Sit Down and Shut Up

"He's too much."

OUR NEED to fight has become a mental stronghold. There is no truth to “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt you.” The devil in one ear, God in the other, I’m both discouraged by the negativity and frustrated by God’s inaction, and so I do what anyone else would do, I fight back. I’ll take care of “me” and haul myself upward. Except an hour, two hours later, my determination is gone. I’m back to being tired.

We leave God out of our struggles. Or we include Him in theory. We sing loud, fast-paced songs about God as fire. We leap high and swing our arms like swords. We find us one of those “Praise you in the storm” songs. The energy expended in the leaping, in actuality, does nothing to build our spirit man. The words to the “God’s with me in these winds and waves” song put us together, me & Him. In theory, at least.

But all the laughter in the world is hollow without knowing why “The joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).” Being silly isn’t a cure. Jesus is the cure. Do we know why?

And I don’t mean recounting the story of His life, death, and Resurrection by rote. Do you know how all-encompassing it is? Do you know why Adam couldn’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Do you see the mercy seat at the gate of the Garden of Eden? That’s Jesus in Leviticus 1, where the bullock is killed. Do you understand the meaning of reins or kidneys? Why sometimes a bullock, and other times a lamb? Why a goat?

For that matter, why the Old Covenant? Why the New?

What we see is an angry God trying to form a nation that just wouldn’t form and so He blows up and destroys them again and again. When that isn’t the image of Him at all. We read the words of the prophets, and they seem like gobbledygook. Or we never go there. We’re New Testament people.

Jesus wasn’t.

He was born in the Old to fulfill the Old. Do you know what that means? The revelation of these things will blow your mind. The truth, that the God of heaven and earth saw Suzanne D. Williams thousands of years before she was even born and knew where she’d stand in this hour and how He felt about her, and He’d wait all this time, patiently, to pour out His goodness on her. It’s too much. He’s too much.

The New Testament is love from stem-to-stern. There’s not one place in it for hatred, revulsion, criticism, or being offended by people. Not one place. When you meet Jesus, when you see Him face-to-face, you’ll be embarrassed by what you said, what they said, about people. He’s the gentlest, kindest, most wonderful King. The Father is even softer and quieter. It only takes two words from Him, and you are changed.

The Holy Spirit is funny. Singer Brandon Lake said this, and I sat up. Because I’ve experienced it. He made jokes to get me laughing, and I couldn’t believe it. He’s also so patient and forgiving. But, boy, can He be tough, when we need to toe the line.

Do you know what He said to me? “Why would I make a demon into an angel?” I said what you just did, “What kind of question is that?” The answer makes my point. He wouldn’t. But He could. And I realized in knowing that about Him that He mourned the loss of those that chose evil. I realized all that they’d lost to become what they are and, “Now what do I do with it?” See like He does. That good is good and bad is evil, and God is on my side, and this isn’t a battle I’m in. This is not a debate. That’s what the adversary wants. Us continually on the defense. But us defending us without Them is a waste of energy.

Us resting in a green pasture beside still waters while They restore our soul is where we need to be. We must lay down our sword and put away our battleships. We must pick up our shield and know that it is made of God. His energy, His power which raised the dead body of our Savior, a dead, mutilated body, breathing it back to life, is formed of love unending and mercy everlasting and wisdom far greater which overflows upon us from an exceeding abundantly far over and above God, who became a frail, friable human in a Jewish culture that was hated, enslaved, for generations, and has been destroyed time and time again.

Just so we could be free. He fought the war. He won the victory. We reap the kingdom.

Luke 24:36-49, Weymouth
While they were thus talking, He Himself stood in their midst and said, "Peace be to you!" Startled, and in the utmost alarm, they thought they were looking at a spirit; but He said to them, "Why such alarm? And why are there such questionings in your minds? See my hands and my feet--it is my very self. Feel me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see I have." And then He showed them His hands and His feet. But, while they still could not believe it for joy and were full of astonishment, He asked them, "Have you any food here?" And they gave Him a piece of roasted fish, and He took it and ate it in their presence. And He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you--that everything must be fulfilled that is written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me." Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said, "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise again from among the dead; and that proclamation would be made, in His name, of repentance and forgiveness of sins to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses as to these things. And remember that I am about to send out my Father's promised gift to rest upon you. But, as for you, wait patiently in the city until you are clothed with power from on high."

Image by Karen .t from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com