Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
We get lulled to sleep by the sameness of every day, broken only (in our view) with tradegy and pain. We r*. . gain, we lose. We work
Unurcn hard and spend all we earned. Where is all this going? Is this just life? Is this all there is to life?
As a preacher, I am quick to answer, no! There is much more to life, yet I have found myself on more than one occasion looking for something special to happen, something to change the seeming rut I have been laboring in.
With this sameness, church members become satisfied with the sameness of life. They fall into the same rut as their pastor. We seek to change things with Revivals, Special Days and Guest speakers. But in all actuality, nothing will change in our lives unless we seek that change. There is a poem that describes a new view of this and our heart (felt) filled response.
Frances R. Havergal (1879)
Light after darkness; gain after loss. Strength after weakness; crown after cross.
Sweet after bitter; hope after fears. Home after wandering; praise after tears.
Sheaves after sowing; sun after rain. Sight after mystery; peace after pain.
Joy after sorrow; calm after blast. Rest after weariness; sweet rest at last.
Near after distant; gleam after gloom. Love after loneliness; life after tomb.
After long agony, rapture of bliss Right was the pathway leading to this!
To many, sunrise is a thing of beauty. To some it is only the beginning of another day of toil. What is the difference between these two people. Attitude? Or is it much deeper than that? I can say with authority that the world will continue until it doesn’t. And all of it is determined by God Almighty. Yet how we preceive the circumstances around us, is completely up to us. Here is the game breaker.
Hebrews 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
“Looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” changes how we preceive the world! As we view the world through the eyes of God, then the poem makes perfect sense. We will have bitter and sweet. We will have weariness and rest. We will have sorrow and joy. Life is filled with those things, yet many do not rejoice and thank God for the good things that are in their life. To them, life is just life. Sunshine and rain has always been and will always continue.
Personally, I find that my life is better and more fulfilling when I recognize that all blessing comes from God and thank Him for His goodness. And, yes, I am one of those crazy guys that sees Gods hand in the beauty of the sunrise and especially in the Oklahoma sunsets. I marvel at its beauty. Some hardly look. I marvel. The difference? Like David, I set myself to view the world with different eyes. Psalms 19:1 “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
I understand who created the world for us to live on. I desire to give Him glory for the works of His hands. Psalms 9:1 “To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David. I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.”
By recognizing God as the author and finisher of His works on earth, we gain the proper attitude about the days, weeks, months and years of our existence. Everything in our life is to draw us to Him. Troubles come, yet there is a purpose. Psalms 50:15 “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”
I, being a preacher, can go on and on about the goodness of God and the purposes of God, His loving kindness, His plan for the salvation of man, etc. I’ll spare you more thought on the subjects, but will remind you once again…the change begins with salvation and grows as we get to know the Savior Jesus Christ. Things become brighter, things become clearer, things begin to make sense when we view our circunstance as God does.
