THY JUDGMENTS ARE A GREAT DEEP

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Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast. (Psalms 36:6)

"God's dealings with men are not to be fathomed by every boaster who demands to see a why for every wherefore. The Lord is not to be questioned by us as to why this and why that. He has reasons, but he does not choose to submit them to our foolish consideration. Far and wide, terrible and irresistible like the ocean are the providential dispensations of God: at one time they appear as peaceful as the unrippled sea of glass; at another tossed with tempest and whirlwind, but evermore most glorious and full of mystery. Who shall discover the springs of the sea? He who shall do this may hope to comprehend the providence of the Eternal." ~The Treasury Of David, Charles Spurgeon

How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. (Psalms 36:7)

Though we cannot fathom God's love or justice, His righteousness, His workings with men, yet we can trust Him, in His perfect love, and His mercy and compassion. This is how the child of God can rest and even give thanks in the midst of suffering and trials and hardships on this earthly pilgrimage. What a God we serve! He is a perfect God. Perfect in holiness, and in righteousness, and in love, and in every way conceivable. There is no flaw in Him. Do we want there to be? Sometimes I think we do. We want Him to stoop down to our level and see things the way we do, and make exceptions in His perfect plan for us so we can have things our own way, or have our comfort or security in this world undisturbed. I'm speaking from my own heart of experience. I'll admit, there have been times I wish God would bend a little, while under His dealings - just this once God!

What a great Heavenly Father we have! He won't bend, as sometimes we parents will do for our own children if they cry enough, or wine enough. We so often bend our better judgment for them thinking just this once, it won't hurt them. Our Heavenly Father's love is steadfast, unmovable, and unchanging. How can perfection change? Perfection would no longer be perfection if it were to change. God is perfect. He does not need to arrive at perfection. He is perfection and the sole standard of it. That can never change or be altered.

What security we have knowing that! You've heard the saying, "if you can't understand what He's doing, trust His hand." Is that based on Scripture? Yes, I believe it is. We cannot possibly understand all He does, all He orchestrates, all He allows, and all the whys behind that. We can make ourselves bitter and miserable trying to. I could never understand the person who could not believe in God unless they could understand Him. When you believe in Him, your understanding and knowledge of Him grows, but not before. He has given us His Word, and enough light and evidence all around us, if we will but see it. It is our hearts that blind us to Him. Open our eyes Lord! There is so much to discover. I believe He wants to reveal it to us, and waits for us to seek Him out. But seeking Him must be in humility in order to receive anything from Him.

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)

Men will spend lots of money to go to schools to learn knowledge. They will read a multitude of books to gain more understanding. Yet they fail to go to the One Who has the store of all knowledge of all things to learn of Him and to know Him. "...in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 2:3)

I believe God, in all His magnificence and beauty and glory wants to be known, and He has made us in such a way that we want to be known. We long for someone to really desire to know us intimately and understand our heart of hearts. Yet even the most intimate relationship between soul mates in this earth cannot compare to what God has made us for. He has created us to know Him intimately and to be known by Him.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Yet here and now, we walk by faith, not knowing fully. We don't know Him fully, or understand Him fully, yet He has called us to learn of Him and to know Him more and more until that day we see Him face to face.

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)

He is a treasure for us to seek continually and draw from. Why do we let any other pursuit in life cloud that out or distract us?

There are those who seem to think they have a "deeper" knowledge, and that not from the Word of God, but claim deeper spiritual experiences, even visions and revelations directly from God outside of the Bible, and you have to come to them, not the Word, in order to get that from God. These same people discourage others from reading the Word or from depending on it, and lift up their own experiences and visions and prophecies higher than God's Word itself, drawing people away from God. They are nothing more than the old Gnostics that Paul and John both dealt with in their day. God has given us His perfect Word that has all we need in it in this life to know Him and draw close to Him. He's given us His Spirit in our inner beings to illumine that Word to us and speak it to our hearts bringing faith and life, enabling us to walk as He walked in this earth. Many are drawn and seduced by these, as they seem to have something more special than the rest. They are mesmerized by them and drawn away into their heresies and caught up in their delusions.

God tests our hearts. Many times in seeking something "deeper" we are only truly seeking our own advancement and personal power. Will you go wherever He leads? do whatever He calls? accept whatever position you are given? Oh we're so quick to think of doing great things for our God and to say "yes!" I'll go wherever You want me to go dear Lord, I'll be what You want me to be!" But what if He calls you to a humble life of weakness in this world? What if where He wants you to go is in situations that are lonely, isolated, where there is no glamour or glory, where people despise you, where you are misunderstood, where you stand alone against the tide of deception, where you plug away day after day faithfully, yet see no instant results. What if He calls you to simply be His humble child and live a day to day life allowing His Spirit to work in you and through you to those around you, with no special "ministry?" What if He calls you to much grief and sorrow in your life, and loss after loss? Will you seek to know Him in that? Will you seek out the depths of God and to learn of His judgments? I'm asking myself these questions, because I believe God has asked them of me in many different times of my life. I went to Bible college as a young girl, thinking to have a special ministry of some kind where I would win many souls for Christ and do great things for God. I was full of zeal, but not full of knowledge. I thought I knew God, but I had so much more to learn of Him. One day, when I was at a chapel service in Bible college, I was at the altar earnestly praying, "Lord what is Your will for my life?" I was willing to go to another country and be a missionary, or to do anything He asked. The answer came to me as quite a surprise as the Lord spoke to my spirit, "to be my child."

Wow! I didn't get that! Not at all! Just to be Your child, Lord? I've since learned just how great that is, and how great a calling it is. JUST to be His child! All else that flows from us that will be of any significance or good in anyone's life around us, comes from that first. We may minimize that, but until we learn to be His child and walk as His child, and trust as His child, and grow as His child, and be His child around others and in our earthly relationships and ups and downs and joys and sorrows, we cannot really be anything for Him at all. It's as His child, in the humility of a child, that we learn to know Him the best of all. Do we really want to know Him? Learn to be His child, just as Jesus, as He walked this earth, walked in unity and full faith and reliance on His Father for all.

We can't know all there is to know about God right now. We can't understand all the whys. Many times life doesn't make sense to us. We may never get an answer in this life as to why God let certain things happen. Sometimes we do. Yet we can look at the cross and know that we can trust that kind of perfect love not to fail us.

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)

What if God is not calling you to an exciting place somewhere? What if He's calling you to a mundane life of faith, perhaps in unhappy circumstances? Are you as willing to say yes to that as you are to anything else? Or maybe He's calling you to step out of your comfort zone and reach out more, or to do something quite beyond your nature. Whatever He's calling you to, are you willing to be His child, and walk wherever He leads you to and whatever He leads you to? "If God brings you to it, He'll bring you through it." I like that saying, because I've found it true and it gives me hope for whatever lies ahead as well. This is a God that I can trust for that. His judgments may be a "great deep" but His love has been made quite manifest to us in a way that we can know whatever is in that "great deep" of God Himself is trustworthy and good.

Thank You dear Heavenly Father, for Who You are! For all You are! and that we have such incredible blessings and joy in just getting glimpses here below of that wondrous glory of You! I thank You and praise Your wonderful name!

If you are not sure you have eternal life, if you want to know more about salvation through Jesus Christ, and how you can be sure, you can read more about it here.