I shared the following with a few family members yesterday morning. I offer it here as written, trusting that the Lord will use it as He chooses.
Good morning,
From and to all eternity, God has an unfathomable plan. Out of the abundance of His heart came all of creation. What a beautiful display of His magnificence! Billions of galaxies, countless stars, and the earth with all of its exactness for sustaining our lives.
“What is man, that You are mindful of him?”
What a holy desire and purpose He has in His heart to share His life with us, His treasure in earthen vessels! This was in His heart before He created! From the beginning, God saw that it was “not good for the man to be alone.” Oh, we must see the beautiful picture here of God’s immeasurable love and His desire for us to share in life with Him! He said “I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Where did this desire come from? From the limitless depths of His heart!
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (one called alongside to help), that He may be with you forever…He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you…He will testify about Me…He will take of Mine and will disclose to you.”
God, desiring to “bring many sons to glory” and seeing how blessed it is for men and women to fill the earth and walk together in unity, took a rib out of the man and created a helper, Eve. God, out of the depths of His heart, poured out His love within our hearts “through the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.”
“Man should not walk alone,” but by the power, might, nature, and life of the living Lord Jesus Christ, dwelling richly in our hearts through faith!
As the Lord was opening my eyes to see this this morning, I thought of my wife, still asleep, and heard the Lord say to my heart in such love and gentleness, “Now, help her.”
What an honor it is to serve the Living God, together, both in Him and with others! It isn’t mere service, just providing our hands and feet to complete necessary tasks out of necessity. We’ve created robots to automate these things.
It is being where He is, at His appointed place, with His life emanating from within.
“Not My will but Yours be done” then touches everything. As we see Him by faith with the eyes of our hearts, and as we see His holy purpose (to conform His saints to His image, to gather all things to Himself), our hearts cry out, “that I may know Him in every area of my life, nothing excepted!”
Yes, Lord.
God has a longing desire, and all of His desires are bound up in His Son. That’s one side of it, bound up.1 But “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is emancipation!” This is emancipation from all of that which seeks to please God through works of the law. Trying to please God by following “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt nots” is bondage! What spiritual arrest there is when man “touches the cart,” trying to steady what belongs to God alone! God’s holy purpose is always moving forward, not governed by human hands, “but by My Spirit,” says the Lord.
Paul said the Spirit-governed life is marked by life and peace! Life: the preeminent quality of all that flows from the heart of God. “In Him was life…” Peace: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Rest cannot be manufactured outwardly just as life cannot be produced outwardly. Both flow from the endless River of God, the River of Life!
May God open our eyes to see Him as never before. In seeing Him, may we come to an end, “…no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” being transformed more into His beautiful likeness.
“…to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
Love,
Eric
See Colossians 2:2-3