I have been increasingly overcome lately to try and open myself to discovering who God is. That is, both His divine nature, and who He is in relevance to my daily life and my daily actions.
One of the many catalysts for this desire is so that I can have greater vocabularly to worship God. For the vocabularly of praise isn’t words and sounds, but spirit and truth that hunger for God.
In Nehemiah 9, Ezra delivers this glorious praise to God
Nehemiah 9:5-8; 17; 19; 27-28; 30-33
“Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are Lord… You are the Lord God… you are righteous… you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abouding in love… because of your great compassion… in your great compassion… in your compassion… For many years you were patient with them. By your Spirit you admonished them through your prophets… you are a gracious and merciful God… O our God, the great, mighty and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love… you have been just; you have acted faithfully” NIV
The praise goes for virtually the whole chapter, but as I read it, the revelations of who God was and is, grabbed me.
Time after time Ezra shouts forth the compassion of God, His faithfulness and His just nature.
If we are to have a relationship with the Almighty God our Father, it is natural that we will learn more about his astoundingly beautiful character. The best thing for us to do is as Mary did in Luke 2:19. We should treasure all that we have learnt about God deep within our hearts so that they can serve as our foundation.
The surest result of this, is that in times of doubt in times of trouble, the closeness of our present, continuing relationship with God and the remembrance of our Lord and Saviour will guide us and save us.
When we doubt, we know He is faithful.
When we hurt, we know He is good.
When we mourn, we know He is comforting.
When we stumble, we know He is merciful.
Psalm 42:5-6 “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my saviour and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you” NIV
David lived this out. When he went through his deepest valleys, he remembered God, he praised God and he trusted God.
Knowing who God is, not only exponentially deepens our praise life, but it strenghtens our relational life with God and it develops up in spiritual maturity.
It is a priceless gift of security in God that we can cling to.
Stay Strong.
Under the Fig Tree 