Take Heart

Often times acts of service is my attempt to draw myself closer to God. Don’t get me wrong, reading the Word is good, singing worship songs is awesome, sharing about Christ to others is amazing. But I’ve realised that doing it does not necessarily mean I’m closer to God. To be honest, despite habitual reading the Word, praying, singing worship songs, and talking to others about God over the past few months.. I didn’t feel close to God at all. I’ve taken notice that it was mainly my attitude and perspective.

Today our staff wanted to go on a hike at our local famous temple rather than play our usual volleyball game at school. While I was walking on the path surrounded by nature I was reminded of the devo I had read yesterday from Piper Devo: Solid Joys. (I highly recommend this to anyone who has an iphone or smartphone with apps).

I’ll just quote Solid Joy’s entire devo of the day.

God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. (1 Corinthians 15:38)

I have been picking up little things in Scripture that show God’s intimate involvement in creation.

For example, in 1 Corinthians 15:38, Paul is comparing how a seed is planted in one form and comes forth in another for with a “body” different from all other bodies. He says, “God gives it a body just as he wished, and to each of the seeds a body of it’s own.”

This is a remarkable statement of God’s involvement in the way God designed each seed to bring forth its own unique plant (not just species but each individual seed!).

Paul is not teaching about evolution here, but he is showing how he takes God’s intimate involvement with creation for granted. He cannot imagine, evidently, that any natural process should be conceived without God’s doing it.

Again in Psalm 94:9, it says, “He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?” The psalmist assumes that God was the designer of the eye and that he designed the way the ear is planted in the head to do its hearing work.

So when we marvel at the wonders of the human eye and the remarkable structure of the ear, we are not to marvel at the processes of chance but at the mind and the creativity of God.

Similarly in Psalm 95:5, “The sea is his for he made it; and his hand formed the dry land.” The involvement of God in making land and sea is such that the present sea is his.

It is not as though he in some impersonal way set it all in motion a billion years ago. Rather he is the one who owns it because he made it. It is today his handiwork and bears the marks of his creator claim on it, like a piece of artwork belongs to the one who painted it until he sells it or gives it away.

I point out these things not to solve all the problems surrounding our issues of origins, but to call you to be God-centered in your admiration of the wonders of the world. God decided what the Iris beside our fence should look like this week when it came to flower.

God means for the beauty of that plant (not just that kind of plant)- that very plant to be an occasion for our worshipping his specific creativity.

-The Iris by My Walk

The sun hitting the red, brown, orange, and yellow leaves right before sunset was breathtaking. Listening to the ripples in the stream flowing down. The rocky mountains surrounding me.

To be reminded that God an intricate planner, brought peace in my heart. To not worry what the future might entail. It’s been such a long time since I have actually spend quality time with God. Just me and God. I don’t need to do all these things to glorify God. God is already glorified. Reading the Bible and singing songs gets me thinking about the creator, but true worship should be 24/7.

God is so good. Praise God for grace.