And then – in the dawn I saw Him,
He Whom my heart loveth so.
I found Him, held Him and told Him
I never could let Him go.
(Cant. 3:1-5)
Walkin’ On Water
And then – in the dawn I saw Him,
He Whom my heart loveth so.
I found Him, held Him and told Him
I never could let Him go.
(Cant. 3:1-5)
The following passage is one I love so much and when I found commentary by Charles Spurgeon on it, I had to insert and share it, I felt like I found gold… sitting there with arms up in the air in victory and everything. I love when the Lord moves in such a way that you cannot speak… you can only feel. This passage came to my mind while praying for relief from the chaos in my head that had come out of nowhere, and I felt like I was like these guys on this ship in a storm and I had no idea where it had come from or how it would ever stop. He spoke calm to my storm and said that He was teaching me to not just walk on the water, but to walk above even the waves and to be a warrior that sees an attack coming and is suited and armed and ready so that he is not caught off guard. This particular attack came in the form of distraction.
Some go down to the sea and travel over it in ships to do business in great waters; These see the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep. For He commands and raises up the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. Those aboard mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the deeps; their courage melts away because of their plight. (Those who have been on the spiritual deep in one of the great storms which occasionally agitate the soul know what this verse means. In these spiritual cyclones presumption alternates with despair, indifference with agony! No heart is left for anything, courage is gone, hope is almost dead. Such an experience is as real as the tossing of a literal tempest and far more painful. Some of us have weathered many such an internal hurricane, and have indeed seen the Lord’s wondrous works.- Spurgeon Comm.) They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits’ end all their wisdom has come to nothing. (Their fears drive them out of all power to use their brains, and therefore they look like intoxicated men. And are at their wit’s end. What more can they do? They have used every expedient known to navigation, but the ship is so strained and beaten about that they know not how to keep her afloat. Here too the spiritual mariner’s log agrees with that of the sailor on the sea. We have staggered frightfully! We could stand to nothing and hold by nothing. We knew not what to do, and could have done nothing if we had known it. We were as men distracted, and felt as if destruction itself would be better than our horrible state of suspense. As for wit and wisdom, they were clean washed out of us, we felt ourselves to be at a nonplus altogether.-Spurgeon Comm.) Then they cry to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. (Though at their wit’s end, they had wit enough to pray; their heart was melted, and it ran out in cries for help. This was well and ended well, for it is written, And he brought them out of their distresses. Prayer is good in a storm. We may pray staggering and reeling, and pray when we are at our wit’s end. God will hear us amid the thunder and answer us out of the storm. He brought their distresses upon the mariners, and therefore they did well to turn to him for the removal of them; nor did they look in vain.-Spurgeon Comm.) He hushes the storm to a calm and to a gentle whisper, so that the waves of the sea are still. (So that the waves there are still. They bow in silence at his feet. Where huge billows leaped aloft there is scarce a ripple to be seen. When God makes peace it is peace indeed, the peace of God which passes all understanding. He can in an instant change the condition of a man’s mind, so that it shall seem an absolute miracle to him that he has passed so suddenly from hurricane to calm. -Spurgeon Comm.) Then the men are glad because of the calm, and He brings them to their desired haven. (We should long ago have been wrecked if it had not been for his preserving hand, and our only hope of outliving the storms of the future is based upon his wisdom, faithfulness and power. -Spurgeon Comm.) Oh, that men would praise and confess to the Lord for His goodness and loving-kindness and His wonderful works to the children of men! Psalm 107:23-31
Distraction is one of the most subtle attacks of the enemy. It is his goal to keep you away from God’s Word. You don’t see it coming at all, just out of nowhere you get blindsided… you look up and bam… you are a wreck. When things out of the ordinary happen, especially when they are big things or things that last a long time, our life changes. If we are not careful to prevent anything from taking our time away from the Lord, it will slowly, bit by bit, draw back a little at a time and you barely notice. At first you may put it off and then never get to it, and then after a while the enemy can just steal it all. Out of the blue, it seems, you realize that your world is upside down. I may sound like a broken record, but the difference in a life between time with God and not is like night and day.. it’s like death and survival… starvation and well-fed… I do not for the life of me understand how anyone gets through this life without time with God, quietly listening for Him to speak to you through His Word and spending time in worship… I would die. He is pretty much on my mind 24/7 and that’s just become normal to me. I had a bunch of changes happen and I wasn’t paying attention and the next thing I knew, I was lost… upside down… and falling apart worse than a train wreck. This leads me back to the Word, that is my life, which saved me once again.
He said “For you, the Eternal’s Word is your happiness. It is your focus – from dusk to dawn. (Psalm 1:2 TV)
When the battle is really big and the attack is overwhelming, God uses these times in my life to remind me of what it feels like to lose that strong connection with Him. We can get so used to drawing on Him & His Word that we begin to forget that we are not doing it ourselves. I’m so thankful He does this because I never want to forget how He rescues me and I never want to forget what a miracle my relationship with Him is! He reminds me that it all comes from Him – even the desire for Him… so when this battle passes I will remember well and it’s like falling in love all over again, and I give Him glory and praise and thanksgiving for how He holds on to me! He holds on tight! At the same time we learn to experience the feelings of frustration and chaos that some people experience all the time & we are able to comfort them with this comfort that we are receiving.
When we are so deep in battle that we have dropped the sword and are unable to use its sharp edges to slice our way through – we have to drop to our knees and remember He is our only hope & realize that it is no strange thing. Our Father pulls us aside and shakes things a bit to train us to war in the spirit on a higher level each time – and to remind us that its not flesh and blood or even circumstances we are being overwhelmed by – its the enemy of our soul who has come to steal our peace, our hope & even our weapons of warfare by stealing the Word from us.
That is why we ought to pay even closer attention to the voice that has been speaking so that we will never drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1 TV)
Love,
Dana
His Words Are Kisses 