“I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who
is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to
revive the heart of the contrite.” That
is exactly the kind of God we need. We
need a God who is big enough to oversee all things, who has no peer or rival
but we also need a God who is not watching us from a distance, we need a God
who is near to us and cares for us intimately.
The promise is for the one who is of a contrite and lowly spirit. These are the ones to whom He will come and comfort
and revive. That has always been the
promise, from the time of the covenant and from the time of the temple. We have a role to play and that role is
repentance and contrition. We live in a
time when the message of radical grace is preached that requires no contrition,
in fact does not recognize the need for contrition in those who are saved. If we would have God’s best, we must be a
people who despise sin in our lives more than we hate it in others.
Jesus makes a promise for those who believe in Him. “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water.” The immanence of God, the notion
that He is with us and not watching from that distance of the heavenly throne,
is no more fully expressed and realized in the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit. When John wrote his Gospel you
can hear his amazement and wonder that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us
but, better than that, the Word dwells within us by the power of the Holy
Spirit. Life in the Spirit is meant to
be like this picture Jesus painted, rivers of living water flowing out of the
heart of the believer. The problem is
that we dam up the flow of those rivers through sin and through our allowing
the world and its cares and concerns to consume our thoughts and our
hearts. So long as we are seeking first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, those rivers will flow. As soon as we get distracted, the flow
ceases. Ask Him to show you what is
damming up the rivers of living water in your life.
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises
every son whom he receives.” Does that
sound like the early church believed the same things preached in some circles
today? The idea that God would
discipline, reprove or chastise His children is repugnant to that message. The Biblical witness is not that the Lord
loves His children without standards, that there is no room for Him to
discipline us is a monstrous distortion of the truth of the Word. We are not saved by works but when we are
saved there is a responsibility laid on our shoulders, to make known the ways
of the Lord not only by teaching but by living according to His Spirit guiding
us in all truth. When we go astray, that
path is dangerous to us and if He does not reprove us then He is not
loving. The Spirit is given for our
comfort and guidance and for His glory.
Let us not grieve the Spirit by our failure to listen and respond to His
correction when that is necessary.
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