One of the most amazing and majestic wonders on this earth in my
opinion are the great, “Grand Canyons”. While I have never seen them in person,
I have awed in wonder over the pictures that have displayed the beauty and
grandeur and the stories of how they were formed. The Canyons are simply
chasms that reach down into the deepest parts of the earth’s surface. Apart
from the few trees and shrubs that are able to attach itself to the sides or
walls inside the canyons and at the base of them, everything else is virtually
lifeless. Once where life was, is now a world of fossilized limestone and
sandstone within its crusty cliffs. God used powerful forces to impact the
canyons, with erosion from ice, water, volcano and winds, that all together
contributed to the formation that is now the majestic wonder that it is.
Sometimes, God uses a similar force in our lives that runs like a curvy river
that tries to push out of us pride, selfishness and other sin. There are times
in our lives when we give our marriage vows a Judas kiss, and thoughtlessly
slice another’s low self-esteem with a razor blade tongue. Often times when we
need to be a blessing to our enemy, or someone we think is unworthy of our
compassion, we pass sludge’s of rocks and mud onto them, instead of the bread
of kindness. Even as a river carves out a mountain, our love can created a
river flowing with love and compassion or a wedge that can prevent the
loveliness of God in us to pass through us, to reach the places that are dry in
our own lives, as well as allowing it to form a bridge that transforms the old
in us, to something with more splendor and beauty.
In I Corinthians 13, Paul lays out the blueprint for the bridge
that will transform our lives into a majestic wonder if we will allow it to cut
through the rock and sediment of wrong choices and waywardness against the One
who created us and loves us the most. For he states, “If I speak in the tongues
of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a
clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries
and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not
have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my
body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love
is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but
rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they
will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is
knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10
but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child,
I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I
became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a
reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three
remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Would you take a minute with me and close your eyes. In your mind
roll back the tape of your life. Listen to the way that you talk. See the way
that you appear not only to others, but to God through His eyes. How have
you treated others, really treated them. Are you quick to get on Facebook and
spew out revenge on someone that has hurt you by your own words. Are you really
any better than they are in God’s eyes, not merely your own, by which of course
is the standard that you are judging them with, and not Gods. Have you been
seeking the highest good you can find in others, or is it much easier to jump
on the bad that you see in their lives. Are you bridging the gaping canyon in
your own heart with love, or are you allowing it to further separate you from the will
of God in your personal life. A famous quote by William Shakespeare says this, “God
has given you one face, and you make yourself another.” Could this be true of
you today sweet friend? We are constantly feeling the pull from the stress
caused by life’s daily problems to pull out which ever face we may need, to
cover up what sin in us, is stirring up. But if we are in Christ, we must make
every effort to neglect the desire that lingers at our door to treat others as
sometimes we may being treated. Gen 4:7 tells us that “….But if you do
not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you,
but you must rule over it." It is possible and I am living proof that when
I surrender my will to God’s will, I can do things
through Christ who gives me the strength to do it. The handy
work of God is all around us. But, His crowning and greatest achievement, is in
His creation and forming of you and me, and in the end, His finished product
will be limited to how much we yield and surrender our lives to His will. What
are you allowing God to form in you?
Loving on you today,
Bren
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