Our Sunday Devotionals are written by assistant pastor Mike Loveridge
Forever Reign
The song for this week is ‘Forever Reign’ by Hillsong. You can listen to the song HERE. Like previous weeks, I suggest you listen to the song, dwell on the words and then read through my brief comments. I hope this song blesses you as it has me.
You
are good, You are good
When there's nothing good in me
You are love, You are love
On display for all to see
You are light, You are light
When the darkness closes in
You are hope, You are hope
You have covered all my sin
You
are peace, You are peace
When my fear is crippling
You are true, You are true
Even in my wandering
You are joy, You are joy
You're the reason that I sing
You are life, You are life
In You death has lost its sting
I'm
running to Your arms
I'm running to Your arms
The riches of Your love
Will always be enough
Nothing compares to Your embrace
Light of the world forever reign
You are more, You are more
Than my words will ever say
You are Lord, You are Lord
All creation will proclaim
You are here, You are here
In Your presence I'm made whole
You are God, You are God
Of all else I'm letting go
I'm running to Your arms
I'm running to Your arms
The riches of Your love
Will always be enough
Nothing compares to Your embrace
Light of the world forever reign
My heart will sing no other Name
Jesus, Jesus
I don’t know about you, but I am often all to easily distracted by the things around me and the things of this world. This world is a place full of distractions. There is social media to scroll through endlessly, there is Netflix to binge watch or YouTube to aimlessly amuse us and fill our time. Or what about the dreaded mobile phone which is constantly drawing our attention to answer emails, text, WhatsApp messages or calls. I have probably just scratched the surface of the electronic distractions. And then there are all the other day to day distractions like kids, work, friends, food. All of these things are good things, but they can all too easily become bad things. They become bad when they begin to consume our lives and remove our focus from God. I am probably one of the most easily distracted people. When I sit down to work, I have to make sure that everything on my desk is in its correct place, right down to where I leave my pen. If just one thing is out of place it distracts me from working. I constantly have to battle distractions especially when I want to spend time with God. To be able to spend undistracted time with God I have to find a quiet place, away from my desk, without my phone so that I can focus on God fully. Maybe some of you need to do the same.
In this world there are so many things that we run after rather that running into the arms of God. I wonder when you are stressed, upset, in turmoil, overwhelmed, or happy, excited what do you turn to?
As Christians the answer to where we should turn in all those circumstances is to God (Colossians 3:2). Why? Because he is the Creator God, the original source of all goodness we see around us! Why would we want to turn anywhere else? This song does it’s best to describe God in all his greatness. He is: good, love, light, hope, peace, true, joy, life. But ultimately, the song writer has to give up. He simply says that God is ‘more than words can ever say’. Our words can never fully describe God because our minds can never fully comprehend him. That is how amazing God is!
The reality is that nothing compares to the love and embrace of God. No matter how good the things of this world are, the satisfaction from them cannot and does not last forever. When you finish a series on Netflix what do you immediately want? To start another one. When you get that promotion you were after, the pride and the novelty soon wear off and you are left chasing after the next thing. But God, our loving and all-powerful creator, can and will fully satisfy our souls. As C. S. Lewis has famously put it, ‘If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world!’
Look back to the beginning of the world, in the garden of Eden. God made Adam and Eve to be in relationship with him. He walked with them every evening in the garden. And when our sin got in the way, it was God who saved us from our desperate state and put a new heart in us. The whole narrative of the Bible is a story of relationship. God sent his only Son to die so that we could return to our natural state – living life eternally in God’s presence. Psalm 16:11 says, “in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore’.
So, my question to you today is, ‘Will you seek after the true satisfaction found only in God?’ As the chorus repeats, will you run to God’s arms, into his embrace? What’s even more amazing is that this embrace is offered to you freely through what Jesus accomplished upon the cross. So I exhort you, if you haven’t already, to run to God and ask him to forever reign in your heart. Ask the Spirit to show you where you are letting the world reign and ask for the strength to remove the reign of the world and fully surrender to God. My prayer for us all is that we may be able to say, with the Psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on Earth” (Psalm 73:25).
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Loving Heavenly Father,
We thank you for another day in which we can dwell in your presence. We thank you for who you are. That you are the one, true, awesome and powerful God. That you are a good and loving God who gives us hope, joy, peace and life.
Father we thank you for all the amazing gifts and abundance of blessings that you give us. We pray that these good things will not distract us from you but will cause us to praise and glorify your name because of your goodness to us. We ask today that you may show us where in our lives we are running after the things of this world. Show us the things that distract us from you and then give us the strength to remove them so that we focus more on you, because you are so worthy of all our praise and worship.
It is in your Holy name we pray,
Amen.
Photo by Elisey Vavulin on Unsplash
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