Listen to The Saturday Stoke
How can it be that God never changes? We almost can’t fathom it, can we?
We live in a transient world; marked by change and movement toward change. Technology becomes obsolete after only a few months.
We need new television shows, or we lose interest. And most people don’t stay in their current jobs for more than a few years.
Time marches on. Weeks turn into months, and the next thing you know, you haven’t seen your loved ones in a few years.
Change. Movement. Change. The world passes away before our eyes.
But then you run up against a verse like this:
Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed,for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
(Lamentations 3:22-26)
It’s not that God’s compassions change every day. It’s that they renew each morning. Think of it like this. His love for you greets you with the dawn. And if there’s one thing we know about the dawn, it will be there tomorrow, same time, same place.
God’s faithfulness remains a constant in our lives, like the dawn, even when the rest of the world drowns in a sea of change.
But there is also a challenge issued in these verses.
We are to seek him. We are to chase him. We are to pant for him, as the deer pants for streams of water.
Even though his faithfulness and love never change, he still wants us and waits for us, to seek him. What a beautiful picture of his precious love for us.
Here’s a quick hack on how you and I can seek him this weekend.
We seek him, by resting in his guidance for that big decision we need to make next week. Remember, resting requires trust. And when we trust, we can more easily put Paul’s words into practice: be anxious for nothing. (Philippians 4:6-7)
I’m reminded here of the words by the French theologian and poet François Fénelon: “Let your anxiety flow away like a stream,” writes Fénelon, “Turn toward devotion and simplicity. Listen to God and be deaf to yourself. When you are in a place of calm and quiet rest, do all that you sense within your spirit.”
It’s a good reminder to make it a practice to routinely step out out the hurry, and into the seeking of God.
We seek him by stepping out of the transient world, and into the world of quiet holy reflection on God’s goodness: his provision for everyday needs, his grace in spiritual failings, and his promise to sustain us during our greatest times of need.
We seek him by slowing down. Do I need to explain this one?
By spending that little bit of extra time with your family who’ve been waiting for the weekend to see you. God loves to see us love one another by spending time with one another.
I am waiting in the quiet this morning, friends, and waiting in the hope that he’ll carry me through. I’m seeking him in the echoes of eternity rising before me in the colors of the dawn.
Step outside the mad rush, the heaving world of change, and into the unchanging and everlasting morning rise of God’s love.
Stay stoked my friends.
The Saturday Stoke #7