It's truly amazing to me how the Lord God was, and is, always, absolutely, and positively, sovereign in the lives of His people. As I continue to read the Christmas portion of Scripture there's such clear evidence that God is doing all that He has purposed to do from the begining, and even before that. He doesn't make it up as he goes along. Yet He works His will through our lives, and within our hearts.
Jesus is now 8 days old. His parents need to go to Jerusalem for Him to be circumcised, and for Mary to offer sacrifices for herself as well.
When they arrived in Jerusalem and went to the temple Joseph and Mary bumped into Simeon, who was full of the Holy Spirit, and who took Jesus "up in his arms, and blessed God".
Simeon was very excited, for he knew, beyond a doubt, that this was the Messiah, who would be "a light to lighten the Gentiles', and bring glory to Israel. Funny how Joseph and Mary marvelled at Simeon's prophetic words. You think they would have said, "Oh yes, you're spot on Simeon, Jesus is the Messiah". But they wondered once again about Jesus, and these words spoken of Him.
I think we can be very encouraged by this. If Mary was wondering, then how much more will we wonder at times about who the Lord is, and what He's doing in our lives. Not that we become doubtful. However, our Lord wants us to be real, and marvelling about who He is and what He's doing, is being real. It's a healthy thing to marvel, and yet, this will cause us to become even more certain, and assured, in our sovereign Lord and God, who is watching over every aspect of our lives. Rom. 8:28
Surely we need to know the truth of His Word more and more, so we can be set more and more free. This Liberty we gain also brings to our hearts peace and comfort, as Simeon finally experienced when he saw Jesus, and held Him in his arms. What an honor for this servant of the Lord. And of course we will never hold the Christ child as he did, however, from understanding the truth of what happened, and now having Christ in heaven on His throne, and His Spirit in our hearts and lives we can have the same excitement as Simeon.
The closer we experience our Lord, the less we know who He is. And yet the less we know, means we are that much closer to His mercy, love, holiness, and goodness, and so at the same time we know Him in a greater way, though we know less of who He is.
2 comments:
He is marvelous indeed!
Indeed Craver! Nothing more marvellous, nor even close really. Though we usually don't experience just how wonerdous Christ truly is.
Post a Comment