He is Able

10 Dec He is Able

.

I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him… 2 Timothy 1:12

He came to me that morning, because the deep dread of disappointment was setting me up for despair, and we both know that danger for me.  I was feisty and tearful, weak from my effort to keep from drowning, angry and helpless.

Suddenly He was there. He gave me no speech, He taught me no lesson, He gave me no word . . . but He silently indicated I was to rise and follow.

A deep fog shrouded the landscape–a fog of mystery, a fog of eternal verities swallowing up the details of my temporal pain, a fog in which I was deprived of sight and understanding.  We climbed a steep hill with difficult footing. I kept close behind Him, my mind temporarily relieved by the exertion of the exercise, wondering where He was taking me.  It was not long before I knew the answer.

He stopped and I saw the wooden upright, barely discernable in the fog. The crossbar loomed over our heads, mostly unseen. Something akin to sadness coupled with familiar relief filled my heart as I stood there with Him. He knew every inch of that ground. Nothing was said, but I knew He had brought me there to bury what I was holding on to so hard, unwilling to let it go, because I felt as if my entire life hung on it.  Getting down on my knees, I began to dig with bare hands, the soil giving away as calm certainty began to fill me.

Suddenly I was back in my quiet time chair in the dark of the very early morning, alone in my cellar study. The unbearable battle was over and I was going to be OK. Do not ask me how I know, but I know that when next I see what I buried at the foot of that cross–on the other side of time–it will be transformed into glory.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory… 2 Corinthians 4:17

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.  I Peter 5:10

***

I can’t imagine how I would live in Him, draw from Him, be guided taught and constantly saved by Him… without the continuous unfolding of the divine dialogue between us. Yes, Jesus Christ speaks through the written Scripture…. every line of the sacred Bible holds a veritable universe of power locked up in its meaning.  But He also speaks through dreams and visions. He teaches through symbolic moments when you “get” what He is illustrating.  He keys us into the specific truth He wants us to grasp in a certain season, by bringing it to us multiple times over a short period of time, so that we recognize it.  The divine dialogue flows to us through His orchestration of our circumstances.

No matter where we are, His word comes to find us,
to lead us from where we are to where we are meant-to-be.

His word comes to find my soul, when I am sinking in disappointment threatened by despair to bring me to where I am meant-to-be.

Yesterday, even as beautiful music filled the air and I was pulling my favorite Christmas decorations from tissue-paper filled boxes, moved with sweet memories of Christmases past… a personal heartbreak bore down on me, wearing me down.  For several days, the Lord has been walking me through a silent grief, coaching me, encouraging me. But mid-afternoon, I began to crumble.

Swiftly He was there.  “AM I ABLE?” was all He asked.

“You are able,” I responded.

For a moment I was back on that fog shrouded hill at the foot of the cross, needing to bury my heartbreak . . . with its attending grief, my burning sense of injustice, and my pain in seeing her whom I love being savaged by her enemy.

“You are able,” my soul declared.

In that instant, grief let go. “You are able!  You are able!”  For the rest of the day I sang those words, and each time my energy leapt. Creativity and joy flooded me. It was a beautiful day.

And then, this morning… what was the Scripture meeting me on the page of my daily devotional?  [1]

I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him… 2 Timothy 1:12

My heart leapt … we are so tracking together!  This divine dialogue is how I abide in Him; it is how I know Him; it is how I walk with Him. It enables me to experience His power in my life, because it brings me the specific words that I need to hear and believe in a specific circumstance.  We receive God’s power into our life as we receive the thoughts He is thinking through us.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.   Psalm 139:17, 18

And now, Beloved, what about you?

Are you aware of the dialogue flowing softly in your life? Do you dwell in the intimacy of relationship that can only take place where there is ongoing, real communication? Is He helping you process whatever circumstances are presently bearing down on you, coaching you through?

His power to make this the reality of your life does not lie in anything that you are or do. It lies in your answer to His question “AM I ABLE?”