For His Own Sake

"and taken it out of the heart of God who promised it to us."

GOD STILL finds this world beautiful. Every hill, every mountain, all its flora and fauna please Him. Yes, He remembers its original design. It was perfect in all its beauty. But where we think He’s sat down and reworked its remaking, we’ve missed His heart for what remains.

There is a passage in Ezekiel where Jehovah (Hashem to the Jews) heals the damage done through sin on the land. Where there were high places, false idols of worship, where there’s been damage to the land, He promises healing. This moves me. It also inspires me. I have claimed it for our property where we live. We had huge ant mounds in previous years. Now, we don’t. We have iron-tinged well-water. But didn’t He heal the waters at Marah (Exodus 15:25)? This may seem over-the-top to you, but I’m making a point. We have what we believe. Not what we refuse to deal with.

God blesses our crops and our flocks (Deuteronomy 28:4), whether those are actual farm animals or just your dog. He healed my dog, Ginger, of a skin problem she’d had all her life. It was g-o-n-e, gone, the last year or so of her life, and I could not forget it, in the light of my personal struggles. Many times, I’d say, “But He healed my dog,” and was so encouraged.

What do you need today? What would you like to see happen? Too much teaching is done on God using sickness and poverty as a time of learning, whether it is meant to blame God for the sickness and poverty, or it is meant as an opportunity He takes. Neither one is technically correct. I’ve pointed out He knows all things. This thinking is our lack of knowledge. We humanize Him, and though He understands us completely, especially Jesus, He is human, we make Him far less. Human-designed gods, small g, have all our failures. Jesus doesn’t. He is sinless and holy. Abba, our Father, is Spirit only. He is completely good, without faults or flaws. He’s funny at times, in an awestruck way. I laugh and am in wonder at how grand and high He is. The Spirit has a funny bone, too. Why do I include these? Because by far, the thing that is the most unexpected as I grow close to God is their love for all of this planet, its natural places, its population, and most of all, its healing.

God is who put this promise in John’s Revelation (Revelation 21:4-5). And it is because He desires it. He longs to see us remade new, for there to be no more death, nor more sorrow. We’ve turned this into our longing, almost an impossibility, and taken it out of the heart of God who promised it to us. Not as a generous gift, outside of Him, but one from the deepest places, where love grows. Love that created all that surrounds us, giving to the earth a magic and multiplication, a grandeur and wealth, that sustains it still today.

For the sun rises in the east and sets in the west still. The tides come and go. And in its valleys, in its oceans, on its mountaintops are creatures the likes of which marvel us. Meant to bring Him happiness. We bring Him happiness, and for His own sake (Isaiah 63:14;Psalm 23:3), He cannot wait until all is as He is, perfected. Us, as children of God. But Fido and Spot, too.

“But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded: And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 36:8-11)

Illustration by Annie Spratt on Unsplash


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