Molded

Lord, I’m not enough. I’m too dry. Too tired. Too weak. Too small of a budget. Not wise enough. Not rich enough. Not bold enough. Not enough in myself. We all have those areas where shame, fear, doubt, or just plain human finitude is stretched past the limits. When we look at the persecution in the world; I’m not enough to do anything. When we look at our own needs, the needs of the neighborhood, of family, friends. We know we are not enough.

*What is that area for you? Where have you told God that this past week?

And in our panting plaints and our laments, a promise breaches. Layer after layer, the promise budded, celebrated in blossoms, deeper surprise!

“Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. 2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah 32:1-2).

….A king will reign in righteousness….

Yes, Lord, I humbly recognize, you are my King! You reign in righteousness!

Every aspect of my life, Lord, I know you are sovereign—over disease, depression, anxiety, finances. You will always act rightly toward me, in right relationship, to restore the relationship, in righteousness. I trust. Like Israel, who you gave these words of comfort to in the trauma of war, exile, oppression, a darkness without light, the pawn of superpower nations, Lord, you are king!

My plaint still praises:

“The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob” (Psalm 99:4).

…and princes will rule in justice….

Jesus, my heart bows before you. Jesus, you are my Prince, reigning in justice!

You exercise your sovereign power on my behalf, interceding before the throne for justice. And I in your blood have no fear of justice. I wait for your making all things right!

“Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son!

2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!

3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness!

4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!” (Psalm 7:1-4)

….. each will be like a hiding place….

Yes, Lord, yes. Thank you for reminding me in my blasts of life. You are my hiding place!

Anxiety. Burdens. Wave after wave. And I run to you and find a hiding place. Tucked away. Secure.

“You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah” (Psalm 32:7).

…a shelter from the storm….

You are my shelter from the storm! My God, the storms—the persecutions, the burdens, the cancers, the depression, the world news, our own lives—the storms seem great. I cling to you! My shelter!

 

My lament lifts:

“For you [the Lord] have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall” (Isaiah 25:4)

“Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah” (Psalm 61:4).

….like streams of water in a dry place…..

Oh, my Savior. You are my streams of water! You are!!! Yes, I thirst now, yes, I feel dry now. But yes, Lord, you are my streams. I know. I remember. I drink.

When all is dry, hard. When I crave, thirst, long, wrench with cries and no satisfaction. In the dryness, the areas I least expect, you pour out.

My panting breathes:

“Blessed is the man… but his delight is in the law of the Lord…. He is like a tree planted by streams of water” (Psalm 1:1-3a).

“For I [the LORD] will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants” (Isaiah 44:3).

….like the shade of a great rock in a weary land….

You are my shade! The heat drains, saps. A blistering wind. I can barely see for the beating glare of the harsh realities around us.

“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand” (Psalm 121:5).

“Give counsel; grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; shelter the outcasts…. then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness” (Isaiah 16:2, 5).

The promise—who God is for me. But I found this passage unique in that the description of his people are so similar to terms Isaiah has used for God. Again and again, God himself is the streams, the shelter, the rock, the shade. But here in this passage, in Isaiah 32, Isaiah doesn’t point to God as the prince and the hiding places. Rather, when the King reigns in righteousness, when Jesus Christ is on his throne, it is his people who are each like a hiding place, a stream, a shelter.

We.

Me.

Us.

The church.

We in our dryness turn to him.

He reigns. He is this for us.

We become like him. Like him!!! The same gifts he bestows on us, we now are conduits. His character! If he is to you a rock, in that need and that emptiness he fills us so much we become like him. I need, I pant. I cling to him. I know him more in that need. Only in that emptiness, that blank, that loneliness, that storm do I see him in that aspect in a clearer way. I lean on him. Cling to him so close that the impressions of his character are embedded in me, that I am molded to him. Just like the weavings of a wicker chair on my bare skin leave deep impressions, so close are we to him we are molded, shaped. So close.

Then, like the Living Water, we become streams. Like the Rock, we become rocks. Like the Hiding Place, we become hiding places. We know him so much in that aspect, he expresses himself through us in that way. 

Oh, my Jesus! I long to know you more! To know you in my impossibilities, in my thirst, my desert, my sandstorm. To know you so much that I am like you. And let me pour you out—to the homeless, the women out of jail, the abused, the broken, the one in financial crisis, the teen who finds herself pregnant. My God, my God! You see, and see through me! You care, and care through me! And I will ever be driven back to you, lean on you. And the impressions of You will change me, seep through me.

*Each one of us has a tailor made storm. Where do you know God in that? What unique ways has he revealed himself to you in that? How is he expressing himself through you to others because of that?