Monday, March 11, 2013

Scepter in hand

This weekend in church, our worship leader challenged us not to worship the words on the screen, but to actually worship God. As that was settling into my brain, we began singing the chorus of "How Great Thou Art" and the holiness of God collided with my universe. 


At the same moment, a clear picture came to me of Esther. She had to have courage to approach the King. Though she had been chosen by him, he had not commanded her to come before him. She was fearful but still she went before him, and he extended his scepter to her. She was welcome and he delighted in her presence.

God does not give us a summons, nor does He order us to approach His throne. We, like Esther, must step out and come before Him. We are painfully aware of His holiness and our sin, but He has extended His scepter, His grace, His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. All we have to do is approach and accept this wondrous gift. Were we to spend our lives without God, we would be summoned before His throne for a final judgment that deserve-an eternity apart from Him.

Yet, that is not His desire. He longs to refresh us and our weary souls daily! We are in a dry, thirsty, cursed land and easily become dehydrated. Much like our physical bodies will trick us into thinking we are hungry during dehydration, and we eat (often empty calories) food instead of drinking water, so our spiritual selves need living water. We are duped by the father of lies who tells us we are hungry for things of this world, then wonder why we feel dissatisfied after "eating our fill".

God's grace is a wonderful gift and learning to listen to His voice as He speaks truth into our hearts is a worthy goal that we can spend our lifetime pursuing!

~Tammy

picture courtesy:
1. Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
2. José Manuel Suárez [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons