Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Guest Post by NewDayPT.

Learning, Lord. Speak Lord; your servant is listening.

Luther said: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord, subject to none. A Christian is a dutiful servant, subject to all.”

I’m hearing: I wield all, my daughter. I move you here and there throughout your life, and it is not the destination that matters, but the journey.  You arrive at My will for you when you realize that I AM Sovereign; I wield all.   The servant—the doulos—does not say to the Master, “don’t use me in such a way!”  This is what I meant when I gave you Matthew 11:28 all those years ago!  Bend your neck to MY yoke and I will give you rest.  And what is rest?  Freedom from all care; freedom from all struggle; knowing in your heart that you are mine and I am yours and I AM Sovereign; I wield all.  To me, you are perfect as Job was perfect (Job 1:1); when I look upon you I see a heart and a spirit yielded to me and I see My Son.  The image of My Son is sharp and in focus as long as you stay yielded; it blurs when you strain against the yoke, but the image doesn’t change.  I don’t look upon you and see another: I see only Him.  Rest in this, my beautiful daughter!  Rest in this! 

Wow, Lord. I see the dichotomy.  Perfectly free, subject to all.  Perfectly free when I’m yielded and surrender my rights and at the same time subject to all who use me despitefully.  The thing I must see is this: it is YOUR hand that moves me thus and fro.  It is not another’s hand.

Reading this day: Job 1. Four messengers deliver heart-breaking news to him, and yet he stood on the truth:

“. . .the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Sovereign. You wield all.  Three times you’ve said it, Lord, and I know that’s important.

Wield (Webster’s New World Dictionary): “to handle and use a tool or weapon, especially with skill and control; to exercise power, influence; to govern or rule.”

Sovereign: “above or superior to all others; chief, greatest; supreme in power; of or holding the position of ruler; royal; reigning; independent of all others.”

In my struggles I am learning to ask the right question: not “Why, Lord?” but “Who are You, Lord, in my pain?”