He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1.
Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell. Psalm 43:3.
“Come to Me.” Matthew 11:28.
People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness. Proverbs 14:29.
And continuing our 351 Old Testament prophecies, promises of God, fulfilled in Jesus Christ, we come to number 165: He shall judge among the nations. Isaiah 2:4: And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. And, John 5:22: For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son.
One of the hardest things to do is to sit quietly with Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit. It takes patience with yourself and trust in God. Trust because we can feel so foolish. And then, as we gently let other thoughts go, we know a deeper peace and calm, a steadiness. Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me – let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell. And the amazing thing is, He dwells with us! As Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “But an hour is coming, and now is – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers…Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” John 4:23, 21. And as Jesus told His disciples, and us, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me – because I live – you will live also. In that day – you will know that I am in My father – and you in Me – and I in you.” John 14:16-20. And the amazing thing is, He longs for that for all of us – His Presence guiding and helping us and bringing a calm and peace we will not find in this world turned away from Him. We find that with Him with us. And then as we look back over our lives, we begin to see where He has always been but we were too busy to notice. We remember moments of joy and beauty we couldn’t explain but knew deep within. That is His love bringing His truth – and His truth is everlasting. And because His truth is everlasting, we can trust His love for all of us is good. We may feel utter despair as we see all the problems in this world, all the pain and suffering that we ourselves have brought. Remember His love and His truth are everlasting. Pain and suffering are real. Our sins are real. His love is Greater!
***FEED THE BEGGAR – O most kind, most loving LORD, whom I now desire to receive with devotion, You know the weakness and the necessity which I suffer, in what great evils and vices I am involved, and how often I am depressed, tempted, defiled, and troubled. To You I come for help; to You I pray for comfort and relief. I speak to Him who knows all things, to whom my whole inner life is manifest, and who alone can perfectly comfort and help me. You know what good things I am most in need of and how poor I am in virtue. Behold, I stand before You, poor and naked, asking Your grace and imploring Your mercy. Feed your hungry beggar. Inflame my coldness with the fire of Your love. Enlighten my blindness with the brightness of Your presence. Turn all earthly things to bitterness for me, all grievance and adversity to patience, and all lowly creation to contempt and oblivion. Raise my heart to You in heaven, and permit me not to wander on earth. You alone are my food and drink, my love and my joy, my sweetness and my total good. Let Your presence wholly inflame, consume, and transform me into Yourself so that I may become one spirit with You by the melting power of Your ardent love. Let me not go from You hungry and thirsty but deal with me mercifully. It would be no wonder if I were completely inflamed by You to die to myself since You are the fire ever burning and never dying – a love purifying the heart and enlightening the understanding. Thomas a Kempis (c. 1380-1471), The Imitation of Christ, Book 4, chapter 16. Adapted.***
