Fresh Touch with God And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. ...and the thin, blighted ears of grain swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. And Pharoah awoke from his dream. — Genesis 41:4,7 There is a warning for us in that dream: it is possible for the best years of our life, the best experiences, the best victories won, the best service rendered, to be swallowed up by times of failure, defeat, dishonor, or uselessness. Some lives of rare promise and rare achievement have ended so. It is awful to think of, but it is true. Yet it is never necessary. S. D. Gordon has said that the only assurance of safety against this tragedy is “fresh touch with God,” daily, and hourly. The blessed, fruitful, victorious experiences of yesterday are not only of no value to me today, but they will actually be eaten up or reversed by today’s failures, unless they serve as incentives to seek God all the more. “Fresh touch with God,” by abiding in Christ: this alone will prevent the lean years and the disappointments of life from devouring us. As we can learn from the life of Joseph, these trials will end and we will survive: with even more confidence in the faithfulness of God than we had before. —Messages for the Morning Watch
|
