How can I possibly see that?
(Lent as vision correction)
(This message is also available at: http://pastorjimdorton.blogspot.com/)
We have been discussing our shortcomings all week; our inability to see things – to see situations, circumstances, other people, even ourselves, the way that God sees. Indeed, God has said as much for centuries! He told the prophet Isaiah:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
So what are we to do? Is there any hope that we can ever see God or see as He sees? Sure there is. In the same passage God tells us:
“Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live…Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near…my word that goes out from my mouth will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Likewise: But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)
And Jesus promised that the pure in heart will see God, and God inspired Paul to teach us that we can do all things, through Christ who gives us strength.
I say all that to say this; it is important, whether during Lent or any other time, to recognize how weak we are, how sinful we are, and how desperately lost we are – on our own. The purpose of such a realization is to see our need for the Father who created us, His Son who saves us, and His Spirit that works in and through us. But it is not just to make us see our need, but the amazing ways in which God fulfils our needs – how He will fill to overflowing with a mercy and grace and unending love.
If you received ashes on Ash Wednesday (if you didn’t, for a moment, pretend you did), go take a look in the mirror. Are they still there? Of course not. You have washed since then. Brothers and sisters, so it is with your ‘spiritual face’. You’ve been washed by the blood of the Lamb! You are clean, free, and forgiven!
For the rest of this season, try this little exercise, every time you wash your face, then raise it to look in the mirror, take a moment to recall where the ashes were, and how they are now gone. Then praise God for what He has taken from you. And what He has given to you, including this new way to see. Proclaim like the man in John, blind from birth, “I was blind, but now I see!”
Yes you can! Pastor Jim
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