KEEPING THINGS IN THE RIGHT PERSPECTIVE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

Lord, what are human beings that You care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.

Psalm 144:1-4

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

The words of the following contemporary Christian song by the group Casting Crowns always speaks to my heart in a special way regarding my relationship with the Lord:

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love and watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
Vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours

What I love so much about this song is how it sets things straight as to our relationship with God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and all of us. We are nothing before God. None of us can stand before Him without judgment because of our sinfulness. He can do anything without us because He is God.

We would all be well suited to remember this and keep things in the proper perspective when we consider our comparison to God because I think sometimes we carry ourselves around in life like we can do all things, like we can operate completely independent of the God who made us, like we are gods within ourselves.  

God doesn’t need us because He can do all things without us. This is truth. And yet, He values us and uses us, imperfect as we are, to achieve His purposes. God is in the business of taking ordinary people and doing extraordinary things. This fact will ever be one of the most amazing qualities of God for me. For as the scripture asks in the 8th Psalm:

“Who are we that God is mindful of us?”

And then we read the words of David in the 144th Psalm as he asks:

Lord, what are human beings that You care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.

Fleeting shadows. Breaths. Flowers quickly fading. Waves tossed in the ocean. Vapors in the wind.

Not exactly the most flattering terms we would want to be described by. But then again, the focus isn’t to be on us but rather on the eternal One who created us, the eternal One who sustains and watches over us, the eternal One who loves and forgives us despite our shortcomings, the eternal One who calls us to serve Him.

When we understand who and what we are against who and what God is, then and only then can we see things in the right perspective, bring our fullest sense of worship and support to the One who never ceases to give us His all, the One who always hears us when we call, the One who has told us who we are and whose we are.

As the chorus of the Casting Crowns song boldly proclaims, let us proclaim also to the Lord, “I am yours.”

Amen.

Listen to the Casting Crowns song here: Who Am I (I am Yours)

In Christ,

Mark

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