08/14/2019
How often do we praise God, and do we offer Him thanks only when we feel He has done something extraordinary for us? It is easy to become complacent in our praise, and expectant of God’s goodness to the point of numbness. If nothing more, then praise Him, and thank Him, morning and night.
“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,”
Psalms 92:1-2 ESV
It is so easy to just accept forgiveness, mercy, and grace, especially when we don’t have to work hard for them. Just like in our physical lives we can become complacent spiritually when we begin to see the incredible blessings, and mercies, of God as being everyday occurrences. When this occurs then our relationship with the Lord suffers. Our prayer life is no longer a work of incredible beauty, as its flowers begin to wither until eventually dropping off, and the kisses we once passionately gave the cheek and feet of Jesus turn to quick pecks, and meaningless acts. Are we responding with the same outpouring of love when God blesses us today as we did when he first blessed us in that way?
“Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
Romans 12:11-12 ESV
In our daily lives we see rainstorms, and as children they frighten us, as adolescents they awe us, and finally as adults we sit inside our dry houses and expect them to pass, and their lightning to strike elsewhere, but not near us. So our prayers move from the intense cry for protection of a child, to praising God for the display of His power, to the ho-hum “Thanks” of an adult. Sometimes when this happens, God shakes us up to renew the intensity of our relationship with Him. Today I met a man, an artist, who reminded me of a modern day Elijah.
This man lives in Whitefish, Montana where the Rocky Mountains jut majestically into the sky, and roads are known by such names as “Road to the Sun”. When a person spends their lives in a place such as this it would be easy to see the amazing grandeur that surrounds them through two dimensional eyes, but as I told you... this man is an artist, and through his eye, the beauty and splendor of what surrounds him never totally loses its awe.
This morning the artist of “Big Mountain”, as I will call him, told me a story that reignited me spiritually... one afternoon he had driven to the top of Big Mountain to have a picnic with his daughter; it was a routine day, and not unlike many picnics they had been on. Then off in the distance he saw a storm approaching. The artist in him wanted to remain there and capture this moment, but he waited too long, and before he knew it the storm had surrounded them on the mountain. In this moment he had ceased to be adjacent, or beneath, the clouds , but was surrounded by them, and had become part and parcel of the storm... to include its full intensity. He was enveloped along with the mountaintop, and the lightening was streaking sideways through the dense cloud in which he and his daughter found themselves running to escape. Each lightening flash would illuminate the cloud they were within making it glow like the tube of an enormous fluorescent lightbulb. It lit everything at once.
I hung on every word he was telling me, and in my mind I was standing not only with him, but with Elijah at the entrance of the cave atop his mountain. I was witnessing the storm through the combined eyes of the Artist of Big Mountain, and Elijah the prophet simultaneously.
“And he said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.”
1 Kings 19:11-12 ESV
I looked into the eyes of my new friend as he told me of the storm on Big Mountain, and I could see the glow of the lightning, and feel the thunder in my chest as he spoke. Then, as quickly as it had begun his intensity waned, and he told me of reaching his car, and traveling down the mountain until the lightning was no longer streaking across, but struck down towards the ground... hitting trees with the boom of the thunder as it simultaneously crashed with the strike.... then it was gone.
Sometimes we need a storm in our lives like the one that the Artist of Big Mountain had experienced before we can relive the presence of the Lord; sometimes it takes standing in the entrance to a cave and feeling the ground shake beneath our feet, as Elijah felt it, before we can hear the low whisper of God. Then we can thank God as we should, and praise him with the fullness of emotion that rises from having experienced His awe.
I don’t know if the Artist of Big Mountain heard the whisper of God as Elijah did, but I do know he stood in awe of Him that day. So I ask you again... how often do you praise God, and do you only thank Him when you feel He has done something extraordinary for you? Are you in need of a mountaintop, or do you stand on one every morning and evening when you pray?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for revealing yourself atop the mountains, and I thank you for bringing us into you whether in a cloud, or our suffering. I thank you Holy Father for your many blessings, but none more amazing than your grace, and forgiveness. Help us to see you from the base of the mountain Father, but, if we need it, then surround us on the mountaintop and reinvigorate us so that our eyes show forth your presence with the light and intensity of our rekindled soul... lit by your Holy Spirit, maintained by the life and sacrifice of Christ. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who dwells within us, and in whom we are permitted to abide. Praised be your name, and give us your joy in that moment. Great are you who engulfs mountains, and surrounds us with your presence. Glorious are you who reignites the flame of faith within us by the flash of your own eyes. Magnificent is your voice from the cloud, the storm, and the calm... help us to hear you always.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Romans 12:1 ESV
Rich Forbes