Live Dead Joy: 30 Days of Living and Dying with JesusSample

“We Reverse So We Do Not Fear”

The paradoxes of God are His graces, for they enable our limited understanding to wrestle with His immeasurable transcendence. God’s ways are so far above our ways—theory is not sufficient for comprehension—that we must experience the paradoxes of God in order to apprehend them.

Deliverance Is a Person, Not a Place. In Exodus 19:4, God reminded Moses, “I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.” While it is true that he and God’s people had left Egypt behind, the desert was not much more accommodating. Moses and company learned experientially that God was their refuge—not a new location that replaced another. Thousands of Christians through history have experienced this same truth. They were not relieved of poverty, healed, released from prison, or rescued from the lion’s mouth—but they found refuge. God brought them to Himself, whether their external conditions changed or not.

Revelation Comes Through Trial as Well as Triumph. God told Moses that He would come to him in the “thick cloud” (Ex. 19:9). Isaiah spoke of the Valley of Vision, the restricted-view areas that help one see. We learn more about ourselves and our Creator when we are under duress than we do in comfort. Prosperity tends to make us wander; persecution often drives us to the arms of Jesus.

We Approach God Boldly and Cautiously. “Do not fear,” Moses told the people. “God has come to test you . . . that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin” (Ex. 20:20). On one hand, only “he who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Ps. 24:4) can ascend to the hill of the Lord. On the other hand, “The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.” God the Father is approachable. He welcomes with open arms those who come penitent. However, those who approach the “mountain of God” (Ex. 19:12) cavalierly will be put to death.

When we fear the Lord with humble reverence and honor, we fear Him appropriately. This fear protects us from His holy wrath, and we can approach the throne of grace fearlessly to find help in our time of need. We revere the Lord, so we do not have to fear Him.

Pray for the Unreached:

Afar of Djibouti

416,000 

0.0% Evangelical

Pray that believers among the Afar will endure persecution in a Christ-like manner and will give their lives for the sake of the gospel if necessary (1 Peter 2:21-23).