Sunday, June 16, 2024
A place of rich fulfilment, a place of abundance (Psalms 66:12)
Above is one of my favorite songs, not just because it is a lovely song but each time I sing it, I feel like I am singing my own life story (感觉唱出自己的生命)。
When I first heard the song, the lyrics echoed in my heart and tears simultaneously flowed. “I once ruined everything I had and wanted to disappear forever and simply didn’t want to exist. I had everything, but it all vanished in the wind. I was disappointed, discouraged, and lost all direction”.
For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
11 You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
12 You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to [b]rich fulfillment.
Psalms 66: 10-12
Who tested “us”? It’s the enemy, it is Satan himself. God allowed Satan to test Job. Satan tested Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4). God will allow a person to be tested if He trust that person. It’s because He is sure the man won’t break or fall away. If God allows Satan to test you it means He knows you will get through it and come out stronger, refined like silver. I was down for twelve years, hidden and shamed. I was trapped in the net, imprisoned and helpless. Whatever that could go wrong, went wrong. I went through fire and water. Life was truly unbearable.
Verse 12 reads, “you have cause men to ride over our heads”. Those who knew what I went through witnessed how people had taken advantage of my good heart and destroyed me. But the enemy does not know that God allowed all this because He has the best things for me at the end and that He surely will bring me out to a place of rich fulfilment (NKJV), a place of abundance (NIV).
Through all the darkest years I knew God will not abandon His promises to me. I was like Joseph who was in the prison, but my mind was on the palace.
And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. 13 Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your [b]place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler. 14 But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house.
Genesis 40:12-14
Joseph said to the butler, “but remember me..” Joseph was physically in the prison, but spiritually he was in the palace. His spirit had captured the picture of the palace and he knew that was his destiny.
“…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”.
Hebrews 12:2
I don’t know what you are going through but Jesus does, so fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. A faith that suffers nothing , lose nothing is usually worth nothing. We can take solace that we are not the only one getting tested. “For You, O God, have tested us”. “Us” means plural. God cannot use us in a big way if we have not been truly tested, refined and moulded. Yes the preparation is tough and can be rather lengthy. The greater the calling and blessing, the longer the gestation. Jesus too had to carry His own cross and was shamed.
If we set eyes on what is ahead we will not lose heart at the present, however frustrating and difficult it may be. A life of no going-through is a destination of no breakthrough. Going through the tunnel of ‘water and fire’ is the sign of breakthrough.
I am the pearl of great price. God paid the biggest ransom in world history for us. Jesus died on the cross to redeem me. I am God’s masterpiece. God had put unique seeds of greatness in me and cultivating them. What do I have to fear? It is now time be a rock to others. To build your own destiny, be a builder of men. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few (Matthew 9:37).
