Shadows in the Light of Him

Shadows in the Light of Him

Isaiah 53:4-5

4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

   I have been going through the most challenging physical time of my life lately.  As I have fought with weakness, I have turned more and more to prayer.  And as I pray more, I find I want to pray more.  Now to be clear, I am not saying God made me sick to get my attention.  I do not see from the Bible where God would make anyone sick, indeed He has provided healing for us through Jesus.  But as sickness has come upon me and I have sought Him more and more in prayer He has used this time to fill me with more of Himself. 

    There is a chorus that has a line that goes, “when all things that surround us become shadows in the light of Him…”  I can testify to this.  As I have spent time in His Presence and sought His face things in life I considered important have become less important to me and His Presence has become so real to me.  At times in prayer, His Presence is so real to me I feel I can reach out and take His hand. 

   I regret that it took illness to make me focus more on God and His Kingdom, but I praise God that He has chosen to open His Word to me more now than ever.  His love has drawn my heart and filled me with a peace that truly “passeth all understanding.”  I can’t tell you how His peace fills me but I am more at rest in prayer than ever at any time in my life. 

   I have always tried to teach the Bible to the best of my understanding, and now I see how true it is that the Scriptures are all things to all believers at whatever level of growth and understanding you are.  To the immature Christian the Bible is a simple message that speaks to their heart.  And the more you grow in your spiritual life the Bible becomes deeper and filled with more and more meat for you to get nourishment from. 

   Lately I have been drawn to the song, “God is good!  All the time!”  I have always known we serve a good God, but as I draw closer to His Presence I am more convinced with each passing moment just how good God is.

   Please pray for me during this time and remember that God does not cause illness - illness is a result of the sin in the world brought about by the enemy.  Physical illness does come upon our bodies but we also know that God provided healing through Jesus Christ.  I am expecting when all this is over I will be stronger than ever physically as well and spiritually. 

Stephen Cram                                                       June 8, 2014           

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, following the tradition of men according to the rudiments of the world, and not in accordance with Christ. 

Visit my pastor’s blog at http://pastorjonrhinehart.blogspot.com/.

Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible.