Friday, March 24, 2017

TO OVERFLOW



Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand. I asked, “Where are you going?”

He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.”

While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will be its glory within.’”

Zechariah 2:1-5

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

When you follow the Lord and have Him involved in your life circumstances, you will always find yourself fulfilled and blessed abundantly as He fills you to overflow with His provision and providence.

This truth is at the center of today’s devotion, the first from the second chapter of Zechariah, where we find the prophet having the third of eight visions, visions which concerned the restored nation of Israel. Look again at these opening verses:

Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand. I asked, “Where are you going?”

He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.”

While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will be its glory within.’”  Zechariah 2:1-5

In the second vision, Zechariah saw visions of horns and craftsmen who hammered the horns into oblivion, representative of the Lord raising up forces to defeat any enemy of His people.

Today, we see the vision involving something markedly different as Zechariah sees a “man with a measuring line in his hand”. We sense the man, identified specifically as an angel, was on his way somewhere because Zechariah asked about where he was going. The angel told the prophet that he was going to “measure Jerusalem” in order to “find out how wide and long” the city was.

In other words, the angel wanted to measure the city to discover its boundaries, seemingly in admittance that there would be a limit to how many people and animals might reside within.

Well, Zechariah no sooner discovered what the angel was up to that we find another angel come on the scene with a message for Zechariah, the “young man” mentioned. The message was as follows:

“Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,” declares the Lord, “and I will be its glory within.”

The message contained nothing but good news for the Israelite remnant who had just recently returned from the seventy year Babylonian captivity, settling back in their homeland which included the holy city of Jerusalem. That good news included not only full restoration to the nation but a total repopulation of it. Jerusalem in particular would be filled to overflow with people and animals, so much so that there would be no boundaries to contain the abundant flourishing the Lord was promising to bring.

But a flourishing Israelite population boom wasn’t the only blessing God was bringing to His people. We know this because He said so, vowing to also bring protection to His burgeoning people (the Lord would be “a wall of fire” around them) and surround them with His glory.

Indeed, God was back with His people and back in a big way.

Maybe you have strayed away from the Lord in your own life, held captive and separated from Him by sin. If so, God has a message for you today:

He wants to restore you to His favor and bless you to overflow in your life.

All you need to do is repent, return to Him, and commit to be fully obedient to His word and will.

Do so and you, like the Old Testament Israelites of Zechariah’s time, can expect to experience complete reinstatement into good graces with Him, revel in the assurance and comfort of His protection, and be surrounded by His glory

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com

No comments: