DAY 5.
'Come behold the works of the Lord' Psalm 46 v 8 is an invitation to gaze upon the Living God and what strength and comfort this brings to the saints.
An area of thought that needs exploring today is the mightiness of our God the triune God is mighty in all their ways and works.
The promises that come from them are overwhelming in scripture and they long for us to participate in the outworking of them in our daily lives.
I often times hear people talking about 'new things' in the church well there are so many new things that our Father wants to do in and through us if only we were obedient to 46 v 10.
When we come O be still in our Creator Gods presence we begin to see how puny our service is when compared with the greatness of His power over the whole universe.
We are looking at a little planet in the Solar System that is a minute part of the massive Universe and on that dot id another very small dot bearing your name.
The uniqueness of the Christian faith is that the Creator is interested in everything that we do, say and think, something that we find very hard to understand.
The closer we get to the pattern of Christ likeness the greater the value of a soul we become in His sight.
We were created to live for His pleasure but the truth is we live anything but that type of life being so self centred and self promoting.
We live as if we were dominating the scene when in fact we are only making a mess of the whole machinery that is grinding to a halt.
Man was created to live at peace with God but we are continually struggling in wars and rumours of wars whether nationally, internationally or personally.
Now in the Psalm before us we are portrayed as a raging torrent v 3 that God has stepped into making us a beautiful flowing stream that benefits the whole of mankind v 4.
Two pictures one of a tempest the other of serenity and the major difference is that God is in control of the one but not of the other.
Now with these two pictures in mind we are to look at our relationship with the Lord and at the scene that He is witnessing, watching us going through.
He has brought us to Him self through the sacrifice of Calvary not to run around aimlessly in life but to bring us closer and closer to His side.
In the storms of life we can know that resting place by coming to His conscious presence day by day to commune with Him.
There are many times when He tells us to stay longer and enjoy His company but we are such busy people we rush away and soon lose the sense of His company.
God is in the midst of the storm v 5 it is we who lose the consciousness of His presence by struggling in our own strength to conquer the situation.
We lose heart and soon are being swept around by the circumstances and our faith diminishes into a feeling of abandonment.
It is not that God has moved, changed or given up on us it is the fact that we are not truly relying on the Lord to give the strength, courage and boldness to stand firm in our faith.
We are self centred folk who think even as Christians that we are strong enough to take the enemy on on our own.
Now for the promise of 'come' that invites us to ponder these truths from Gods perspective seeing that He is in the middle of the storm with us.
We can examine this truth in practical terms with Peter and the disciples in the storm of Galilee, the Master was there with them in the boat.
Their problem was they were terrified until He is brought into the situation, they thought He was asleep until they invite Him to help them.
In the gospel the storm ceased immediately and there was a great calm, not just in the wind but in their unbelieving hearts 'O you of little faith'.
Now we look at our storms of life and the Master is close at hand waiting for us to bring Him into the midst of it.
He has already invited us to trust Him but now He is waiting for our response to His gracious invitation 'to come unto Him'.
'Come as a promise to view the greatness of our God who can still the storm on the lake, still the storm in the grave and still the restless heart of human nature.
When we come and look at the greatness of our God in His handiwork: it soon brings peace to our heart and mind, look around at His handiwork and ponder Him.
He is our 'refuge' v 1 one in whom we can hide safely during the storms of life, one in whom we can rest when things are hotter than we can naturally take.
He is our present companion who stands along side us each moment of the day v 1 even when we do not recognise His presence He is there because His promise is 'I will never leave you'
It does not matter whether a tsunami, earthquake, volcano or tragedy hits us He is there alongside us and incomplete control of it for us.
He does not obliterate the storms of life but He does go through them with us
and the sad fact is for many a Christian they are not living as close as they could to Him to recognise His presence with them.
The promise we can receive and live in is that He is ever present with us and as we appropriate the promise by walking more closely to Him the lighter the pressure becomes.
The heathen rage and my word they are screaming all around us today, the cynic, the sceptic, the atheist and the agnostics are making war against the Lord Jesus and His Church.
We are being battered by a media that is controlled by worldly wise folk who have contempt for our precious Lord Jesus and blaspheme His name.
We are caught in a trap of sin based arguments that deceive many a soul because they do not know their bible.
Many a man and woman shout their mouth of without knowing the scriptures or only a scant knowledge of them that is very dangerous.
Now the child of God need not worry about the threatening of the heathen v 6 because the promise of Gods presence with us should alleviate the tension.
The word of God holds the key to our being overthrown by their threats or to our standing firm on the promises of God.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word we will stand fast and secure on the Rock of Ages that cannot be moved.
No matter the ferocity of the storm, no matter the force of the winds and no matter the size of the waves we can rest assured in the promise of God.
He has given it to us so that we can come to rest under the shadow of His wing, come and 'be still and know that I am God' v 10.
