SOME TRUST IN CHARIOTS

“From henceforth be strong.” Be strong in what? In our spiritual position, "In the Lord". We are in Him and He is in us. Where He is, we are. We are joined to Him by the Holy Spirit. We are to live there -- "Be strong in the Lord." This is not about our opinions or questions of why, and not in our own strength, for we must be strong in Him, in the person of our Lord. We must have only Christ as our center, as our life, as our strength, and as our power. It is the Lord, all the Lord -- the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, the Lord who laughs at our enemies. The King of glory -- The Lord. Our strength is not in ourselves, not in our position, not in our abilities or the abilities of man, not in our wealth or power, not in our circumstances, not in our place, not in our plans—NOT IN OUR CHARIOTS, WHATEVER THEY MAY BE! We must be strong in nothing else, but “In The Lord". I will trust the Lord who helps me and keeps me, never slumbering in His watchfulness over me, for I am totally His -- I will trust the Lord!

TRUST IN THE LORD

WITH ALL YOUR HEART

AND LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING

IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM

AND HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATHS

TRUST IN THE LORD

THE FINGERS OF GOD

The narrow way we travel is “Difficult” – not my word but the Lord’s -- full of speed bumps, circumstances on the trashing floor of life that punctuate our existence, some good, and some bad, with every shade in between. God allows in his wisdom what He could easily prevent in His power. The truth of this is found throughout Scripture. He allows that we might become perfect -- clay in the Master Potter's hands being formed on the potter’s wheel into Christlikeness. For those He foreknew He predestined to be conformed, molded and shaped, into the image of His Son. And we try to have understanding, clarity of purpose, when things happen; seeking to know why, even when the heavens are brass and God cloaks himself in silence as He is often inclined to do in trying times – God simply never answers the question “why”. Trials by their very nature include temptations, temptations rooted in fear producing doubt and the overwhelming desire to “do”, do something within our own effort to alleviate the trial. “Perfect love, God's love for us, casts out all fear.” Trust, the product of perfect love, casts out fear and doubt, and allows us to quit “doing” and simply “be”, be what we are called to be – in Christ – in the Beloved. God does not give us overcoming life that flattens all the speed bumps so we can go full speed ahead. This would be of little value in the hard task of dragging our cantankerous self nature to the cross of death. No, God gives us life, His New Life, as we overcome our old Self-Life, and will that it be nailed to our Lord’s cross. To be in Christ is to submit to the conforming pressure of God’s fingers as the Master Potter molds and shapes each of His children into a unique predetermined vessel of honor, perfected and fit for Kingdom use. Difficulties, what Paul called our momentary light afflictions, are the fingers of God preparing us for the glory of eternity with our Daddy. We are being made ready by the discipline of the present crucified life.

SUPREME REST: THE REST OF GOD

Within the stress and pace of modern life God’s children desperately need rest from the weariness that seems ever ready to overtake us. Beyond the Old Testament Sabbatical rest, which is a type, God has provided in this “better covenant” time a rest for His children. Hebrews chapter Four speaks of God’s rest as a promise appropriated through the commingling of the promise (i.e., God’s word) with faith: the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness. God commands zealous diligence in entering His rest, not by striving for he who enters God’s rest has ceased from self-effort and self-works. No, the key is found in the total submission contained in the application of faith to the promise. Not only is our Father very intentional, He is also the God who goes before us, so that we are in a sense always walking in His footsteps.”Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I have no doubt You’ve already gone ahead, my fire by night, my cloud by day”. God’s rest is a place of peace and trust, a place of cessation from stress and worry, a place of refreshing and renewing of our strength – a place where God is present – His dwelling place in the Spirit. So we must look within our divine temple to find God’s place of rest. Psalms 91 paints a beautiful word picture of this secret place of the Most High God. In David’s time God dwelt between the outstretched wings of the golden cherubim on the arc of the covenant, and the tent of meeting was uncovered so the people could see the fire and smoke manifestations of God’s presence. Psalms 91:1-2 is David’s personal testimony of dwelling in God’s holiest of holies, lying in the shadows produced by the sun’s rays passing over the cherubim’s wings. This was, to David, “dwelling in the secret place of the Most High…abiding under the shadow of the Almighty”. Now, our bodies have become God’s holist of holies, God’s temple on earth, so we must look deep within our spirit to find this supernatural rest of God. And make no doubt about it; it is a supernatural gift of grace, an “enabling” flowing from His great heart of love. We can rest in this assurance.