The Lampstand, July 2016 ~Julie

We met together with an awesome group of folks on July 23, with Ginny Wall leading worship.  Ginny did a beautiful job of selecting and leading us in songs that reflected the heart of our identity in Christ.  There was a sweetness and quietness and in the midst of one of those still times I felt like the Lord was inviting us to set our hearts, our eyes, our gaze on Him. 

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

As we sang, “I want to be your resting place,” there was a sense of the Lord’s presence with us.  I was impacted by Revelation 4 and Colossians 3.  It was like the Lord was reminding us of John’s experience with the invitation to get up to the throne and fix our eyes on Him and see all things from His perspective. 

Personally, I can never express enough gratitude to the Lord for leading in these worship times.  And, I feel such gratitude for the people who have come to pour out their hearts in worship, whether leading or participating.  These times have truly been “fueling” for me and I pray that they have been an encouragement to the others who have gathered as well. 

Matthew did an excellent job sharing about “Pressing out Oil, the Truth of our Identity in Christ.”  He shared that if we don’t know who we are, we will be tossed to and fro and explained that a critical aspect of our “fuel reserve” is in knowing who we are in Christ and how He truly feels about us. 

Our core identity is found in being Servants, Sons, and the Bride of Christ.  We function in many roles, but these things are crucial to our identity. 

As servants: we give our lives in loving service to our King.
As Sons: we are no longer slaves, but heirs, co-heirs with Christ.
As the Bride: we are invited into intimacy and partnership with the Lord.

Have you ever wondered what God really feels about you personally?  Have you wondered how you could even know that for sure?  Do you just guess or assume that He’s probably mad at you for failures, or maybe sad about all of your wrong choices, or that He is probably too big and busy to care much about you at all?

The Scriptures are full of references that give us a glimpse into the pure emotions of the Lord towards His people.  Our emotions are tainted by sin, but God’s are perfect and pure.  

Four key emotions of God that we should know:

1. Tender mercies (Psalm 103:14, 69:16, Isaiah 63:7)
2. Delight / Gladness (Psalm 18:19)
3. Burning desire
4. Fiery zeal, jealous anger (Ephesians 3:17)

Matthew ended with an exhortation to make this a lifelong part of our diet in our journey with the Lord.  What we eat in the natural matters, and so also what we feed on spiritually matters to our health.  It is crucial that we KNOW and understand the amazing love God has for us and the way He thinks and feels about us in order to walk with stability in a time that is increasingly unstable.