Weather report from : Sunny and bright with an abundance of light, and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Scripture- “And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”- Isaiah 6:3-5
Insight: One of the things that blew me away when I first became a Christian was the concept that we have direct access to God’s throne of grace through Jesus Christ. We don’t need any intermediaries, we can simply go and be in His presence as we so desire. All we need is some alone time, and a willingness to read scripture, pray and listen for Him to communicate with us. Sometimes, the communication comes immediately through a providing of wisdom confirmed in His word, and sometimes it can take months or years. But it definitely comes. On my first occasion some 20 years ago of truly seeking God, during intense seeking and longing to draw close to Him, He revealed to me the depth of my sin. How my whole life up until I encountered Him had been lived on my own terms, led by my own decisions, and many times those were in ways that were totally opposed to His ways and His commandments. Of course, I wouldn’t have known this had I not encountered Him, because no one had ever told me this, and I had never pursued any kind of faith or relationship with Him at all. But what He showed me changed my life forever. He broke me to my core when He showed me the depth of my sin. But then He showed me the depth of His love for me as I repented of those sins, and His grace and forgiveness washed over me and truly set me free. In fact, He whispered to my heart that I could never know the depth of His love until I was made aware of the depth of my sin. Wow. This was an amazingly cathartic moment for me. I came closer to God, after I had initially tried to flee when my shame and guilt led to me being broken before Him. But He let me know He would quickly restore me, and all things would be redeemed eventually for my good. But first, I needed to admit my sins and turn away from my tight grip on my life and let Him be my Lord & Savior going forward.
This is probably similar to the experience Isaiah had as written above in Isaiah 6:3-5 when his proximity to God broke Him, and he felt terrified to even be in the Lord’s presence. He saw the size of the chasm that existed between him, a sinful man, and a truly righteous and Holy God. This proximity to God will always lead to brokenness. But if that brokenness leads to heartfelt repentance, then on the other side of that is a glory that can not be found anywhere else. It is a freedom of a soul that has truly been set free. That is an incomparable experience, and one that I think is at the very heart of the Christian faith. We must be broken, in order to be set free. For we truly will never know the depth of God’s love until we know and see the depth of our sin. The result of our brokenness is a vessel that has been cleared out enough for God to come flowing in. C.S. Lewis summed it up this way: “God gives His gifts where He finds the vessel empty enough to receive them.” The greatest gift is knowing first hand the depth of His love for us. Nothing else can ever compare to that!
Prayer: Father God, thank You for the depth of your love which overcomes even the depth of our insidious sin. You love truly sets us free and redeems us from all of our guilt and shame. Amen!
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