Finding His Presence ~ Overcomer

by Nan Jones   @NanJonesAuthor

Life comes at us hard sometimes, doesn't it? Difficulties know no age, no color, no gender. Difficulties show no respect for active faith. If anything, the fires of difficulty seem to burn hotter for those of us who implement active faith.

I'm experiencing a personal crisis that has just about done me in...but God. Don't you love that? But God is with me and He is for me and in that alone I find the strength to go on. A friend sent me something from L. B. Cowman's devotional, Streams in the Desert. This passage encouraged me to see purpose in what I was going through - purpose on an eternal scale. I want to share it with you.

"Imagine going to the mountains of Lebanon during the reign of Israel's great king Solomon. Can you see the majestic cedar? It is the pride of all the other trees and has wrestled many years with the cold north winds! The summer sun has loved to smile upon it, while the night has caused its soft leaves to glisten with drops of dew. Birds have built their nests in its branches, and weary travelers and wandering shepherds have rested in its shade from the midday heat or taken shelter from the raging storms. And suddenly we realize that this old inhabitant of the forest has been doomed to fall victim to the woodsman's ax!

"We watch as the ax makes its first gash on the cedar's gnarled trunk. Then we see its noble limbs stripped of their branches as the tree comes crashing to the ground. We cry out against the wanton destruction of this 'Tree of God,' as it is distinctively known, and express our anger over the demolition of this proud pillar in the forest temple of nature...

"We should not be so quick to complain but should follow the gigantic tree as the workmen of 'Hiram, king of Tyre' (2 Chronicles 2:3) take it down the mountainside. From there we should watch it being sailed on rafts along the blue water of the Mediterranean. And finally, we should behold it being placed as a glorious and polished beam in the temple of God. As you contemplate its final destination, seeing it in the Holy of Holies as a jewel in the diadem of the almighty King, can you honestly complain that this 'crown jewel of Lebanon' was cut down, removed from the forest, and placed in such a noble setting? The cedar had once stood majestically in nature's sanctuary, but 'the glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house' (Haggai 2:9)."

Isn't that beautiful? I'm reminded of Revelation 3:12, "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name."

I want to be an overcomer. I want to be a pillar in His temple - someone who selflessly undergirds the work of the Kingdom from now until forever. I want to dwell in the courts of the Lord, to bask in His Presence, to reflect His glory in the polished wood of my difficulty.

I want you to be an overcomer too. I know you can do it...with Him.

"'Not by might, nor by power, 

but by My Spirit,' saith the Lord of hosts." 

~ Zechariah 4:6

Selah

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Tweetables to Encourage Others

Life comes at us hard sometimes, doesn't it? @NanJonesAuthor offers food for thought. (Click to Tweet)

God is with me & He is for me & in that alone I find the strength to go on. (Click to Tweet)



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