Jars of Clay

Our daily walk is always trending upwards. We have respites, we have challenges, we have times of refreshing with the Lord, and then our journey continues. We are called up higher into the Spirit, and we obey, working at each step against the pull of the world and our own nature that weighs us down. It is a hard path to follow, even when it is smooth, without obstacles. Many of us are traveling our path with old injuries or nearly-healed wounds to which God is applying His balm whenever the pain returns and we ask it of Him. When our path seems littered with rockfalls and debris, slowing us down and requiring us to carefully, sometimes painfully, clamber over each obstacle it is easy to chafe at the delay from our schedule. On occasion, it can even appear we have come to a dead-end with no clear way forward.

Every time, as we pause to seek God, He answers right on time (His time). He gives strength to overcome the roadblock, He gives wisdom to see the turn which the path has taken for us to follow, He gives patience for us to wait and see His glory revealed as He clears the way. Sometimes He sends a rescue team of brothers and sisters with ropes and harness to give us a helping hand over the portion we can't ascend on our own. He will allow us later to serve on rescue teams ourselves for others and pay forward our debt of love to the Body of Christ.

It is important for us to live in the moment, in the present, in a sense of mindfulness, as we travel. He is the God of the present, and we will miss what He has for us if we dwell in our memories of the past or our fears of the future. As any rock-climber can tell you, when you are on the face of the rock, to lose focus of where you are and what your next step is, is to lose what you have gained. It may be a short slide back down, or you may go all the way back to the bottom; it may be simply that you lose sight of the path you were following and get stuck, unable to move forward until you can clear your mind and focus on the God of your journey, the God who provides your needs, the God who whispers, "Go this direction."

In all senses of the meaning, God is our source. What we have, what we gain, what we set our goal to be, is from the Lord. He guides our feet, He strengthens our hands, He sets His Spirit of truth in our hearts so that when we speak, we speak from the abundance of His heart. We would not take on such an arduous journey, fraught with such hardships, were it not for the love of Christ that draws us. We discover that we would rather suffer what we view as privations than to be left without the presence of God and His comfort, even if it draws us into such forbidding terrain. Eventually, we come to the understanding that it was exactly the same desire that drew God's Son down to the earth to walk such a difficult path which came to such a painful end, causing Him to be separated from God's love, for our sake. He decided that He would rather die than live without us. And now we find ourselves making the same choice.

Proverbs 22:11 He who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend.

Psalms 44
03 It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, for You loved them.
05 Through You we push back our enemies; through Your name we trample our foes.
08 In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise Your name forever.
26 Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love.


2 Corinthians 4
07 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
13 With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak,
14 because we know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

2 Corinthian 5
05 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
07 We live by faith, not by sight
09 So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

Dear Father, as You watch over our journey, as You keep track of our paths by marking our soles, we determine in our hearts to walk worthy of the Spirit You have placed in us. Our lives are not our own but have been bought with a price we cannot understand but that we can recognize as "Love" and realize it to be worthy of our continual thanks and our full obedience to You. Thank you, Lord, that You mix Your grace liberally with Your love and are patient with us as we practice our lessons, learn from our mistakes, confess our sins, and fine-tune our walk with You day by day. Thank you for the blessing of living in time where we can change through Your empowerment, before we move fully into the eternal, unchanging realm with You in the body you have prepared, that we may give and receive fellowship with You, knowing as we are known, since that is Your heart's desire and the purpose for which we have been created. Help us to keep the vision before us as we walk daily step by step to this goal.

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