this morning I was almost gazing with my mouth open at the deep red colours creeping up over the horizon. The sunrise had not happened but before the sunrise, the dawn light was creating some wonderful red and orange colours. I created a short poem whilst gazing on;
This Lonely figure on a tree
Blood spills over the horizon once more,
the dark scars fill with a running painful red.
His body is writhed with pain and sores,
from the nails in his flesh to the thorns in his head.
There is not an inch of his flesh that is free from sin,
but not one ounce of this is His own.
His arms outstretched ready to adopt the world His kin
In three days this debt would be sown.
And I before I found Him used to mock out loud,
at this lonely figure on the tree.
And how when He returns He will be riding on a cloud,
and all His people will at last be sin free.
Do we falter at the first sign of apathy or when results are not immediate? Trying to enthuse people with confidence can be the biggest hurdle. A couple of key people leave a project and suddenly it all seems to grind to a halt. Even starting projects again after the Christmas break can be a hurdle.
Moses coming down from the mountain for the first time and finding his people committing sin, after he had been gone a relatively short time is an example of people loosing heart, or having this apathy at a project.
[1] And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
We must fight against this very apathy. It is the very thing that can also get to me at times, and I have to constantly ask God to help me. When days seem to be flipping by at a fast speed you might think you are enjoying the weeks, but but might find you have been too busy to notice all the things going on.
Slowing down and spending time with God is the very tonic we need, not another bottle of red at the end of the day, or an hour escaping on a computer game, or what ever tonic you have, God is the healthy cure all.
Spending time with God and praying and developing this daily prayer time is extremely important. But I know how hard trying to find somewhere to pray can be, having worked in many environments with various degrees of bells and reminders to utilise your time so that companies can be as efficient as possible, when all you want to do is spend time with God.
God deserves better than a quick prayer at night or a prayer in your car, yes these are good but He, as our designer deserves better.
Is this too much to ask? Our God, creator and designer is waiting for an interview, a personal session and all we have to do is shut ourselves away somewhere. Perhaps that is why so many of the prophets found God when they were in the wilderness. We need to find our wilderness each day.
Children especially need encouragement, every morning there are those souls to whom it seems that the weight of the world is on their shoulders.
Do we ever lose heart, we look upon the weight of the burden that is placed upon us on a daily basis, perhaps much paperwork, perhaps hours of planning, perhaps there are people to find so that you can start the next section of the project, perhaps the travelling is a burden, tiring and you need to sleep? What ever burden, we all have them to varying degrees.
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you;
he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
I don’t like the word righteous because I don’t think I am in any way righteous without Jesus, but I do my best each day.
Jesus says;
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus is offering to take our burdens from us, and I trust that He can do that. But we must agree to take on Jesus’ burden and that is that we accept the Holy Spirit and change by following His guidance. There are many times that money concerns nearly got the better of me, but Jesus was always there, at the very last minute perhaps, or in unusual ways, but He was there, even before I knew Him, He knew me.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Watching the dawn light this morning I felt an awe come over me that Jesus took all of the worlds sin onto Himself, voluntary. He accepted that off His Father as a gift. But all my sin He also took on, and I felt moved that as the red seeped into the scars of the sky, Jesus’ blood ran red for me.
Snow lay on the ground, and red berries of a bush are a stark reminder of God’s sacrifice of His own Son and His blood to make us as white as snow. After the sunrise which was rather just bright, rather than colourful and awe inspiring, I could see the snow on the ground. That snow is how we now appear to God if we remain faithful to Christ and follow him with his burden. That burden we take from others, encourage everyone, help everyone, be a light in the darkness, be a follower of Christ so much that people will stop and ask you “what keeps you going?” and you can reply “My faith in Jesus Christ”
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen
With blessings
Graham
365 Exhortations 