Bright and Shiny

God made a promise to those who are His own special people.

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.” (Isaiah 43:1-2 NKJV)

As another song says, “This is my Father’s world” and it does no harm to those who are in tune with His moral character. The only harm will be what you do to yourself by not paying attention to what your heart of conviction tells you.

There are two implied issues here. First, God’s glory is in your best interest. It takes a while to migrate your thinking toward His glory. Once you you move up that path, you learn that a certain amount of pain and suffering is just the nature of living after the Fall. You learn to handle it with grace — His grace.

Second, it takes awhile to make that shift. One very good parable for this is the old abandoned artesian well as producing what Jesus called “Living Water” in John 4. As long as the parts are still intact, it will pump water, but you don’t want what comes out at first. It will include the junk floating on top of water table and crusty junk in the well casing. But once it starts to come out clear and clean, you can rejoice at the living water of life.

This is a critical part of what we mean by living in your heart, not in your head. Whatever it is that comes in the same package as communion with the Spirit of God, it includes a sense of joy and wonder at God’s Creation. The world around is you is bright and joyful because you are in communion with the natural world that God made. Remember: Creation isn’t fallen; we are. We need to gravitate back to what nature still is, and what we were designed to be.

And let me testify that this is how it works for me. I’m like a child who wakes up ready to play.